The Daily LedgerContract Spotlight | Federal Spending
Contract Spotlight: A $12.4 million NASA spaceport operations action went to Amentum Spaceport on October 2
USAspending records for October 2 to 8, 2026 show a $12,384,749.02 definitive contract action to AMENTUM SPACEPORT LLC from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration for base operations and spaceport services.
Key takeaways
- The National Aeronautics and Space Administration obligated $12,384,749.02 to AMENTUM SPACEPORT LLC on October 2, 2026, under definitive contract 80KSC018C0017.
- The award description covers base operations and spaceport services, the ground support work that keeps a launch center running day to day.
- The action was the largest NASA contract transaction in the October 2 to 8 window, ahead of a $10,274,194.00 Mars rover mission order to the California Institute of Technology on October 8.
What the record shows
The transaction is listed in USAspending as a definitive contract with an action date of October 2, 2026. The awarding agency and the awarding sub agency are both the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. The federal action obligation recorded for the transaction is $12,384,749.02.
The award description reads: base operations and spaceport services. In plain terms, a spaceport does not run on rockets alone. Launch centers need facilities maintenance, logistics, safety and mission support, and the daily operations work that keeps pads, buildings, and ground systems ready. This contract action funds that support layer. The figure is an obligation, meaning funds committed under the contract action, not a single payment made on October 2.
How it compares
In the October 2 to 8 window, NASA recorded $68,116,080.99 in contract obligations across 164 transactions. The Amentum Spaceport action is about 18.2 percent of that total. The next largest NASA actions were $10,274,194.00 to the CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY for the M2020 Mars science rover extended mission phase on October 8, and $8,400,000.00 to BIRMINGHAM INDUSTRIAL CONSTRUCTION, LLC to revitalize pressure and propellants systems, also on October 8, 2026.
Department of Defense contract data is largely absent from the USAspending feed for this period, a reporting gap flagged in the source data, so department rankings for the week exclude meaningful Defense figures.
Data vintage: USAspending contract transactions with action dates from October 2 to 8, 2026, pulled October 13, 2026.
Sources
1. USAspending.gov award record, $12,384,749.02 definitive contract to AMENTUM SPACEPORT LLC: https://www.usaspending.gov/award/CONT_AWD_80KSC018C0017_8000_-NONE-_-NONE-/
2. U.S. Department of the Treasury, Fiscal Data, Debt to the Penny dataset: https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny
Source: U.S. Department of the Treasury, Daily Treasury Statement, September 28, 2026; Debt to the Penny.
Sources and methodology
Methodology. Daily cash figures are from the U.S. Treasury’s Daily Treasury Statement (DTS) for September 28, 2026, the government’s official daily cash-flow report. The DTS records money actually moving in and out of Treasury accounts; it is not the same as the budget deficit, which is measured monthly on an accrual-adjusted basis.
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Daily Treasury Statement – operating cash balance, September 28, 2026 (fiscaldata.treasury.gov)
- U.S. Department of the Treasury, Debt to the Penny – September 28, 2026 (fiscaldata.treasury.gov)
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