WRC Industry Day Transcript.pdf

I'm approving our range infrastructure, but as you said, that's $400 million and I don't have that in my my coat pocket right now unfortunately.

So I do want to define because there may be some questions on this about how what is going to fit within the core section of the contract, because there are many different levels of maintenance which are defined here on this slide.

This is a direct copy and paste, with some paraphrasing for the from the scope of work, a things that are going to live within the core section are your minor maintenance actions and your sustainment actions.

So to facilitate that, because I understand that folks that aren't currently incumbent may not have all the information provided, we've built you what?

Umm, a bidders library with all the information from this past year's maintenance cycle to help aid you.

I'm an understanding in what we're we're we're trying to do here.

So within that, we provided you the full maximum print out for all of this.

Some Maximo is used as our maintenance tracking item.

Just so you guys understand, we gave you all the maintenance items that were done in the 2022 maintenance year.

You can see where the OEM standards or for the manufacturer standards, these are the actions that you have.

The umm I'd have to be performing from a sustainment aspect.

We are requiring you to price minor maintenance and statement actions in the core section.

Alex has given you plug numbers, which I'll cover on the next slide about what that's going to mean.

So you can have a base level understanding of what kind of parts you have to be the prices, at least of a combined level of parts.

You have to be providing within that course section of the contract the breakout level.

So think day-to-day maintenance, you know, keeping the system running, keeping, you know, swapping out known known parts, changing the oil, that's all core the, the, the finding line is more major systems.

Obviously, none of us can predict when radar 5 might fail or have to be replaced, or have to get a new drive motor or something like that.

That's going to live in the ID IQ world, so your maintenance manager is be the one who who directs that overall budget and sets the direction for how those things to be done and would give you a task order to go do that item and then pay you that way.

That's the next three.

Well, next two items here.

Depot level maintenance is your your longer term outlook.

That's done on the ID, IQ task order.

We also use the ISP contract, which is written in the scope of work to manage a lot of our DLM actions for our radar systems.

Yeah.

The other one is going to be a major overhaul or new system replacement.

So if we got the money from headquarters and we're going to be, I'm replacing or adding additional asset into the range, they'll be.

I mean IDIQ task order to cover that large effort which obviously none of us could could have predicted.

I was why I can't live in the core section.

The big thing I wanna get home here is that the the maintenance manager is ultimately going to be setting the strategy for how we're going to be putting those requests in and what we have to meet the the needs of our customers coming into the future, what areas we can predicting into the future where we need to start doing upgrades now.

Some of the things are happening now today and they're gonna continue in the future based on the maintenance manager direction.

The other half of the contract is supporting launches as this is the cool side of our work, this is what's really necessary.

But obviously, if we don't properly maintain our stuff, then there's no way we can possibly be successful in supporting launches.

So I just gave a quick overview on some of the things there.

The premission planning I'm documentation and the reviews that are levied upon the range to be ready for lunch will be supported by your experts within your group, meaning the range BM is going to carve out.

Here's the range of the requirements that range PM will then in turn ask you to participate in those reviews with the experts that you have on your team to facilitate a a a accurate and correct review of of the status of the systems.

And their readiness to support launch.

The other piece is I have to operate that equipment during the launch part of the the range PM provided OD or Operations

Directive.

So one of the things that PM's gonna do for every mission is gonna write an ID which says, based on the customer's requirements, this is what we gonna do for this mission.

And this is how we're going to do every mission is a little bit different.

It's not always just the copy and paste.

Some often previous mission, so each OD is unique and make sure you read it and that your people up to speed.

I'm obviously the planning process to make the nuances of that successful.

They're gonna be post mission deliverables.

We've carved out several different categories within the scope of work.

I'm not going to bore you with with the reading to them, to you, but that is something you have to do and then the piece of the Jeff hinted on before is we have to be able to reconfigure those range assets for the next launch.

Now this is where the challenge comes in, and we're going to look to you for a lot of your expertise and your great ideas from industry about how we can possibly do that.

And a faster and more efficient manner.

The key to note is if we're going to be doing things like

Jeff said, if it's 50 launches a year, that's a launch week.

One of the gaps is we're gonna be testing for one mission while we're launching for another one, and that's a gap.

Sometimes we're going to have to learn on how to do.

Is only so many assets, right?

So this is what I referenced before.

The core section of the contract.

I understand that there's things that not being the comment, you're not going to know.

