New Freeze Dryer and Mandatory Accesories for Space Food Production

The Johnson Space Center’s Space Food Systems Laboratory is preparing to procure a new freeze dryer to sustain and enhance food production for NASA’s space flight programs and ground analog studies. This equipment is essential for manufacturing over 50 different freeze-dried food products currently used in space missions and related research. The existing fleet includes two units, one nearing two decades of operation and showing signs of increased failure risk, making replacement critical to maintain uninterrupted production capacity and improve processing throughput. The new unit must be designed to fit within the facility’s constrained square footage while delivering a minimum of 60 square feet of shelf drying surface to meet operational demands. The procurement is being planned under the NAICS code 333415 and is forecasted for release in April 2026, with no current set-aside designation. Point of contact for technical inquiries is Xulei Wu, while Romain Tumarrow serves as the Small Business Specialist for coordination.