Questions and Answers Batch 1.pdf

Question # Question Government Response

Are you able to provide a future on-ramp schedule for this program? Future on-ramp schedules cannot be provided. The Government will perform periodic market analysis as industry develops additional Near Space DTE and/or Relay capabilities, along with technological advancements. If warranted, the on-ramp will be announced and potential offerors will be given the opportunity to submit proposals.

Are you open to allowing task orders under this Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity contract vehicle to be issued under FAR Part 12, Acquisition of Commercial Products and Commercial Services?

No. Task Orders will be issued in accordance with the terms and conditions of the awarded contracts.

In order to help involve the Commercial industrial base, are you open to allowing exceptions to the solicitation/model contract terms and conditions? a. Currently not permitted per Section L.22(b)

In accordance with RFP provision L.22, no exceptions will be allowed. The Government will not accept proposals with alternate terms and conditions.

Is the “Capability Validation Total Price” estimate in Exhibit B a not-to-exceed (NTE) estimate that sets a cap on the total awarded contract value of future hypothetical validation task orders? Or is the “Capability Validation Total Price” estimate in Exhibit B going to be used as the basis for an award of a single validation firm fixed price (FFP) task order?

If selected for award of a master contract, that vendor's proposed validation price will be used to award a validation fixed price task order. The “Capability Validation Total Price” in Exhibit B, along with the "Total Price for Operational Services Minutes," will be used as the basis for award of the master contract in accordance with RFP Section M.5. (See Amendment 1)

The RFP states, “It is anticipated that a network of at least three ground stations located 120 degrees apart around the globe is required to provide DTE services for the GEO-to- Cislunar service region.” Is it NASA's intent that full global coverage be provided by a minimum of 3 ground stations? Or can a partial solution be proposed?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites that meet or exceed the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

6 Does the X/Ka-band or S/Ka-band capability have to be on a single dish or can it be two separate dishes at the same location?

Offerors should propose current or planned solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

Simultaneous up/down link NASA identifies simultaneous up/down link requirements under Category 1.2 and 1.3.

Does NASA require both directions be provided out of the same aperture or is it acceptable for the uplink and downlink to be provided by separate apertures provided that the services (radiometrics, EIRP, G/T, etc.) are met?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

The RFP does not specify requirements similar to 1.2. Does that mean any ground station that provides either S-band, X-band, or Ka-band or any combination of the three can bid into Category 1.3?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

Can a single ground site provide a proposal or is NASA looking for global coverage with at least 3 ground stations from a proposal?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or exceed the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

Table 11 - Tracking Performance – DTE – There is a requirement for “Long term stability better than 3*10^-15 ADEV @ 1000s.” Our understanding is that standard available systems can support 10^-11 not 10^-15. Is this the correct requirement?

Table 11 is correct as stated.

Please clarify NASA's requirement for Ka band uplink under category 1.2 and 1.3. Is the requirement only to support S and X band uplink or is Ka band uplink also required?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

The CVM payment milestone percentages appear back loaded. Can a proposal provide alternative payment milestone percentages for each of the CVMs that aligns closer to cost associated with delivery of the Increment A, B, and C services?

No. Offerors shall comply with the stated percentages in the solicitation.

The RFP provides no-longer-than periods for each of the Sub-Tasks. Is there a no-earlier-than period for CVM-5 (Increment A On-Orbit), CVM-6 (Increment B On- Orbit) and CVM-7 (Full Operational Capability On-Orbit)?

No.

Will NASA provide a emulator to verify spacecraft RF, data flow, PNT performance prior to launch? Are there any ground test compatibility requirements prior to launch?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory and should clearly capture the assumptions. Per the RTOS, "the Contractor shall host Technical Exchange Meetings (TEM) with the Government throughout each sub-task’s performance. In addition to technical discussions and progress reporting, the TEMs will be used to determine what Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and Government Furnished Information (GFIs) may be offered and to ensure it is equitably available to all contractors. GFE and GFI (simulators, test tools, etc.), subject to Contractor and government requirements, may be made available for validation assurance."

What are the minimum requirements NASA has to enable completion of an on-orbit validation milestone?

Will NASA provide access to an on-orbit asset for validation testing?