So we're trying to set you up for success to have as much information as you can possibly have.

So obviously if if you have questions about those kinds of things, please feed them to Terry through the formal process.

Everyone can see the answers, but I did want to point out for the years of the contract, so I cut the top off unfortunately.

But it's contract year 1234 and so on for these various numbers.

As far as the the prices that we want to you to use for for plug numbers, for covering those uh, so statement actions meaning replacing parts changes in all such like that and this is based on historical data and projections into the future.

There is this other category that compiles many things more than just the three things listed here, but the the general scope of it is.

This is your software that operates your your systems.

This is our subscriptions to various software that we use within the range to run our systems and this is our calibration efforts.

There's other things listed in there.

That's all in the RFP and great detail.

You can read it if you can't sleep at night.

It's probably a good one and I just wanted to point out to everyone that we're doing what we possibly can to help you be set up for success to be to provide an accurate proposal last to meet our needs.

So I'm additional things that are provided on the WRC I wanted to hit on all of these ohm they took to highlights out of each of the scope of work sections and put them here.

So this isn't necessarily that any one of these is more or less important than the other ones.

Is one of the two.

I'll talk to the general overview of what the contract is responsible for within the program management section, Scope, work Section, Roman numeral 3.

There are reporting requirements.

Is standard contract reporting requirements.

We we do look over those things.

They are very important to do overall health and successfully contract and ultimately the financial health and success of the range.

So I ask that you work with us and this becomes a A2 way St both for your current state status and whatever you can possibly provide as projection in the future so that we can set up our financial situation to meet the demands of the range.

Umm, the task or management system we are not using NASA

Toms, so Periscope work.

We are using an in House developed Tom System which integrates into rooms.

There is a PowerPoint within the library that shows all the different applications in there.

One of the questions that we received recently was about the status of all range systems that isn't application in there.

That, unfortunately, was not included in that PowerPoint, but

I will provide it in the formal formal response on the questions, which was it's called RT Sims.

So basically it it's a real time status of the of all of the range systems which shows just red, yellow, green.

I do want to note for everybody that just because something in there is shown red just means it's not fully operational per it's defined capabilities.

It doesn't necessarily mean that can't support missions.

There are some nuances there.

When you see that that chart.

Also note that that chart is only a snapshot in time.

I put the date on it.

When I took the picture so it changes tomorrow kind of thing.

Range configuration management.

I'm another section.

Logistics support is also very important.

So as Jeff said, we travel all around the world.

We we pack up these mobile assets that ohh the world responsible for and we shipped them to places I mean anywhere really anywhere where the science needs to take us we we we build ranges in other countries we we we set up full operation capability elsewhere it's done the remote fashion so logistics support is a very important piece of this to be able to take our stuff and safely and efficiently and on time move it to other locations around the world on the education and outreach I don't know how many of you listened to the center directors.

Umm, uh.

All hands last week, but you're in Wallops Island.

We were in a fairly remote location.

It's difficult to hire talented new folks to come here, either because they have big dreams.

Wanna go somewhere else?

They want in the city.

They don't like the real environment, etcetera.

So it's it's paramount for all of our success and and we do this to the range and we ask that you continue it as well, develop those partnerships with the local universities and other other avenues that you have within your capture net to bring talented folks here and then also retain them here because it's important that we we have an aging workforce as well as an aging infrastructure.

It's important that we are bringing in new folks and getting them trained and getting them ready to support the mission in the future, because ultimately, as you can see from the graph, we were probably going to need some more people to do this than we have right now.

I think everyone's pretty pretty aware of that.

Under the maintain and sustain part of the contract, which is core, the core section of the contract section, Roman numeral

4, the listed out the main areas here.

Basically, we have to take care of the range systems.

One area to point out that is different than the only section of contract that says operate in the course section is this bottom one here, which is the meth systems.

We do launch two blooms a day every day for National Weather

Service.

They just something that that isn't operate part within the the core section of the contract that has to be sustained.

We then use those same systems to launch balloons in support of our launches.

That's gonna fall under the IDIQ portion.

That makes sense.

Ohh and then the other piece is what we look referenced before which is the the idea Q section of the contract which is the actual supporting of launches on the big things to point out there is all the systems that are in the main.

We're not going to operate them, so I'm not going to list them for you.

One thing that I do wanna point out, just to avoid any any confusion, is the surveillance and recovery operations that does fall under the contract.

Either you can either do it in house if you have this capabilities, or you can do it a subcontract.

