NASA TechLeap Prize: Orbital Clarity Challenge
The Orbital Clarity Challenge — the sixth in the NASA TechLeap Prize series — is a collaborative effort between NASA’s Heliophysics Division, Flight Opportunities program, and Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation. The Heliophysics Division studies space weather, including how it heats and expands Earth’s outer atmosphere during intense solar activity, creating orbital drag through…
The Orbital Clarity Challenge, a sixth competition in NASA's TechLeap Prize series, seeks innovative, low-cost solutions for measuring thermospheric density, pressure, or drag in low Earth orbit. Sponsored by NASA's Heliophysics Division, Flight Opportunities program, and Center of Excellence for Collaborative Innovation, the challenge aims to develop scalable, cost-effective methods for use as hosted payloads on commercial spacecraft fleets.
The competition, announced on August 19, 2026, will proceed through three phases, with the potential to advance up to four winning concepts to a flight-ready solution within 12 months. NASA plans to offer each winning team a free test flight upon the challenge's conclusion, with awards of up to $500,000 available across three phases.
Registration for Phase 1 of the challenge closes on October 28, 2026, with the final submission deadline set for November 11, 2026. Further details about the Orbital Clarity Challenge can be found at https://occ.nasatechleap.org/.
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