Tier-2 NASA aerospace engineering services serving Morehead Space Technologies LLC and the Morehead State Space Science Center as two corporately separate buyers inside one Morehead operating envelope.

Two corporately separate buyers under one operating envelope. Morehead Space Technologies LLC is a 2023 Kentucky LLC at NAICS 541715 holding the $14.2 million NASA Glenn contract under solicitation 80GRC025CA010, with UEI UMFNRL5M7T73 and CAGE 9M5N0. The Morehead State University Space Science Center is the Ronald G. Eaglin SSC inside the Department of Physics, Earth Science, and Space Systems Engineering. Dr. Ben Malphrus is the executive director. The center carries documented CubeSat flight heritage on KySat-1, KySat-2, CXBN-1, CXBN-2, and additional university-class missions, and Representative Hal Rogers announced a $7.54 million FY26 Community Project Funding earmark in February 2026.

Two legs share one credential stack. The engineering-services leg bills systems engineering, mission design, ground-segment architecture, flight-software planning, and program management at a principal-engineer hourly rate. The aggregator leg sells federal-procurement-compliance services across NASA FAR Supplement compliance, ITAR Category XV registration, NIST 800-171 Rev 3 CUI controls, CMMC Level 2 readiness under 32 CFR Part 170, NASA workmanship-standards documentation, and SAM.gov registration. The shared ITAR registration, NIST 800-171 implementation, and SAM.gov maintenance carry one fixed-cost base across both legs.

Three-counterparty diversification posture. The Y2 banker covenant gates at 30 percent non-MST LLC revenue. The Morehead State Space Science Center, the aggregator-bench clients across Rowan-resident Tier-2 founders, and a commercial-smallsat or Kentucky Space Grant Consortium cross-sell are all eligible toward the 30 percent share. The banker auto-declines any founder operating above 60 percent single-customer concentration on MST LLC alone.

Per-engagement scope. The engineering-services leg bills at $150 to $260 per principal-engineer hour across systems engineering, mission design, proposal writing, and CubeSat-integration consulting. Contracted at 1 to 3 FTE-equivalent scale, that produces $90,000 to $260,000 annual revenue per anchor engagement. The aggregator leg sells NASA FAR Supplement compliance retainers at $4,000 to $9,000 a month per anchor buyer, an initial NIST 800-171 Rev 3 implementation at $35,000 to $80,000, and an annual maintenance retainer at $12,000 to $24,000.

Year 1: founder solo or founder plus part-time administration; single anchor buyer; NASA FAR Supplement compliance retainer plus initial NIST 800-171 implementation. Revenue base $80,000 to $180,000. Founder take-home $40,000 to $80,000. The first 6 to 9 months are credentialing and roster-building; revenue lands in months 7 to 12.

Year 2: founder plus part-time or full-time administration partner; second anchor buyer added through the MST LLC plus Space Science Center cross-sell; one to two adjacent Rowan-resident Tier-2 founders signed as aggregator-bench clients. Revenue base $180,000 to $320,000. Founder take-home $80,000 to $130,000. The Y2 banker covenant gates at 30 percent non-MST LLC revenue.

Year 3 onward: two-person partnership at full bench; two to three concurrent engagements across MST LLC and the Space Science Center; three to five aggregator-bench clients. Revenue base $300,000 to $500,000. Sustained founder take-home $130,000 to $200,000. Above $200,000 requires multi-state Tier-2 sub-prime expansion or transition into hardware fabrication — both outside this candidate's envelope.

Founder-side capital $100,000 to $500,000. ITAR DDTC registration plus technology-control plan plus empowered-official designation: $4,000 to $12,000 first year. NIST 800-171 Rev 3 self-implementation: $15,000 to $30,000. SAM.gov, UEI, and CAGE registration plus PIRS sub-tier reporting setup: $3,000 to $8,000. Professional-liability insurance at the NASA-prime-elevated underwriting tier: $4,000 to $8,000 annually. Workstation and engineering-software licensing (Matlab, STK, engineering CAD): $15,000 to $45,000. INCOSE CSEP credentialing plus NASA FAR Supplement training: $3,000 to $10,000. 9 to 12-month working-capital reserve: $30,000 to $90,000.