However you have however you wish is up to you, but it is paramount that when the mission requires recovery operations that you have that network to be able to get recovery vessels that are safe and certifiable and such to go out 50 miles out of the ocean and bring this floating payload back.

I'm in support of the mission surveillance.

Another piece, this is something that we deal with all the time.

As Jeff said, there's a there's a lot of fishing comments here.

There's a whole harbor here.

There's a lot of of of formal commercial shipping comes to this area.

We have to pardon me and we have to have a safe range to be had to launch, which means we have to have water and air surveillance to be able to determine what other assets might be breaking these note more note 10 things that we put out to be sure that we have a safe launch trans before we can launch, so that also falls on.

You want to point that out?

Umm, it's a new system transition operations.

This is going to fall under ID, IQ.

You don't have to worry about that within the core because both you and us can't predict over the next five years what new systems we're going to receive money to, to be an upgrade.

So we'll be task order for that.

I'm going to say that earlier, but I want to make sure everyone understands and then the ground operations piece, I'm going to point out again that's just a surge capacity.

The the intent is to transition the existing ground OPS personnel into the civil servant realm and great, more cohesive team there.

I'm as opposed to splitting them out as they currently are.

And then with that, I'll turn it over to Terry as our contracting officer, the whoever they procurement overview and then we'll hold questions or ma'am.

Good morning.

My name is Therese Patterson, but I go by.

Terry, as Nick mentioned, I just recently took over for Aaron

Case, who I'm sure you're familiar with that name for previous information has been posted.

He went to greener pastures.

I really missed him, but I'm happy to have this opportunity as as my final hurrah before I retire.

So I'm going to do a little procurement overview.

Some of this will be repetitive, but this is a hybrid contract.

It is cost plus fixed fee core with cost plus fixed fee ID, IQ tasks.

It is 5 year potential period of performance which consists of a one year base and for one year options it will be for one open competition.

The next code is 517810.

All other telecommunications.

I just inserted this chart because there was a question concerning the small business goals and this is in the RFP.

The draft RFP, currently in Section L as Subfactor C and these are the recommended goals we'd like to try to to meet or exceed possible.

The anticipated schedule final RFP release early August proposal receipt September selection May of 2024 phase in award June of 2024 and final contract effective or start date in August of 2024.

There will be a 60 day phase in which will be a separate fixed price purchase order and there is no extension to the current rock to contract is anticipate it.

Those those station number, it's here.

And as Nick mentioned, there's also an elibrary that draft RFP and the final RFP will be located at sam.gov.

Please continue to monitor those web pages for updates on the sam.gov.

Until the release of the final RFP, offers may continue to communicate with government personnel.

With myself as a contracting officer present upon release of the final RFP, then all communication and perspective offers will be limited in any inquiries or to be sent to myself in writing.

Please capability briefings with perspective offers and government will not be entertained after a final release.

Before we move on, I wanted to mention about the questions received.

Thank you.

Again, we received about 30 questions and we're doing our best to try to answer each and everyone.

If you find a question that has not been answered, then you should see a possible change to the final RFP to reflect that question.

Some of the main questions we received were concerning the clauses.

There was some formatting errors.

Some of the clauses kind of ran together.

We'll we'll fix that in the final RFP.

Some of the cost exhibits were mislabeled.

We will also fix that.

There were questions regarding the page limitations.

We are looking into that possibly increasing those on some items.

This is very important.

The proposal must be submitted via box and the instructions for box are located in the our FP cover letter.

One other question that came up was regarding the significant subcontractor definition and that will differ depending on whether you're looking at the cost proposal or the past performance.

So I just wanted to point out there is a difference in the dollar values and police carefully look at that.

There were some questions regarding government property versus contractor property and we will try to answer those.

So it makes more sense to everyone.

I also want to recognize that Carlos Mackenzie, who is the associate chief and is currently acting procurement manager who greatly assisted with the release of the draft RFP.

Thank you, Carla.

See is currently online and I want to again give a shout out to Aaron for all his work leading up to this point.

Now going to turn it back over to Alex now.

Thank you.

Right.

So since we're running a little ahead of time, I think what we'll do is take like a 15 minute break.

Anyone can go to the bathroom, do a little stretch break, and then we'll meet back in here at 9:35 and we'll start our Q&A session.

Thank you.

George, involving our own network news to us here at CNN and you at home, CNN's Chairman and CEO Christian Lent is leaving.

