Voyager Technologies has secured a $35 million contract to continue managing NASA's HUNCH program, a role the company says it has held since 2021. The five-year agreement keeps the aerospace firm at the center of an effort that hands high school students a shot at designing and building real hardware destined for space missions.
According to WFTV, Voyager said the new five-year contract allows it to keep running HUNCH, short for High school students United with NASA to Create Hardware. The company provides engineering and program support meant to turn student designs into hardware NASA can actually use, rather than leaving the projects as classroom exercises.
From Classroom Sketches to Orbiting Hardware
Students in the program work on projects tied directly to NASA's operational needs, the outlet reports, meaning the gear they design isn't hypothetical. Per the same account, more than 3,000 student-built items have flown to the International Space Station, according to Voyager — a tally that underscores how far the program has pushed beyond typical STEM outreach and into actual mission support.
Voyager's reach has grown considerably since taking over the program. The company said HUNCH has reached more than 24,000 students across more than 1,700 schools in 46 states, the article notes, turning what began as a niche NASA education initiative into a nationwide pipeline of young engineers.
Company Pointed to the Award Back in January
The contract's roots trace back to earlier this year, when Voyager first announced it had been awarded a NASA contract for the Create Hardware program. In a Voyager Technologies press release dated January 8, 2026, the company stated it had been awarded a contract with NASA for the HUNCH program and would provide engineering and program support that connects student innovation directly to operational missions.
That framing lines up with how the newly reported five-year, $35 million deal is being described: a continuation of work Voyager has already been doing rather than an entirely new initiative. The company has held the HUNCH management role since 2021, it said, giving it several years of runway managing student projects before this latest contract extension.
Facilities in Texas and California Support the Work
Voyager operates a facility in Webster, Texas, and has added a new location at its facility in Long Beach, California, the Florida outlet reported. Those sites give the company physical infrastructure to support the engineering side of turning student blueprints into flight-ready components, bridging the gap between a high schooler's design sketch and hardware that meets NASA's standards.
Neither the five-year contract's start and end dates nor its detailed scope of work beyond the HUNCH program's general structure were specified in the available reporting. What is clear is the scale Voyager and NASA are describing: tens of thousands of students, over a thousand schools, and thousands of pieces of hardware that have already made the trip to low Earth orbit.
