Dina Zambrano

Dina Zambrano serves as a secondary procurement professional at NASA’s Johnson Space Center, supporting the agency’s mission to advance human spaceflight systems and life sciences research. While not the primary contracting officer, she plays a critical role in facilitating acquisition planning, contract administration, and vendor coordination for complex research and development initiatives. Her work ensures alignment with NASA’s strategic priorities in microgravity physiology, radiation biology, and spacecraft life support systems, enabling timely execution of technical contracts that sustain crewed missions beyond low Earth orbit. Zambrano collaborates closely with key contractors including Sierra Space Corp, Aspera Biomedicines, Inc., and Single Crystal Diamond Inc., each contributing specialized capabilities in advanced life support hardware, biomedical research tools, and high-performance materials. Her procurement patterns reflect long-standing, technically driven partnerships with firms capable of delivering cutting-edge solutions for extreme space environments. These relationships are characterized by sustained engagement, iterative development cycles, and deep technical alignment with NASA’s engineering and scientific objectives. Her contracting activity shows no reliance on socioeconomic set-asides, with 100% of acquisitions conducted under full and open competition. This reflects a mission-critical focus on technical excellence and operational readiness over socioeconomic preferences, prioritizing capability and performance over certification-based procurement pathways. Zambrano’s portfolio is exclusively focused on NAICS 541715—Research and Development in the Physical, Engineering, and Life Sciences—encompassing advanced life sciences experiments, spacecraft systems prototyping, and human performance analytics. She procures specialized services in radiation shielding materials, microgravity physiology monitoring, and guidance/control subsystems, working with vendors who possess deep domain expertise in aerospace biotechnology and space-qualified engineering. Her work ensures that NASA’s human exploration programs remain at the forefront of scientific and technical innovation.