Steve Tompkins

Steve Tompkins serves as a key procurement lead at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where he manages complex acquisitions for advanced space-based instrumentation and aeronautical systems. His role centers on executing full lifecycle contracting for high-priority scientific missions, including the development of Earth observation sensors, deep-space communication payloads, and navigation guidance systems. He ensures compliance with federal acquisition regulations while aligning procurements with NASA’s strategic goals in space science and Earth system monitoring. Tompkins typically handles sole-source and competitive sealed bid contracts for technically demanding, mission-critical hardware and integrated systems requiring rigorous engineering validation. His primary contractor relationships are with Aerospace & Commercial Technologies, LLC, and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, reflecting a pattern of engagement with specialized defense and research-oriented vendors possessing deep expertise in sensor design, space-qualified electronics, and real-time data processing. These partnerships are characterized by long-term technical collaboration, often involving co-development of custom instrumentation under cost-reimbursement and fixed-price incentive structures. Tompkins consistently works with entities that have proven capabilities in space environment testing, radiation-hardened electronics, and mission-critical software integration. Tompkins’ procurement portfolio reflects a 100% non-set-aside approach, with no reliance on 8(a), HUBZone, or SDVOSB programs. His contracting strategy prioritizes technical capability and mission readiness over socioeconomic preferences, focusing instead on selecting vendors with the most mature engineering processes and flight heritage. This reflects the high-risk, high-reliability nature of Goddard’s missions, where performance and heritage outweigh socioeconomic objectives. His procurement activity is entirely concentrated under NAICS 334511, specializing in the acquisition of search, detection, navigation, guidance, aeronautical, and nautical systems and instruments. He routinely procures space-grade radar arrays, star trackers, attitude control sensors, and telemetry systems, demonstrating deep expertise in aerospace instrumentation manufacturing and integration for orbital and deep-space platforms.