The network went took over the network a little over a year ago.

They just aslog the chairman of CNN's parent company warned about the discovery.

He just made the announcement.

I can know if a trial meeting for now, a leadership team will take place to place led by Amy and tell us who's the Executive

Vice President of Talent and Content development, along with

Virginia Moseley, the EVP that.

Form.

Or no, this goes to these two.

Doug Voss, please.

Doug's boss, paging Doug boss.

Doctor Voss.

Pleased at the front, Nick.

Left the building you guys can share two of them.

Alright, so I will monitor the chat online, so if you have anything just put it, put it.

I guess either raise your hand or put in the chat we do now are going to open up the mics online for people if they want to chime in.

Otherwise, Seppy will walk around the room, so just raise your hand and steppy will bring the microphone to you.

Just a reminder for everyone or preference for everyone in the room and online before you asking your question, please state your name and the company you're with so that when the transcript for the whole day is spit out, we can actually see who who asked the questions as opposed to just one voice talking the whole time.

Thank you.

Not all at once.

Right, alright, sweet.

So we did it.

We did a great job, yeah.

Right.

It's going to be an early lunch.

Thank you.

Break the ice and and this is Clinton placed it with a SRC so and we submitted this as well in in, in the in the writing you guys talk about the manifest the tempo increasing and stuff are you gonna provide that out your manifest so that we can see what the what that looks like that the actual launch is out into the future.

What's your question, Sir?

Uh, so I have read your question and the general summary is the the formal manifest as far as these are the dates of all the launches is still in flux per se.

The best we can do at this time is is an example or the numerical representation of the charts that were shown here that show for 2023.

These are actual launches we can give you numbers by breakout from that same chart if you'd like, but the data that was representing the sand chart is what we are working towards, what we have another factor on that is that's a lot of those will be proposals and work by our new business office here at

Wallops.

Because the type of thing that we wouldn't propagate out, probably a launch date with a company and or a a mission, you know, openly until it was confirmed and captured business.

And that the slides for today will be posted to the library.

So you will be able to have that same chart at you're ready afterwards.

Also, if you could or you know like you guys can click back to slide 21, I know I do just want to point out one thing about where these numbers came from, all right, so you look at the the graph here, these numbers were so 200% that's being referenced in the scope of work and promulgated throughout the industry that is based on 15 to 35.

So that was calculated in 2022 based on the projections between

2022 and roughly 2025.

So that's over A3 year period.

So you can see that it's going to continue going from there.

But as I mentioned in my brief earlier, the closer to now that you get the more real these things are.

So I was obviously 2023 is very real, 2024 is very real, 2025 is slightly less real, but still pretty real.

And as you go out, that's gonna depend on the success of the previous years and how these programs are actually developing.

So that's why we can't give you a hard manifest.

But this is the the the projection.

I'm into the future was answer your question Sir.

Another question back here.

Yeah. Nick.

Mike Fattig, thanks for the presentation this morning on the

ODC's.

's You had three other things that you had listed, right?

Software subscriptions calibration.

When you say that there are other, are they other things that are not included in the ODC's or they're or they are?

They are things that are included in the ODC.

Thanks, Mike.

Good question.

So the point here is there's these three categories on material travel and other this is just providing some detail on what that other means.

So yes, Sir.

So these are included in that and there are some other other other.

There's there's other others that are that are very small percentages that are also listed out in the RFP full breakout, but this is the bulk of what the other is, yeah, just wanted to make sure if they were in the numbers or outside the numbers there.

I I can discuss a question I received earlier in the audience and that was how many contracts are at Wallops and I was without.

I was trying to make a list here now and I was up to about 6:00 or so, but I think I had told the individual 8 to 10, but there's plenty.

Those would be the large contracts and there's probably a bunch of small or ones.

Is that about right?

The key or no sounds about right.

That's a pretty good number.

About 6 to 8.

Yeah.

This morning, during the presentations of, we discussed commercial space launch and increased tempo quite a bit and mentioned the the future of commercial space just for information also a bit different than some of the other ranges.

Eastern Range, in particular Wallops, is focusing on being ready to address the commercial space challenges in partnership with our Virginia spaceport.

But at the same time, we're maintaining our capability and status as a premier test and research range as well.

So we consider ourselves a national asset.

We have a lot of programs from the government, the DoD, that are also ramping up.

