NASA Agency-wide Supply of Liquid and Gaseous Helium 2025 - 2030

NASA Kennedy Space Center awarded a Master IDIQ for agency-wide supply of liquid and gaseous helium through September 30, 2030, with ordering authority remaining through that date. The vehicle is unrestricted and non-small-business set-aside. Ordering activity is light relative to vehicle scale: ten task orders have been issued since award in October 2025, with nine placed in the initial quarter and one in April 2026, indicating front-loaded requirements and limited ongoing activity.

Messer LLC dominates the vehicle, holding eight of ten task orders worth $38.8 million combined potential value—88% of the vehicle's $44.3 million total potential. Linde Inc. and Airgas Usa, LLC hold one order each, with combined potential value of $5.5 million. All task orders are firm-fixed-price with no set-aside designations. Obligated dollars total $12.5 million, representing 28% of combined potential value; the largest single order to Messer, for balloon operations at Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility, carries a $12.5 million ceiling with $3.1 million currently obligated.

Demand concentrates within NASA's research and testing facilities. Goddard Space Flight Center leads across five orders worth $32 million combined potential value, driven by balloon operations requirements at CSBF locations in California, Texas, New Mexico, and Oregon. Marshall Space Flight Center accounts for two orders worth $7.4 million (bulk helium for Marshall itself and Michoud Assembly Facility). Stennis Space Center, Johnson Space Center, and Langley Research Center account for the remainder. Task-order ceilings range from $128,729 to $12.5 million, with performance periods extending either through September 2027 or September 2030 depending on facility requirements and mission criticality.

The vehicle supplies helium across 13 NASA facilities nationwide. Gaseous helium monthly requirements span from 40,000 to 1.28 million standard cubic feet depending on location; liquid helium ranges from 100 to 4,000 liters monthly. Pricing is firm-fixed; NASA furnishes compressed helium tube semitrailers and liquid helium dewars at distribution points. Competition for incremental orders appears limited to the three incumbents, with Messer holding structural advantage through scale and distribution network positioning for the balloon program.