• Morehead Space Technologies LLC

  Private NASA-R&D firm, 2023 Kentucky LLC

  Quiet operator

  NAICS 541715. UEI UMFNRL5M7T73. CAGE 9M5N0. $14.2 million NASA Glenn V-Band Services contract. Corporate principals are not publicly listed as of May 2026.
• Morehead State University Space Science Center

  University aerospace research center

  Active in market

  Executive Director Dr. Ben Malphrus. $7.54 million FY26 Community Project Funding earmark via Representative Hal Rogers, February 2026.
• NASA Glenn Research Center

  NASA contracting authority on the V-Band Services prime

  Out-of-county

  Cleveland, Ohio. Solicitation 80GRC025CA010.
• NASA Marshall Space Flight Center

  Secondary NASA prime channel for small-spacecraft engineering services

  Out-of-county

  Huntsville, Alabama.
• Representative Hal Rogers (KY-05) office

  Federal-appropriations channel

  Out-of-county

  FY26 Community Project Funding earmark on the Space Science Center.
• Kentucky Space Grant Consortium

  NASA Space Grant affiliate

  Out-of-county

  Eligible toward the Y2 30 percent non-MST LLC diversification covenant.
• INCOSE

  Certified Systems Engineering Professional credentialing body

  Out-of-county

  Aligned to the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook.

The founder profile is a 35 to 55-year-old aerospace engineer or federal-procurement professional with 10 to 15 years of NASA, DoD, or commercial-aerospace tenure. The engineering-services leg wants an aerospace-engineering BS, an INCOSE Certified Systems Engineering Professional credential, and working fluency in the NASA Systems Engineering Handbook. The aggregator leg wants federal-procurement experience plus optional NASA FAR Supplement training certification. A two-person partnership (one principal engineer plus one principal administrator) is the most common structure at $300,000 to $500,000 mature revenue.

Relationship-portfolio target at launch: MST LLC contracts officer and program manager; the Morehead State Space Science Center executive director's office; the Morehead State Department of Physics, Earth Science, and Space Systems Engineering chair; the Office of Sponsored Programs pass-through contact; NASA Glenn and NASA Marshall small-business-program-office contacts; Representative Rogers's district-staff contact; the Kentucky Space Grant Consortium administrative office; DDTC registration support; a CMMC C3PAO for assessment-readiness planning; and the INCOSE Kentucky-region chapter. Eight to fourteen named contacts minimum by end of Year 1.

Entity and credentialing posture. Kentucky business registration, SAM.gov plus UEI plus CAGE registration, DDTC ITAR registration with a technology-control plan and an empowered official, a NIST 800-171 Rev 3 system security plan and POA&M with annual self-assessment, CMMC Level 2 readiness documentation under 32 CFR Part 170, AS9100D documentation in reduced engineering-services scope, NASA-STD-8739 series and IPC J-STD-001 Space Addendum and IPC-A-610 documentation, INCOSE CSEP plus optional NASA FAR Supplement training certification.

National platforms — SAIC, KBR, Jacobs, Booz Allen, Aerospace Corporation, Honeywell, and Leidos — bid at multi-million-dollar Tier-1 scope where engagement size absorbs their cost structure and run NASA-channel routes from Huntsville, Houston, or Cleveland. A Morehead-resident operator carrying the two-leg credential stack plus the shared ITAR-NIST-SAM.gov fixed-cost base sits below their pricing floor.

• — Morehead Space Technologies LLC corporate principals — not publicly listed as of May 2026.
• — MST LLC NASA Glenn V-Band Services period of performance and annual sub-tier procurement timing.
• — MST LLC ITAR Category XV registration status and flow-down to Tier-2 suppliers.
• — The Space Science Center's contract vehicle of record for engineering-services procurement (Morehead State procurement, research-foundation pass-through, or NASA Space Grant sub-award channel).
• — CMMC Level 2 contract flow-down phase-implementation schedule under 32 CFR Part 170 final rule and the NASA-specific timeline.
• — Whether the Space Science Center's $7.54 million FY26 Community Project Funding earmark is appropriated under the final FY26 enacted budget or a continuing resolution.
• — Whether public reporting of Intuitive Machines lunar-mission support work indicates contracted scope at MST LLC or the Space Science Center.
• — Operator P&Ls. The math above is industry-benchmarked, not measured.

Tonight, this week, this month — in that order. Each step produces a yes/no or a number, not a deeper understanding.