NASA taps industrial gas majors for helium supply

NASA has signed liquid helium contracts with industrial gas majors Messer and Linde, as well as Airgas, an Air Liquide company.

Worth around $105.1m, the three contracts will see each industrial gas firm collectively supply around 2.6 million litres of liquid helium and 90.6 million standard cubic feet of gaseous helium.

The product will be distributed to multiple NASA centres across the US.

Each of the contracts will run until September 2027, with three one-year option periods that could extend the supply to 2030.

Helium is an inert gas used by NASA for purging hydrogen systems, as a pressurising agent for ground and flight fluid systems, and as a cryogenic cooling agent. It is also used for spacecraft and rocket processing and launch operations.

NASA requires bulk liquid helium to support a range of agency activities from Kennedy and nearby Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, including the International Space Station programme as well as the Space Launch System and Orion programmes that underpin Artemis, the agency’s missions to the Moon and Mars.