Cargo Engineering and Logistics
Leidos is an essential part of the NASA team to ensure mission success. We create and sustain some of the items on ISS for NASA. ISS Modules are supplied with thousands of these items from Leidos.
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Cargo mission contract
From hardware and experiments to toothpaste and food, Leidos plans, processes, and packs critical cargo to keep the International Space Station fully stocked.
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Potable water dispenser What we do today
- Soft Goods, Crew Clothing, & Provisioning
- Developing spaceflight hardware
- Provide project manager, mechanical and electrical design, systems engineering, and engineering analysis
- Fabricate electrical and mechanical components and systems in house with our certified technicians
- Develop and fabricate flight crew equipment hardware and unpressurized extravehicular hardware for spacecraft systems
Galley food warmer How we enable tomorrow
- Designing and developing for harsh environments of intravehicular and extravehicular space, to support medical, human health, and flight crew for NASA’s MIR; Space Shuttle; ISS; and Exploration programs such as Orion, HLS, Gateway, and EHP
- Supporting life and operations on-orbit—Provide the on-orbit crew members with hardware and equipment (e.g., Flight Crew Equipment), as the prime contractor
- Provide turn-key project management, engineering, and manufacturing services to Commercial Low Earth Orbit and Exploration programs
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ISS sleeping bag What we do today
- Equipping the astronauts
- Provide clothing and personal use equipment, as prime contractor, to support on-orbit operations
- Customize crew provisioning for each mission and track the provision of consumables for supply chain management, through project management and technician support
- Design, build, and modify clothing, suits, sleeping bags, and soft-goods (e.g., cargo bags, kit pouches, thermal garments), engaging our soft-goods technician
Nanorack airlock trash bag How we enable tomorrow
- Outfitting for the future—Provide end-to-end, mission-specific services for outfitting the government and commercial Astronaut Corps with clothing and tools to live in low earth orbit and beyond for exploration
- Bring our hardware teams with knowledge, developed processes, innovative IT tools, and lessons learned over 30 years, for certifying soft-goods and crew provisioning items for on-orbit use
- Equipping the astronauts
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Crew audio and personal laptop What we do today
- Perform market research, select audio/video (AV) and computing hardware, and perform certification
- Delivered four generations of laptops and peripherals to NASA Human Spaceflight Programs—systems, integration, test, and certification
- Develop and deliver digital audio/video equipment—digital cameras, HD video systems, audio/video encoders, and peripheral hardware
Earth observation with ISS camera system How we enable tomorrow
- Research and manufacture the next generation of cutting-edge computing, media, and audio-video equipment to incorporate the latest technologies for use in space craft operations
- Currently certifying the next generation of laptops for NASA’s programs and can seamlessly port that expertise and product lessons learned to support other commercial and government programs for human spaceflight
- Developing and certifying NASA’s next-generation camera system for space and lunar exploration
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ISS Locker Finite Element Model (FEM) What we do today
- Standing up to hard use-Going by the numbers
- Perform engineering analysis for EVA and IVA structural hardware and soft-goods containers
- Perform stress analysis, structural finite element analysis (linear and non-linear), fracture/fatigue analysis, design coupled loads analysis (DCLA), and verified couple loads analysis (VCLA)
- Perform thermal analysis, material analysis, and mass properties calculations for EVA and IVA hardware certification
How we enable tomorrow
- Bring over 30 years of developing spaceflight hardware for medical, human health, and flight crew use
- Design for the harsh environments of intravehicular and extravehicular space for NASA’s MIR, Space Shuttle, and ISS programs
- As the prime contractor, provide the on-orbit crew members with hardware and equipment (e.g., Flight Crew Equipment)
- Provide turn-key project management, engineering, and manufacturing services to Commercial Low Earth Orbit and Exploration programs
- Standing up to hard use-Going by the numbers
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Locker prototype What we do today
- Making it fast - Supporting rapid prototyping, proof-of-concept, mock-up, and production of flight-certified hardware through our 3D printing services
- Provide custom manufacturing of plastics, foams, metals, and unique materials to human space flight
- Support large-scale and true-scale hardware mockup design and development for demonstrations, evaluations, human factors, and hardware design assessments
- Have designed, produced, and flown thousands of custom stowage solutions, using foam and custom flight support equipment
3D Print valve body How we enable tomorrow
- Paving the way by researching and using the latest materials and manufacturing techniques
- Ensure the safe travel of NASA hardware and payloads to the international space station to support the latest research and advancements
- Continue to design and develop rapid hardware solutions to on-orbit needs and anomalies across NASA programs
- Making it fast - Supporting rapid prototyping, proof-of-concept, mock-up, and production of flight-certified hardware through our 3D printing services
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EVA cable harness for VIPER lunar rover What we do today
- Design, develop, manufacture, test, certify, and sustain electronics systems—e.g., 28V and 120V power supplies, DC-to-DC convertors, and 120V serial buses for the ISS and Exploration programs
- Provide custom and commercial-off-the-shelf power and data cables for IVA and EVA
- Execute custom fabrication of electronic systems—twisted pair, shielding, coaxial, and connector pin-out manufacturing in house
- Perform through-hole soldering, surface mount technology fabrication, cable harness and crimp, polymeric application, and ESD Level 2, using certified technicians
120V serial bus How we enable tomorrow
- Powering for the long term
- Use electronic and cable harness design/manufacturing processes and lessons learned to implement across ISS and Exploration programs
