Labsphere, Inc.

Labsphere, Inc., a foreign-owned, for-profit manufacturer based in New London, New Hampshire, supplies specialized optical test and measurement equipment—integrating spheres, calibration instruments, reflective panels, light sources, and custom optical components—to federal agencies predominantly as a prime contractor on full-and-open purchase orders with no set-aside posture. The vendor competes without SBA certifications across research, development, and operational test programs at NASA, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), the Department of Defense, and other civilian and defense agencies.

Labsphere's customer base spans 42 distinct federal agencies with concentration in research and metrology. The top five customers by award count—NASA Goddard Space Center (26 awards, $568 thousand combined potential value), NIST (19 awards, $899 thousand), NASA Shared Services Center (12 awards, $490 thousand), Naval Sea Systems Command (9 awards, $389 thousand), and NASA Langley Research Center (6 awards, $102 thousand)—account for 43% of awards. By potential value, the Department of the Air Force leads ($981 thousand across 2 awards), followed by NIST, NASA Goddard, Air Force Materiel Command ($515 thousand), and NASA Shared Services Center. This divergence signals that Labsphere's high-volume relationship with NASA and NIST carries lower individual award values (typically $13 thousand to $50 thousand per purchase order) while Air Force work, though smaller in volume, carries higher unit value. Labsphere also subcontracts to defense primes including Raytheon (optical assemblies and flight instrument units for LANDIS and radar systems), Lockheed Martin (optical components), Goodrich Corporation (U-2 SYERS sustainment), CACI Technologies (electro-optic technology development and testing), and Leidos (metrology and measurement services).

The vendor's primary NAICS footprint is analytical laboratory instrument manufacturing (113 of 167 awards), with secondary categories in optical instrument manufacturing and R&D services. Federal procurement framing tracks the same portfolio: laboratory equipment and supplies (74 awards) and optical instruments and test equipment (25 awards) dominate the PSC distribution.

Recent activity shows Labsphere with a $980,648 firm fixed-price purchase order from the Air Force for a uniform light source system at Edwards Air Force Base (completion October 2026), a $120,648 NAVSEA order for Permaflect reflective panels (completed November 2025), and a $28,460 USDA Agricultural Research Service small-business set-aside purchase order for an integrating sphere measurement system for hyperspectral camera calibration on food-safety drones (completed November 2023). Older representative work includes NIST on-site coating services for a 2.5-meter sphere ($24,780, 2022), an Air Force Test Center solar spectrum source ($50,200, 2022), and a Naval Air Warfare Center custom 8-inch calibration sphere ($33,822, 2024).

Activity has been sparse and variable—six awards in 2022, two in 2023, six in 2024, four in 2025, and two in the first half of 2026. The vendor's prime footprint (93% of awards) reflects direct sales to agencies; its subcontractor role (7% of awards) is concentrated with Raytheon on defense sensor and optical systems. Service Contract Inventory reports only two SCI-reportable records across FY2024–FY2025 (both subcontractor deliveries), reflecting 1.3 FTEs in FY2024 and 0.5 FTEs in FY2025, indicating that Labsphere's federal work is predominantly product-based (goods) rather than labor-intensive services—consistent with its character as an equipment manufacturer rather than a services firm. Combined potential value across all 167 awards is $5.4 million; obligated dollars of $11 million (202% of potential value) suggest that prior-year awards have been completed and invoiced beyond their ceiling values or that the potential-value figures understate actual scope.