How will an offer validate on-orbit performance if NASA does not have an on-orbit asset at the time of validation?

Do all bands have to be validated if the on-orbit asset does not provide all bands?

Offerors should propose current or planned capabilites and solutions that meet or excced the functional and performance requirements for the proposed subcategory.

Per the RTOS, "the Contractor shall host Technical Exchange Meetings (TEM) with the Government throughout each sub-task’s performance. In addition to technical discussions and progress reporting, the TEMs will be used to determine what Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) and Government Furnished Information (GFIs) may be offered and to ensure it is equitably available to all contractors. GFE and GFI (simulators, test tools, etc.), subject to Contractor and government requirements, may be made available for validation assurance."

The MDWB mentions number of missions per year and starting year of missions - are these recurring missions each year at the rate per year? The question is to assess the number of hours/minutes required by NASA for the missions. Can NASA provide an estimate by year of total hours for DTE and data relay services?

Yes, these are recurring missions each year.

In the DTE MDWB for both Earth Proximity and GEO to Cislunar there are “Contact Requirements” that state “DTE or SR.” Is the intent that the Data Relay system should be able to support these DTE mission requirements? Some of these missions require X-band uplink and downlink, which are not listed as requirements for data relay. Does Data Relay need to be able to support X-band uplink and downlink?

The intent of "DTE or SR" is to indicate that the mission requirements could be met with either DTE service or SR service.

The requirement states to: “Provide a completed Commercial Architecture Security Questionnaire (CASQ)”. RFP document Enclosure EE – CASQ is a large document at 8 pages without offeror’s responses, and once completed may consume a good portion of the 50-page count limitation for Volume II Technical Acceptability Standards.

Question: Would the Government please exclude Enclosure EE from the 50-page count limit of Volume II?

Enclosure EE will be limited to a 30 page count limit within Volume II. The RFP will be amended accordingly. (See Amendment 1)

Is it acceptable for offerors to propose milestone payment percentages that differ from the Milestone Payment percentages listed in Table 2 (on page 10 of Enclosure BB.2 -

RTO2)?

No.

Could you clarify if the Base and Option periods are cumulative or not? In other words is the max contract value after the options are added ~$4.2B or ~$4.8B (Base ~$585M + Option ~$4.2B)?

The maximum IDIQ ordering value under the initial ~5 year base contract is $584,897,500. The maximum IDIQ ordering value under the option period (5 years) is $4,235,102,500. (Please see clauses B2 and B.5)

The RFP requests bidders to "fill-in of Blocks 12 through 18 of the SF 33 and the indicated Offeror required fill-ins in Sections B-K." We have noted the fill-ins in Section K but did not see fill-ins in the other sections. Could you advise the other items that require bidders to fill-in in Sections B - J?

There are no fill-ins in Sections B-J.

The RFP asks bidders to provide contact info for the Cognizant Audit Agency, Inspection Agency, and Administrative Contracting Officer. For those bidders who don't have these three agency contacts assigned, could you clarify how we should respond?

For those offerors who don't have these agency contacts assigned, simply state so in your proposal response.

Section 26 implies that an Offeror can only submit Past Performance for themselves except the following cases for "a parent or affiliated or predecessor company to an Offeror..." or for "small business offers small businesses Offerors that are proposing as the prime contractor can provide past performance information for their first-tier small business subcontractor(s)..." If an Offeror is not a small business, can they also provide Past Performance from their first tier subcontractors?

No, if an offeror is not a small business, it cannot provide Past Performance information from its first tier subcontractor.

Please confirm if a Small Business Subcontracting Plan is required from a large business for the initial response to this solicitation, or are they only required from a large business on future Task Orders awarded under the NSN Services contracts where the Task Orders are > $50M or between $750K - $50M?

A Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not required at the master contract level, however, it is required at the Task Order level, including any Representative Task Orders that will be awarded at contract award time. A Small Small Business Subcontracting Plan is required for all Task Orders/Representative Task Orders with a value that exceeds $750K. The requirement for submission of a Small Business Subcontracting Plan is not applicable to awards made to small businesses, or if the contract/individual Task Orders, together with all of its subcontracts, will be performed entirely outside the United States and its outlying areas. Provision L.22(c)(8), sets forth the small business subcontracting goals that have been established for Task Orders with a value of greater than $50M. For Task Orders with a value of between $750K to $50M, contractors will be required to submit a small business subcontracting plan with their own recommended goals based on their own independent assessment. The goals included in the submitted Subcontracting Plan for the Task Orders may be higher, lower, or the same as the goals stated in Provision L.22(c)(8), depending upon the contractor’s independent assessment.

25 For Category 1, should there be a separate Exhibit-C DTE Capabilities Matrix for each subcategory the contractor proposes (1.1, 1.2, 1.3)?

Yes, a separate Exhibit C will be required as part of the separate Technical Volume required for each subcategory the vendor will be proposing on.

Provide a completed Commercial Architecture Security Questionnaire (CASQ).

QUESTION: Our initial assessment is that completing this form will easily exceed 25 pages, will NASA please exclude the CASQ from the 50-page limit of Vol II?

Enclosure EE will be limited to a 30 page count limit within Volume II. The RFP will be amended accordingly. (See Amendment 1)

The CASQ that Offeror’s are to complete does not meet the minimum font size requirements of L.19(b)(2). Updating the CASQ form to meet the minimum font size 10 for tables increases the page count of the form itself to 20 pages. Given that this empty form consumes almost half of the allocated page count for Volume II, will the Government please exclude the CASQ from page count?

Enclosure EE will be limited to a 30 page count limit within Volume II. The RFP will be amended accordingly. (See Amendment 1)

28 The solicitation requests the Offeror DUNS. QUESTION: Is it acceptable to provide the offeror’s Unique Entity ID in place of/in addition to the DUNS?

Yes.

29 Text regarding font sizes. QUESTION: Can text provided in headings/footers be 10 point font?

Yes, headers and footers may be a smaller font size.

Each volume shall be submitted in a single searchable Adobe Portable Document File (PDF) format. QUESTION: Can the Government please confirm that the searchable requirement applies to the text within the proposal narrative, and not the contents of diagram, artwork or photographs?

Yes, the searchable requirement applies to the text within the proposal narrative, and not the contents of diagrams, artwork or photographs.

RFP Section L(26)(a) allows for providing past performance information from first-tier, small-business subcontractors if the Prime is a small business. Can that small business Prime submit past performance information from a first tier subcontractor on a relevant effort that is NOT a small business?

No, the small business prime can only submit past performance information from first tier small business subcontractors.

Does the information security questionnaire count against the 50-page limit? Enclosure EE will be limited to a 30 page count limit within Volume II. The RFP will be amended accordingly. (See Amendment 1)

We request clarity on the statement within RFP Section L.22(b) “Summary of Exceptions” that says no exceptions will be allowed and the government will not accept alternate terms and conditions. Would this statement apply to a request to remove clauses within the RFP that are not applicable to a commercial offering? Would a contractor’s statement of acceptance to the applicable commercial terms be acceptable?

If the terms and conditions contained within the RFP are accepted, will these remain applicable to all future task orders, or will only applicable terms and conditions be included in individual task orders?

This procurement is not being procured under FAR Part 12 Acquistion of Commercial Items, therefore, the contractor will be required to comply with all the terms and conditions contained in the model contract. As stated in Provision L.22

(b) "Summary of Exceptions," no exceptions will be allowed and the Government will not accept proposals with alternate terms and conditions. These same terms and conditions will also apply to all future task orders.

The RFP states that small business Offerors that are proposing as the prime contractor can provide past performance information for their first-tier small business subcontractor(s) if the capabilities, past performance, and experience of the small business prime does not independently demonstrate capabilities and past performance necessary for award. Such references must meet a minimum average annual cost/fee incurred of $250,000 for Category 1. In fairness to newer entrants and to provide NASA a clearer understanding of each offering, request this provision be expanded to allow large business Offerors that are proposing as prime contractor to also provide past performance for first tier small business subcontractors, so long as the same criteria i t

In accordance with Provision L.26, only small businesses Offerors that are proposing as the prime contractor can provide past performance information for their first-tier small business subcontractor(s) if the capabilities, past performance, and experience of the small business prime does not independently demonstrate capabilities and past performance necessary for award. Such references must meet a minimum average annual cost/fee incurred of $250,000 for Category 1 and $1,000,000 for Category 2 that the first tier small business subcontractor has had within the last 10 years of the RFP release date.

