Computational Physics, Inc.

Computational Physics, Inc., a for-profit scientific and technical services provider headquartered in Springfield, Virginia, operates as a prime contractor (81% of recent awards) delivering advanced research and engineering support in computational physics, astronomy, astrophysics, aerospace engineering, remote sensing, and atmospheric science to federal agencies. The company competes predominantly full-and-open, without SBA set-aside designations on its dominant prime footprint, though it holds one small business set-aside IDC with the Naval Observatory and has received SBIR Phase I and Phase II awards.

The Naval Observatory anchors Computational Physics' customer base, accounting for 172 awards worth $183.8 million in combined potential value and representing approximately 63% of the company's total award volume by dollar. The Office of Naval Research ranks second with 75 awards valued at $85.3 million. Together, these two Navy entities represent approximately 97% of Computational Physics' combined potential value. Three primary indefinite delivery contracts with the Naval Observatory drive task-order volume: a $72.71 million single-award IDC through February 2029 for astronomy-related scientific and technical services (61 task orders, $39.5 million), a $19.2 million small business set-aside IDC for professional scientific support, and a $6.9 million single-award IDC awarded in June 2025 for five-year labor services through December 2030. The Office of Naval Research's $12.7 million definitive contract awarded February 2022 provides geospace remote sensing research, development, and engineering support through January 2027, classified under cost-plus-fixed-fee pricing.

Computational Physics delivers across five concrete capability domains. Under the primary Naval Observatory vehicle, the company furnishes specialized labor spanning physics, astronomy, astrophysics, aerospace engineering, instrumentation development, data analysis, and scientific modeling — with named labor categories including astronomers, atomic clock and particle physicists, and electrical/mechanical optics engineers. Representative delivery-order work includes a $3.62 million CTO Engineering Services order (February 2025), a $3.51 million CTO/Time and Astronomy Dissemination Engineering and Application Development order (February 2026), a $1.88 million Base Year Ordering Period for labor (June 2025), and a $1.6 million Precise Time Clock Development Post-Doctoral order (December 2025). On the Office of Naval Research side, the $12.7 million geospace remote sensing contract funds satellite-based instrumentation analysis, hardware and software engineering, scientific computation, instrument calibration and maintenance, theoretical modeling, data analysis, and signal processing for the Naval Research Laboratory's Space Science Division. Computational Physics also holds NSF grants as prime recipient totaling approximately $1.4 million across three Division of Atmospheric and Geospace Sciences awards (CFDA 47.050): a $467 thousand CEDAR award on gravity wave viscosity (October 2021 to September 2024), a $360 thousand CEDAR award on thermospheric dynamics and temperature measurement (October 2024 to September 2027), and a $359 thousand CEDAR award on oxygen and nitrogen ultraviolet cross sections (January 2024 to December 2026). An August 2023 NSF award to Computational Physics for MAGSTAR Phase-II supporting magnetometer array operations ran through July 2025.

Activity has grown from 14 awards in 2022 to a peak of 44 in 2024, with 43 awards in 2025 and 21 year-to-date in 2026. Thirty-three awards with ultimate completion dates in the next twenty-four months carry combined potential value of $34.1 million, representing both recompete opportunity and near-term execution demand. The company's subcontractor footprint positions it beneath The Regents of the University of Colorado on the GOLD (Global-Scale Observations of the Limb and Disk) mission, where Computational Physics provides algorithm support, data analysis, and science planning; beneath the University of Illinois on the GLIDE (Global Lyman-alpha Imagers of the Dynamic Exosphere) instrument development; and beneath Assurance Technology Corp on scientific services awards, with multiple incremental funding actions documented through February 2024. Computational Physics also acts as sub-recipient on NSF grants led by Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the University of Colorado, Space Science Institute, the Aerospace Corporation, and Catholic University of America, contributing atmospheric modeling, data analysis, and ionospheric research support across heliophysics, ionospheric disturbance, and acoustic-gravity wave programs.

Recent grant and sub-award work demonstrates breadth in space weather and upper-atmosphere research. The company received a June 2026 NSF RAPID award for ground-based exosphere observations coordinated with NASA's Carruthers Geocorona Observatory through May 2027. Sub-recipient roles on NSF CEDAR and heliophysics awards contribute to thermospheric wind and temperature networks, ionospheric response modeling to thunderstorm-generated acoustic and gravity waves, and auroral precipitation physics. On the GOLD mission, Computational Physics' algorithm manager and technical staff handle eclipse-scenario lookup tables, O/N2 retrieval algorithms, temperature derivation, and cubesat observation simulation for high-Earth-orbit concept studies.

Service Contract Inventory data are sparse — only five SCI records spanning FY2022–FY2024, with fewer than 2 FTEs documented on prime records and approximately 1.3 FTEs across prime and sub records in FY2024. SCI reporting captures federal services contracts above the $150 thousand threshold and excludes goods, products, micro-purchases, and classified work, making it a strict subset of Computational Physics' total federal services revenue, which is itself a subset of enterprise revenue. The absence of significant SCI invoicing reflects the company's reliance on indefinite-delivery contracts with firm fixed-price delivery orders and fixed-price definitive contracts, which may not trigger SCI reporting thresholds in the same manner as cost-plus or time-and-materials arrangements.