KBR announces intent to build human spaceflight innovation facility at ACMI

ACMI Properties (ACMI), a national industrial developer of mission-critical aerospace and national security facilities, announced that KBR, a global leader in human spaceflight and aerospace services, has signed a Letter of Intent (LOI) to operate a 45,000-square-foot facility at ACMI's Exploration Park development on NASA’s Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Texas.

At Exploration Park, KBR will establish a state-of-the-art space food innovation facility that will be purpose-built by ACMI Properties to support the fast-growing low Earth orbit (LEO) economy, where demand for advanced human-centric systems, particularly tailored food, packaging, and nutrition, is rapidly increasing.

“This KBR-led capability will serve as a critical resource for NASA and its provider community by delivering safe, expertly developed food solutions tailored for human performance on spaceflight missions,” said Mark Kavanaugh, KBR President, Defence, Intel and Space. “Our commitment to fulfilling and exceeding all human performance needs—including behavioural health and performance—will be at the forefront of this endeavour and will provide a level of integration across all pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight mission phases that serves a multitude of mission models, durations, and complexities.” 

At this location, KBR will design, validate, and integrate astronaut food systems engineered for both government and commercial missions, with applications across LEO, lunar, and Mars environments. The facility will also develop solutions for extreme terrestrial environments where food security, lifecycle management, and performance optimisation are mission-critical.