You see in those charts in terms of the increase in flight test research as well as NASA science, so it unique challenge with Wallops in terms of addressing the commercial space launch opportunities of supporting those in the right way as well as maintaining our role as a test and research range.

What we also didn't focus a lot on this morning is the uh, the, the technology development research.

That's not just flying on vehicles, but that's developed at Wallops, so it was talking in the hallway here a little bit about NF2, the Nassau Autonomous Flight termination unit.

That is a a Wallops Wallops Range project that we partnered with other ranges to implement that that software package to push out to industry.

There's more in history on some of you might remember the low cost teachers transceiver, which essentially we build a low cost transmitter use on suborbital and orbital vehicles to communicate with teachers in a very low cost way and adapted that to many other different applications.

So Wallace is also a technology development and and operational implementation of here.

So just a couple things I wanted to emphasize because commercial space gets all the attention we we talk about all the the launches that are going on as well.

But we also have the added challenge of maintaining the culture and the systems to support all of the the the research and science, which is definitely a different culture than a commercial space launch.

Good question.

On the back.

Hi Joe Potevano with Aries Corporation and again thanks for the briefing this morning.

I have a question about the the SAMP talks about the enterprise asset management system.

Was wondering if you could elaborate a little bit on on that system.

You know how real is it?

How?

What software is implemented in and how many of the existing assets are fully entered into that system to date?

That was.

OK.

So Sam does reference the enterprise asset management system.

The gist of it is the range is transitioning or or growing into it in the embassy version right now, and that and are going to the the crawl, walk, run stages of condition monitoring systems so that we can both understand in a in a in a very accurate manner where our systems are now and hopefully start predicting if we can, I'm into the future, we in our systems are going to fail.

So we can be a little less reactionary and a little more.

Strategic and we're putting the the limited budget that we might have on in terms of umm just some maintenance and sustainment and or upgrades for that.

So that system that referencing is is a list of all of the systems that are there and the the data comes into it from those condition monitoring systems.

These screen shot in a under I mentioned earlier as part of my brief is the the RT SIM system, which is not as real time as maybe we would like it to be, but it's pretty real time that was missed simply in our library which will provide later about the current condition of all of our systems.

Red, yellow or red, yellow and green are the ultimate vision is for that information to feed into that.

Showing what systems are starting to fail and how that's actually working.

Just answer your question, Sir.

Round about way.

Well, I guess my question was really how is that system really online to a point that that the information on the current assets is entered into it or is the contractor expected to have to populate that and maintain it?

It's still a manual process of the current juncture.

Like I said, we're still in the crawl phase of this maybe more of a belly crawl per se, but the the long term goal is to get into the walk and then runs stages where we get more strategic and less reactionary.

Thank you.

Yes, Sir.

Yes.

Yeah.

Jack Coletti, Consulting for Merck Aerospace.

I'm.

I'm seeing what you're projecting.

I gotta ask you a dumb question.

Do you have any funding that's been umm upgraded with regards to Walsh life or soy or same budget but ambitious inside strategic site?

We're trying to very good question on it.

You know what I mean?

Do you wanna say sorry?

Would like me to.

But the way the Wallops Range budget works, just a very high level is that Wallops to NASA range, and we're sponsored by the NASA Science Mission Directorate Directorate, Heliophysics Division.

So HPD and that is our sponsor.

The other missions that are not NASA or heliophysics sponsors, or reimbursable missions that we get funded for on a mission by mission basis or under an agreement.

So that additional funding to support those missions comes in, I'll reimbursable cost basis from those customers whether it's VOD or commercial entities in terms of increases in NASA budget.

Ohh, we get funded also by the the sponsors for ENTERIES, the

International Space Station program.

Human human spaceflight side of NASA for upgrades on occasional basis, but in terms of, you know, the knob being turned up on our classic budget for from SND no not not in response to this we we get funded by NASA to support NASA missions and keep the facility alive that the additional missions that come in that aren't NASA the reimbursable other they're they're based we we get funding from the direct agencies or the direct them customers whether they're commercial and government or otherwise.

So no, no, no, no big budget increase to make all this happen it we have to make it happen.

Yeah, that that's a huge challenge for you for his ever working for.

You're not reactionary mode, so it's gonna be kind of difficult, but we're up to the challenge.

Thank you.

Right.

So I mean, one thing about Walt Swipe facility is that and this is this is a pretty steeped in our culture is that we certainly our uh have a history of making things happen at a cost and on a schedule that a lot of people look upon skeptically.

