The awards were a part of NASA's Small Business Innovation Research and Small Business Technology Transfer programs. The highly competitive programs afford SMBs the chance to propose unique ideas that meet specific research and development needs of the government, elevating the companies to a federal level.

The SBIR contracts will go to 245 small, high technology firms from 36 states. The STTR contracts will go to 31 small high technology firms from 19 states. As part of the STTR program, selected firms will partner with 26 participating universities and research institutions.

Chosen from more than 1,600 proposals, the winning projects include research on minimizing the aging of aircraft, new techniques for suppressing fires on spacecraft, advanced space communication transmitters, and more.

In a recent statement, NASA said winning proposals were selected based on distinguished technical merit and feasibility, experience, qualifications and facilities, effectiveness of the work plan and commercial potential and feasibility.

There are many American institutions with similar programs to NASA that help small businesses devoted to technological innovation. The Small Business Administration's Small Business Technology Transfer program has awarded over $2 billion to small high-tech businesses over the years.