- Currently working with multiple commercial providers for delivery of electronics and cables in support of the HLS and EVA programs
- Design, develop, manufacture, test, certify, and sustain electronics systems—e.g., 28V and 120V power supplies, DC-to-DC convertors, and 120V serial buses for the ISS and Exploration programs
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Robotics support What we do today
- Labeling the pieces - Meeting unique labeling requirements
- Support flight hardware development, trainers, vehicles, and EVA—Leidos is the largest producer of flight and non-flight labels, decals, and placards for human space flight
- Provide operational nomenclature, inventory management tracking, and procurement through the ISS hub—Leidos’ eLabel tool suite
- Meet unique requirements as the material experts for labels, decals, and placards for use in harsh space flight environments
- Produce, encode, and deliver the Radio Frequency Identifications (RFID) labels for ISS and new NASA spaceflight programs
- Support flight hardware development, trainers, vehicles, and EVA—Leidos is the largest producer of flight and non-flight labels, decals, and placards for human space flight
Payload specific and IMS RFID How we enable tomorrow
- Supply decals and placards across NASA and international partner vehicles in the ISS, Artemis, Gateway, HLS, and EHP programs
- Pioneer the production of new inventory management and RFID label technologies across the Gateway and commercial programs
- Lead the way in producing EVA labels and docking/location targets to support the addition of new space vehicles and programs
- Labeling the pieces - Meeting unique labeling requirements
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Training dashboard What we do today
- Feeding in all the information-Expanding server and storage
- Provide expandable information technology infrastructure (residing in WSTF and Houston under NASA network) to support server and storage capacity for many NASA program applications
- Integrate data from external applications, making CMC the key in providing near real-time information to our users
- Input human intelligence into our Decision Engine, using our custom packing tool, to output cargo layout drawings and digital images of packed bags
- Provide a curated Manifest Listing, using our custom manifest tool, to feed Orion/Exploration programs data into CMC Tool Suite
- Develop software and firmware for flight hardware for on-ground and on-orbit health tracking
How we enable tomorrow
- Bringing new applications to life
- CMC implemented a cloud environment to communicate with non-NASA (NDC) users
- Leidos’ IT expertise is bringing new opportunities for us to manage their infrastructures, design, and development of new application
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Critical lift of small satellite What we do today
- Fitting it all in-Getting all cargo safely packed, on time, in the right order
- Manage cargo end-to-end schedule milestones
- Develop precise analytical stowage layouts for assessing vehicle manifest and incorporating unique cargo requirements: orientation, packaging, and foam containment
- Capture intricate inspection, imagery, and other metadata for items to show damage and check compliance with customer requirements
- Facilitate safe delivery and efficient on-orbit operations (unique packing configurations to accommodate grouping, labeling, and hardware protection)
- Integrate hardware into packaging, Cargo Transfer Bags (CTB), lockers, or other containment compliant with hardware and environmental requirements
Clean room integration How we enable tomorrow
- Proactively perform analytical assessment of cargo to available volume, preliminary packing, and mass predictions, using our automated IT tools to verify available volume for manifested cargo
- Perform analytical Center of Gravity (CG) assessments, using Leidos IT tools, to help provide early assessments/projections to vehicle providers
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SuperBox and 4D crate What we do today
- Provide shipping and logistics expertise to meet stringent environmental requirements and government regulations for ground handling, transportation, and launch to orbit—performing 1,500 shipments annually for the ISS and Exploration programs
- Devise packing solutions to address the unique needs of each shipped item in terms of temperature, humidity/condensation, orientation, shock, and so on
- Provide end-to-end turn-key shipping solutions: hazard assessments, freight forwarder coordination, dangerous goods declarations, and placarding for ground, air, and sea shipments
- Provide TSA/Airlines trusted hand-carry couriers for domestic and international delivery of temperature and time-critical items
Chartered transport of hardware How we enable tomorrow
- Packaging the unique
- Trained in Department of Transportation (DOT), FAA, and IATA transportation of hardware, to assist in special DOT Special Permitting
- Established relationships with foreign Customs (Japan, Russia, the Hague, and Europe) with expertise in ANE filings and development of International Proformas
- Established and proven packaging techniques to meet unique cargo, science, or payload temperature requirement
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Crew daily schedule What we do today
- Planning, training, and executing real-time mission operations
- Support mission preparation (Plan), Crew, Flight Controller, Instructor, and Analyst training (Train) and real-time mission execution (Fly) activities for the International Space Station, Commercial Crew, and Artemis programs.
- Support the ISS 24/7/365, with continuous monitoring of crew activities, onboard systems, payloads, and vehicle trajectory
- Develop hardcopy and electronic procedures, crew system enhancements, and customized crew applications
Safety certified hard copy procedures How we enable tomorrow
- Interacting, communicating, customizing
- Bring cutting-edge development of interactive electronic procedures, compatible with iOS and Surface Pro technology
- Develop the ability for flight controllers to succinctly communicate during real-time and off-nominal operations
- Develop customized software applications based on user’s requirements
- Planning, training, and executing real-time mission operations
From preparing astronauts for space travel to conducting scientific research and experiments in zero-gravity Leidos works to apply mission understanding and technical expertise to each project.
Leveraging our core capabilities
Our expertise is founded in a number of our core capabilities. Find out how our broad-ranging experience can be applied to solve our space customer’s toughest challenges.
