HESTO is pleased to announce two Heliophysics opportunities released under Research Opportunities in Space and Earth Sciences (ROSES) 2025: Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space (H-LCAS) and the new Spaceflight Science Foundations (SSF) opportunity.
Heliophysics Low-Cost Access to Space
H-LCAS Proposal Due Dates: Step 1 due November 20, 2026, Step 2 due March 16, 2027.
ROSES-2025 Amendment 78, the H-LCAS opportunity (ROSES B.7), solicits proposals for development and application of innovative instruments, technologies, and flight investigations using sounding rockets, high-altitude balloons, and cubesats (although this call does not specifically include cubesat flights). H-LCAS is designed to advance Heliophysics science by supporting technology development and maturation, along with suborbital science investigations and technology demonstrations.
Proposed flight investigations must identify as “science” or “science-enabling.” Science investigations should explain how their objectives will advance the stated science questions, including cases in which demonstrating a new technology is part of the investigation. Science-enabling investigations that primarily focus on demonstrating a new technology must explain why that technology is needed by identifying the specific science questions it is intended to address.
Additional information is available on the NASA research opportunity homepage and on SARA’s ROSES blog.
H-LCAS Questions? Contact Sabrina Savage and Ennio Sanchez at hq-hpd-lcas@mail.nasa.gov.
Spaceflight Science Foundations
SSF Proposal Due Dates: Step 1 due November 20, 2026, Step 2 due February 5, 2027.
ROSES-2025 Amendment 79, the SSF opportunity (ROSES B.8), solicits investigations that support formulation of high-impact spaceflight science projects using cost-effective implementation approaches. The program focuses on the two highest-priority future spaceflight projects identified in the 2024 Heliophysics Decadal Survey:
Links: The dynamic couplings and connections across regions and scales in the near-Earth space environment through concurrent measurements of the magnetosphere and Earth’s aurora.
Solar Polar: The Sun’s global dynamics, the mechanisms underlying the solar dynamo, and the Sun’s changing behavior across the solar cycle.
B.8 Spaceflight Science Foundations is a new ROSES-25 opportunity. A virtual telecon for potential proposers will be held on October 26, 2026. at 2 pm ET. Connection information will be posted on the NSPIRES page for this program element under “Other documents.”
Additional information is available on the NASA research opportunity homepage and on SARA’s ROSES blog.
SSF Questions? Contact Kelly Korreck at hq-hpd-ssf@mail.nasa.gov.
NASA Artificial Intelligence (AI) Usage Disclosure: This article was created with assistance from AI (ChatGSFC/Gemini 3.1 Pro) to summarize content from multiple publicly available online sources. The resulting article has been reviewed and edited by the author team.