Questions and Responses 80GSFC21001RFP 3 16 21- spb rev 3-18-21 ob 3-18-21.docx

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA)

Helium Dilution Refrigerator System – Request for Proposal (RFP) 80GSFC21001RFP Questions and Responses

1. Question: It’s not clear to me where I need to submit my quotation Response: Please refer to Section L.20 for submission of your proposal.

Offerors interested in submitting a proposal in response to this RFP shall request a LFT invitation email from Odessia Becks at the following email address: Odessia.H.Becks@nasa.gov. Offerors must courtesy copy (cc) S. Pauline Barrett at Sislyn.P.Barrett@nasa.gov to ensure requests are accommodated timely. All Offerors must submit their request for an LFT invitation to the aforementioned emails, no later than 10 calendar days prior to the proposal due date. The Government anticipates responding with an invitation to use LFT no later than 5 calendar days prior to the proposal due date.

2. Question: It says “LFT invitation email from Odessia Becks at the following email address:” Is there a WEB page is need to submit my proposal to?

Response: Upon receiving your email request, I will forward a link to submit your proposal that will give you access. The link will take you to a NASA webpage so you can submit your proposal. See Section L.20 for proposal submission guidelines.

3. Question: Quick question about the RFP. Please send a drawing of the Vacuum can and radiation shields to have removable bottoms and “side access port” with minimum 6 inch aperture to mixing chamber. Mostly interested in the side access port.

Response: The drawing requested is attached, for the required dimensions. The optical access port design will be provided by the Contractor as part of their proposal and will be used in the evaluation of proposals. Access port design must provide mounting flanges for a vacuum window on the vacuum shield and filters on the radiation shields, with adequate room between flanges to accommodate reasonable window sag and filter thickness. The vacuum window and filters will be provided by the end user. The Contractor will provide and install metal caps for the side access port.

4. Question: Where do I submit the proposal. After reading Section L.18-L.22. Still not clear where I’m sending this information? L.20 mentions “Offerors interested in submitting a proposal in response to this RFP shall request a LFT invitation email from Odessia Becks at the following email address:” Where and what is the LFT?

Or can I just e-mail my proposal to you.

Response: The acronym LFT means Large File Transfer. See the response to Question 1 which provides you with the answer.

5. Question: Please can you explain what the following means? “Period of Performance” Period of performance will be up to 7 months after date of receipt of contract.”

Response: The Period of Performance is the time frame in which the contractor have to provide the product, which the RFP states is 7 months from contract award. Thus, it is within this time frame you must complete the Helium Dilution Refrigerator System.

6. Question: We have another question about the 80GSFC21001RFP. What will be the scope of the required Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI) Avoidance Plan and IT Security management plan? Is it enough to present our internal policy document or is there some form from NASA that needs to be filled? Could you please provide these forms if any? Without additional information it is hard for us to determine if we can fulfill these requirements or not.

I have include people from our legal team to this email so they can ask additional questions if needed. Where will these questions and answers be visible? Is there some specific internet page?

Response: Attached is the NASA IT Security Plan to be submitted 30 days after award of contract. The OCI Avoidance Plan can be the offerors internal policy document that will be reviewed for acceptance.

7. Question: I have a tender review on Wednesday the 10th. The engineers will ask for the location of the 6” window on the side. Because this is written around a competitor’s specification I am assuming they may already know this location and will not have to wait for an answer.

Curious if I could also get this information before my meeting on Wednesday. It doesn’t have to be perfect but an idea of where the window will go and the purpose of this access? This will give us time to quote and met your RFP deadline.

Response: The information you need is listed in the attached drawing. All questions submitted must be responded to via an amendment, thus refer to the attached drawing for required dimensions, including minimum spacing of the access port from the mixing chamber plate.

8. Question: I also have couple of comments and questions about the RFP:

Could you please provide us a full sales except certification or alternatively could you please complete the attached Form 1094, United States Tax Exemption Form. I understand that Maryland may have given the Goddard Space Flight Center a sales tax exemption identification number. Could you please share that number with us?

Response: NASA is a Government agency, and as such we are a tax exempt agency.

Could you please elaborate the past performance questionnaire form for me? Would you need us to send this questionnaire to all our customers in past 5 years or how this form should be used? Could we just include a list of selected references with contact information and scope of SOW in our proposal? Solely last year we have sold over hundred Cryogen free dilution refrigeration systems.

Response: Yes, that is the expectation. The solicitation attached a Past Performance Questionnaire, please have some of your current customers complete the questionnaire and submit them with your proposal. The past performance evaluation will solely be based on the Past Performance Questionnaire filled out by your customers.