So right sizing our mission regular, the regular we apply the assurance.

The mission assurance is we apply is something because we support such a diverse set of missions from very small, high risk tolerance missions up to missions on the order of entries, where there's a less risk tolerance and more rigor applied.

So we have to institutionalized our ability to adjust our rigor and therefore the cost hopefully should come out.

And in relative to the rigor, but we apply.

But so you know that's making do with very little is sort of in our culture.

So I'd like to say something that real quick.

So it's not just about cost and it's a great question, but it's also about time.

If the Optempo is one a week and we got to be able to maintain and sustain the equipment, what does that look like as time and what does the strategy to do that?

Because there's only so much time in the day.

Almost time in the week and it starts to support the the the missions themselves.

So how does that?

How do we move forward as a team to get that done?

I just want to bring that up as well.

Probably the best question so far because you hit on exactly what we're trying to do here and we all recognize that this is going to be very challenging and that's why we need all of your help and the on the ideas and strategies that that you guys can bring from your various areas of expertise to make the successful.

So looking at the graph behind me, if you want to talk dollars, the yellow part is our core business.

That's what we were supposed to do, and that's what NASA funds us to do.

Everything else, call it extra or nice to have or cool and fun whatever else, but there is not direct money from NASA to make that a capability.

So as Doug was saying, some of that is offset through money coming in from these reimbursable customers.

But the the growth to meet that demand is not forward funded by these reimbursable customers.

Some are there's different relationships.

I'm going to talk in great detail at those, but some are doing that for us, like a duty program is is helping us significantly in that world, but not all.

And that's where we're going to have to get really smart and really creative and really efficient in how we do this, to be able to be ready to do this in 2027, whenever it's whatever it means, 50 once a year.

That makes sense, more or less, yes, it's going to be challenging.

I never going to be easy, but this we're here today.

For the hard question came out, we're here.

I mean, we're here.

They're hard questions.

This is your chance.

Please ask questions because going forward the forward, it's going to be, you know questions written and try to articulate them and then four more sponsors.

So this is an opportunity.

What about our folks online?

Are there any questions online?

Teams I'm I'm monitoring the chat.

I don't.

Nothing yet.

No hands raised, no hands raised.

We were expecting a bunch of questions.

Honestly, it's way a lot of whole hour was take a minute and

I'll talk about one of the questions that we received formerly already, which I touched on some during my presentation, which is the surveillance and or the aircraft surveillance piece of this that is not contained within the course section of the contract.

That's all ID IQ.

There are no plug numbers to associate for for the aircraft use, though that is a requirement that is levied upon you.

As I mentioned previously, so however you want to shape your subcontract network or if you have that capability in House, that's even better.

That's up to you that that's that's for you to to to sort out.

But that is a requirement for our missions because we have to have the accountability to be able to clear the range.

Uh, so I did want to touch on that one is important.

Are the questions specifically and how that relationship works, or what the needs are?

Our silence again.

So the the the gist of it is we have a need for aircraft to be able to fly.

I'm supportive our missions.

Some of them.

Do you wanna talk about coyote or anyone down?

So there's there's different nuances.

The majority of aircraft usage is primarily for just downrange clearing of of of the range I'm trying.

There's no water. You know.

Some guy in a kayak is 2 miles out and got got lost, so if you can't see where the radar right.

We do have land based radar systems, but they're bolstered by this other capability.

The other piece that aircraft is used for which umm again is not inherent to NASA and is currently subcontracted out through our our current contract is like for the quote mission telemetry relay capabilities.

The recent coding mission that you've probably seen the video online, it looks really cool.

You'll see a snapshot of it when you walk through the CC.

I don't ruin it for you.

I just really cool.

But anyway, the vehicle was in such a depressed trajectory that the land based assets weren't going to be able to relay telemetry to it for a for command functions.

So we we we flew an aircraft a bit to do that basically bounce to the signal and relay command out to the vehicle and that someone was to happen but that's the nutshell of of what the aircraft support is that would be let me upon you.

The other questions.

We have tons of time today, aren't we?

Do you want us to start?

No, that's the here.

You online and for the transcript, not saying you're not loud enough, but Paul Paul seem with RG next you mentioned that and I see the sand chart behind you.

