Air Products awarded US$140 mn NASA contract to supply liquid hydrogen

Industrial gas supplier Air Products was recently awarded supply contracts from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration totalling more than US$140 million to provide liquid hydrogen for several NASA facilities including the world’s largest hydrogen sphere at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, the Cape Canaveral Space Force Station and other NASA locations.

Under the new contract, Air Products will supply about 16,500 tonnes of liquid hydrogen for Nasa’s aeronautic operations in Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi.

The new contracts build upon a multi-decade relationship between the pair that has seen Air Products support operations from the Apollo 11 moon landing to the upcoming Artemis lunar expedition.

In 2025, Air Products completed the first fill of the space agency’s hydrogen sphere. It supplied over 2.7 million l of LH2 to fill the sphere, which at 90 ft by 83 ft is the world’s largest.

Hydrogen has been used by NASA since the early 1960s, including on board its Saturn V.

However, the energy carrier has caused issues in the Artemis missions. In September 2022, hydrogen leaks thwarted two launch attempts of NASA’s Artemis I rocket.

Artemis I eventually launched in November 2022, with the unscrewed capsule safely returning to Earth a month later.

NASA now plans to launch its first crewed mission on board the Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft in April 2026 under Artemis II.