GXS DRFP Cover Letter.pdf

Rev.: 8/2020

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771

Reply to Attn of: 172

TO: All Potential Offerors

SUBJECT: Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP), Solicitation No. 80GSFC22R0055, for Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Sounder (GXS) Instrument Implementation

You are invited to review and comment on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Sounder (GXS) Instrument Implementation solicitation. GXS will be a hyperspectral infrared instrument that is planned to fly on the GeoXO program series of geostationary satellites. It will provide sounding observations of the western hemisphere for the first time, with critical information on the spatial and temporal gradients of atmospheric temperature and water vapor which will be fed into numerical weather prediction models run by the National Weather Service and Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR). The contract scope includes the tasks and deliverables necessary to design, analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, calibrate, test, verify, evaluate, support launch, supply and maintain the instrument Ground Support Equipment (GSE), and support Mission Operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF).

Potential offerors are encouraged to comment on all aspects of the draft solicitation, including the requirements, schedules, proposal instructions, and evaluation approaches, any perceived safety, occupational health, security (including information technology security), environmental, export control, and/or other programmatic risk issues associated with performance of the work.

This competitive acquisition will result in a Cost-Plus-Award-Fee (CPAF) hardware contract, for the development of one Flight Model (FM) GXS, and two options for additional FM’s.

The anticipated period of performance for this contract includes support for 10 years of on-orbit operations and 5 years of on-orbit storage, for a total of 15 years for each Flight Model (FM). The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541330 and the small business size standard is $22.5M.

Section H.14, Special Task Support Requirements of the DRFP specifies that the Government may order special study tasks under the resultant hardware contract for risk reduction and mitigation activities. The clause includes a plug number of $25,000,000 that each offeror can use for planning purposes.

Potential offerors should ensure its company is listed in the online database(s) for the following:

(1) System for award management: https://www.sam.gov/SAM/

(2) U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, VETS-4212

Reports: https://vets4212.dol.gov/vets4212/

(3) Date Universal Numbering System (and the transition to the US Government’s unique entity identifier (UEI)): https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/office-of-systems-management/integrated-award-environment-iae/iae-information-kit/unique-entity-identifier-update

The successful offeror must pass an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) clearance before contract award (See FAR 22.805).

The current planned release date for the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) is on or about early-mid February 2023 with proposals being due approximately 30 calendar days after RFP release.

The anticipated contract award date and effective date is late August 2023. The contract will be performed offsite at the Contractor’s facilities, and onsite at GSFC and Kennedy Space Center (KSC).

The following additional information is provided to assist in understanding this acquisition:

1. 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 order to control and protect sensitive data owned by the Government and its Contractors, NASA policy requires all acquisition-related documents be released in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).

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. Potential Offerors are requested to periodically monitor the websites for updates.

NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.215-84, OMBUDSMAN, is applicable. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Raymond “Ray” Rubilotta, Associate Director, raymond.j.rubilotta@nasa.gov, 301-286-5867.

This DRFP is not a solicitation and NASA is not requesting proposals. This DRFP does not commit NASA GSFC to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA GSFC to procure or contract for this requirement. 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.

Any comments regarding the DRFP should be submitted electronically in writing, to Ann Kearney, Contracting Officer at Ann.L.Kearney@nasa.gov no later than January 20, 2023. If a respondent believes their comments contain confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive, or business information, those questions/comments shall be marked appropriately. However, questions that are marked as containing confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive or business information will not be provided a Government response. The Government will consider all comments received in preparation of the Final RFP. To the extent a comment leads the Government to revise the acquisition approach or requirements, the change will be reflected in the Final RFP. Some DRFP questions and comments may receive a posted response to the GPE if the Contracting Officer determines that a response would facilitate additional understanding of the solicitation. The Government may also respond via the GPE to comments and/or questions received following the issuance of the Final Request for Proposal (RFP).

Ann Kearney Contracting Officer

Enclosure:

Draft RFP 80GSFC22R0055