NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate runs Tipping Point to push technologies that are almost ready for a market over the edge. The logic: a well-placed government demonstration 'tips' a private capability into commercial viability that then serves NASA and everyone else. Recent rounds have leaned heavily toward lunar, Mars, and commercial-LEO capabilities.
Awards commonly run from about $1M to $20M or more. Two features define it. First, it's milestone-based and firm-fixed-price: you propose a schedule of concrete deliverables and get paid as you hit them — miss a milestone and the money stops. Second, it requires a corporate cost share, commonly a minimum of around 25% and scaled by company size. NASA wants your skin in the game.
A Tipping Point milestone schedule is only credible if the underlying analysis is done. We can arrange an Ansys evaluation and engineering support to back your demonstration plan.
See if you qualify for an Ansys eval The MVP playbook →Tipping Point is not for a team with a slide deck. Winners typically have hardware at a real TRL, a credible path to a commercial market beyond NASA, and the financial ability to carry their cost share. If you're pre-prototype, start with SBIR or NIAC and come back.
Tipping Point is released as an appendix under the annual SpaceTech-REDDI NASA Research Announcement. Register in NSPIRES and SAM.gov, watch for the appendix, and submit a proposal with a milestone payment schedule and a firm cost-share commitment. Read the industry partnerships page for the current cycle.
The strongest proposals show the physics is already understood — that the demonstration will confirm a validated design, not discover whether it works. That's where simulation turns a hopeful plan into a fundable one.
Official sources: Space Tech Industry Partnerships · STMD Solicitations. Figures change; confirm on the official page before relying on them.
