Viasat Lands NASA NEXUS Contract Worth Up to $460.9M

NASA has selected Viasat for Phase 1 of its NEXUS initiative under a contract worth up to $460.9 million, tasking the Carlsbad, California-based company with building commercial Ka-band space relay services for near-Earth missions.

The company announced the award on Monday, Nov. 9, 2026. The firm-fixed-price contract was issued under the Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships-3 (NextSTEP-3) Omnibus Broad Agency Announcement, the procurement vehicle NASA uses to buy exploration technology from industry partners.

What does the contract actually cover?

Phase 1 is a design and architecture effort. Viasat's Space and Mission Systems team, part of its Defense and Advanced Technologies segment, will mature an end-to-end operational architecture to deliver Ka-band relay connectivity to users of NASA's legacy Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) fleet.

Two workstreams are defined in the award:

• Space infrastructure: maturing the design of a dedicated small geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) relay satellite constellation compatible with legacy Ka-band transponders.
• Integrated segment: supporting ground architecture, satellite integration, launch management and operations, delivering connectivity on demand for uncrewed satellites and human spaceflight missions.

The contract type matters for how much revenue Viasat can count on. A firm-fixed-price deal with a maximum value of $460.9 million means NASA pays agreed amounts for defined deliverables, and the ceiling is not guaranteed income.

Why is NASA buying commercial relays?

The award sits inside NASA's Communications Services Project (CSP), the agency's program for shifting from government-owned orbital communications to commercial networks. The TDRS fleet, which has relayed data for NASA missions since the shuttle era, is approaching retirement, and NASA is procuring commercial capacity to guarantee service continuity for at least 15 years.

The NEXUS award follows a broader procurement in which NASA awarded $1.07 billion in Ka-band relay contracts across three industry teams. It also builds on flight trials already underway: Viasat launched the Maxwell satellite to demonstrate space-to-space links, giving the company hardware experience in orbit rather than slide-ware.

For Viasat, the win diversifies a business better known for broadband and in-flight connectivity into government space infrastructure, where long-duration contracts can anchor revenue across decades.

What did Viasat say?

"NASA's vision for NEXUS reflects a significant evolution toward commercially provided space communications services," said John Reeves, Vice President of Space and Mission Systems at Viasat Government. "Our satellite networking and end-to-end system design expertise will enable us to provide a resilient Ka-band relay capability that supports both legacy and future NASA missions."

The statement frames the shift plainly: NASA wants to buy relay capacity as a service, the way agencies buy terrestrial telecom, rather than own and operate satellites.

What happens next?

Subsequent contract phases over the next three years will fund development, launch and flight demonstration of the high-performance relay network. Those demonstrations will validate commercial space communications ahead of the formal decommissioning of the TDRS system, setting the timeline both for Viasat's delivery obligations and for NASA's transition to a fully commercial relay model.