AACES 2050 Final NRA Cover Letter.pdf

National Aeronautics and Space Administration John H. Glenn Research Center Lewis Field Cleveland, OH 44135-3191

December 4, 2023 TO: All Prospective Offerors

SUBJECT: NASA Research Announcement (NRA), Solicitation No. 80GRC024N0001, for Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050

You are invited to submit a proposal in response to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Glenn Research Center’s (GRC) Advanced Aircraft Concepts for Environmental Sustainability (AACES) 2050 solicitation. The principal purpose of this requirement is focused on identification, design, and selection of aircraft concepts and technologies that will be critical to sustainable commercial aviation (both passenger and cargo transport). From the results of these studies, NASA will build a robust technology investment portfolio of technologies, subsystems, and aircraft configurations that will contribute to the aggressive sustainability goals for 2050 and beyond.

NASA will conduct this acquisition as a full and open competition. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541715 and the small business size standard is 1,500.

This competitive acquisition will result in a Cost-Plus-Fixed Fee (CPFF).

The anticipated contract award date is April 2024 with an immediate contract effective date. The contract will be performed offsite at the Contractor’s facilities.

Potential offerors should pay close attention to all solicitation instructions; however, the following requirements list is summarized to assist in proposal development. Please note that this list is not exhaustive, and the solicitation terms and conditions and provisions take precedence:

• NASA GRC appreciates the comments received in response to the release of the Draft NRA. These comments resulted in improvements to the quality and content of the overall NRA. Offerors should review the NRA in its entirety, as its content has changed from the Draft NRA version.

• Offerors are required to have a Commercial and Government Entity (CAGE) code that matches the corporate address submitted with its proposal.

• Offerors are encouraged to closely review Provision 10.1 “Electronic Submission of Proposals – Proposal Marking and Delivery through NASA box” and the updated Attachment C – Instructions for Setting up a Box Account. All proposals and attachments must be submitted through NASA Box in response to this solicitation.

In order to control and protect sensitive data owned by the Government and its Contractors, NASA policy required all acquisition-related documents, except for those in the Cost Volume, be released in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF). The Offeror’s Cost Volume proposal shall include completed Cost Volume exhibits in Microsoft Office Excel format with working cell formulas.

Documents related to this acquisition, including this letter, the solicitation, attachments, exhibits, any amendments and links to online reference/technical/bidders library will be attainable electronically from the World Wide Web through the Government-wide point of entry website at www.SAM.gov. Offerors are requested to periodically monitor the websites for updates.

NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.215-84, OMBUDSMAN, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub library/Omb.html.

This NRA does not commit NASA GRC to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA GRC to procure or contract for these services. This request is not an authorization to proceed, and does not authorize payment for any charges incurred by the offeror for performing any of the work called for in this solicitation.

Proposals submitted in response to this solicitation shall be due no later than 5:00 PM EDT February 2, 2024. Proposals for this solicitation are required to be submitted through NASA’s Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box (EFSS Box), a FedRAMP Moderate certified platform.

Potential offerors, especially those that have not previously submitted a proposal utilizing NASA’s EFSS Box, are encouraged to review the solicitation instruction entitled “Electronic Proposal Delivery - Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box” which provides instructions related to the submission of proposal via EFSS Box. Offerors are encouraged to check with their corporate IT staff to determine if there are firewall restrictions that would need to be addressed prior to the submission of proposal files through NASA’s EFSS Box.

In accordance with NFS 1815.201(f), a “Blackout Notice” has been issued to NASA personnel.

All inquiries/communications pertaining to this acquisition shall be directed only to the Contracting Officer listed below.

All questions regarding this NRA should be submitted in writing, electronically to Ashlee Shaw, Contracting Officer, at Ashlee.B.Shaw@nasa.gov with copy to Linda.M.Nabors@nasa.gov on or before 5:00 PM EDT January 5, 2024. Offerors are encouraged to submit questions as soon as possible for consideration.

Thank you for your support. We look forward to receiving your proposals.

Ashlee Shaw Contracting Officer