NASA obligated a combined $146,704,920 across four awards on August 21, 2026, with a single cooperative agreement to National Institute of Aerospace Associates accounting for more than 71 percent of the day's total.

The read here is that four separate research relationships, some running since at least 2017, all moved on the same calendar day - worth watching for any reader tracking NASA's cooperative agreement pipeline.

Federal awards data shows the largest award, 80LARC17C0004, carries an obligation of $104,843,521 to National Institute of Aerospace Associates for facilitating the establishment and operation of a science and research institute. Outlays against that award stand at $66,461,689 - by this paper's arithmetic, 63.4 percent of total obligations drawn.

Award 80NSSC20M0173, a cooperative agreement to Universities Space Research Association, carries obligations and outlays of $21,742,624, with the full obligated amount already drawn. The award description references an institute that has operated for more than five decades in the lunar and planetary science community.

Purdue University received $14,999,835 under project grant 80NSSC19K1076 for the Resilient Extraterrestrial Habitats Research Institute. Outlays against that award are $14,999,914 - by this paper's arithmetic, one dollar above the total obligation, a figure the source data carries as recorded.

The smallest of the four, award 80NSSC19M0161, obligated $5,118,940 to National Council on Radiation Protection & Measurements to examine whether dementia and related conditions can be associated with high-linear energy transfer alpha particle exposure in Department of Energy worker populations. Outlays stand at $4,629,407, leaving $489,533 undrawn.

The outlay gap on the radiation study - roughly $489,500 unspent against a $5.1 million ceiling - is the one award in this set where a meaningful draw remains. Whether NASA pushes that balance to close is the figure to check in the next award modification.