The draft reflected the annual minutes as 50,000 and the final 500,000. Was that change intentional?

Yes, the change was intentional.

Rationale for question (Attachment B states): Task Plan proposals must utilize pricing that is at or below the not-to-exceed price/minutes rates delineated above for pricing all Unclassified task orders contemplated or issued in accordance with the “Task Ordering Procedure” clause, along with the "Supplemental Task Ordering Procedures” and "Ordering Procedures" texts of the contract. All Task Orders issued will be applied to the guaranteed minimum quantity and maximum quantity as provided in the “Minimum/Maximum Amount of Supplies or Services” clause.

Assertion: Our commercial pricing includes multiple options which are separate from simple price per minute per category.

Question: is the Government willing to accept commercial price lists vs the explicit exhibit/attachment B?

No, the Government requires a Not-to-Exceed price per minute rate for each of the nominal and critial services descriptions. A commercial price list will not be accepted. The offeror is required to complete and submit both Exhibit B and Attachment B as part of its proposal submission.

For Exhibit B, it looks like the assumption is 500,000 minutes per year – is this correct and what portion of the 500,000 should be used for nominal and critical services?

The assumption is not correct. The 500,000 minutes will be applied to both the nominal and critical services. Amendment 1 clarifies this process with a revised Exhibit B. In addition, and for reference purposes only, the PDF version of Exhibit B containing the spreadsheet formulas entitled "Exhibit B - NSN Services Pricing Model (Ref Only)" has been uploaded into the "Near Space Network (NSN) Services elibrary."

When providing pricing for NSN Contract Years 1-11 in Exhibit B, should Contractors assume Year 1 is the first year following Capability Validation completion and eligibility for services task orders?

Contract Year (CY) 1 starts with the effective date of the NSN Services contract award. The Offerors shall provide the operational services price per minute rates starting in the CY in which the proposed validation activities are anticipated to be completed. For example, category 1.1 and 1.3, validation activities are anticipated to be completed within 6 months; therefore, operational services price per minute rate should be provided for CY1. For category 1.2 validation activities are anticipated to be completed within twenty-four (24) months; therefore based on the vendor’s validation approach, operational services price per minute rate may start either in CY2 or CY3. For category 2.2 validation activities are anticipated to be completed within sixty six (66) months; therefore based on the vendor’s validation approach, operational services price per minute rate may start either in CY5, CY6 or even sooner. Again, this will be based on each offeror proposed validation approach.

We desire to submit a past performance reference in response to RFP #80GSFC22R0029 at the Top Secret level. Per the RFP Section L.26(a) paragraph 5, we are notifying you of this submission request in order to make arrangements for the delivery.

Unfortunately, at this time, NASA/GSFC is not able receive and store classified information in support of this solicitation. Therefore, we are not able to accept Past Performance information that contains classified information. Furthermore, Offerors are reminded that consistent with the Final RFP Cover Letter, classified past performance information is not needed for this competition. The RFP will be amended accordingly. (See Amendment 1). This will be included in future on-ramps and/or task order competitions when NASA/GSFC is able receive and store classified information in support of NSN requirements.

RFP Section L.24 (a) includes the following wording: “All pricing and estimating techniques shall be clearly explained in detail (projections, rates, ratios, percentages, factors, etc.) and shall support the proposed pricing in such a manner that audit, computation, and verification can be accomplished. All past actuals shall show the periods of time and costs in detail when used as a basis for estimating the proposed pricing.” Where should this explanation be provided by the Offeror?

This explanation will need to be provided as part of the Price Volume. The RFP Provisions "L.19 GSFC 52.215-201 (ALT I) PROPOSAL

PREPARATION—GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS (ELECTRONIC PROPOSAL

DELIVERY) (MAR 2020)" and "L.24 GSFC 52.215-225 PRICE VOLUME INSTRUCTIONS (JUL 2020)" is revised as per Amendment 1.