Is there a list that of Cust other customers outside customers that have been you have corded or spaced Virginia has corded and then on top of that you also mentioned the DoD missions opoly respond operationally responsive space potentially hypersonics and of course your your three letter organizations so kind of twofold do you have a customer list or new customer list that have are being corded and then what is the potential on top of that from going from a red range to a black range or a classified to an unclassified range in the midst of all of this increased OPS tempo you're a very insightful so you click answer your question is yes uh the longer version of the answer is so trying to break out the of the various parts is there a customer list of of of folks that are either active currently or are in the very near term coming on board yes there is at a high level those are listed behind you or I'm sorry behind me on this chart here they vary everywhere from northern with the Ontario 's mission through

Rocket lab with both electron and neutron that's the bulk of our commercial space launching increase here there are other customers that they come through here as well as there was one that was recently been through here.

In the Dodd world, we have a multifaceted relationship with the D both PLP like I think Jeff mentioned previously, the Navy flies through here, they're really they're constantly, they have three formal deaths, but they have planes up here all the time.

We also do have a growing hypersonics world it it seems that that so Wallops has it listed as 4H.

Or was it listed as here?

Just DoD.

DoD OK.

So in the past Bobs was the beginning test ground for some of the H4H duty hypersonics missions, and that is projected to grow significantly over the next while.

With significant capital investment from them that is currently underway now as part of that capital investment, there is a goal to transition from a or or to have the capability to transition to a a classified range.

The goal being secret level, not not TS.

Does that answer your question?

There was a couple of the parse do you have got to get all of them actually, yeah.

Because it a lot of it related to it because you mentioned the eastern range and excess capacity.

So this would be a logical move up the eastern coast.

And of course, when you look at the coordination that needs to be done for air space, C space, huge difference between Virginia and and the error quarter outside of Orlando.

So, yes.

Thank you, Sir. Thanks.

We got a question in the back.

Uh-huh.

Thanks.

My name is Mike Ahan.

I'm Beth vantage systems.

I have a question with respect to your task order system.

You said you're not using NASA Toms and using the in House system rooms to use it.

Does ROMs has capability to be able to connect to contractors?

Back office system for submitting task estimates and task plans so that efficiency can be increased.

Talk.

I'll speak through generally how the the ROMs Tom system works, and there are screenshots of each of these function in functions in the library, though the language written with them might not be it.

It brings all your questions.

So to get into the Tom system, it is a a.

You have to be in a a NASA network and be logging in the network in the future.

That's gonna be if required as well.

So the NASA PIV card that you get the on the base would be how you'd access the NASA system.

So does it connect directly into outside systems?

The answer is no.

The way that it works, we generate a task order.

I don't have a picture to show you, but there's a task recovery sheet looks like a standard thing.

If you charge number, here's the performance dates the the task we're stealing all the signatures and stuff within that there's a an attachment tab, which is where we are going to upload our estimate that you can't see and the scope of work of what you'd be performing, which you can see, uh, then in the background, your team would develop a A proposal and a task implementation plan or any other documentation that was requested in the scope of work and upload those into that assessment section.

So that way there's a a contract folder if you will contained within the task order.

So does it feed directly back into your your systems automatically?

No, it does not.

But you do have the capability to upload things that you might have generated in your back systems into that process.

Does it answer your question?

Yes, thank you.

Yes, Sir.

Nick does.

Umm, when you go into the main screen it isn't there some other modules in there too.

Just FYI.

There are lots of other modules and then the Tom system other than just or.

Sorry, in the room system, Toms is just one of them.

So one of the screenshots in the library is the the all the cool little blocks of all the things you can click on.

They all do something which is useful, so I guess just to burn some Tomic talk a little bit about some of those things are based off of memory.

So one of those that's listening to scope of work of particular interest is the range schedule system.

Uh, we are looking to upgrade correct or make more adaptable.

Our current range schedule system.

Uh to meet this demand was a definitives out there currently to make that that that possible, that is one of them.

The other, there's a lessons learned database.

There is.

It's called CM stat.

I forget what the acronym stands for, but it's basically like a a document vault.

Umm, where we we store our along transmission documents.

I'm trying to remember what else is in there.

I talked about RT Sams, which is the real time monitoring system that shows the the.

There's a digital photo repository as well, uh.

Trying to remember what else is in there.

You got it all I got.

There are some questions online, but I'll let you finish.

That's really just the remember the top of my head.

So it just note.

So one thing to note that that that system is owned by NASA, it is flexible and works for our financial reporting and financial tracking methods because within each task where the as a task square as a whole that has a blanket amount of money on it based on the proposal, but broken out within the test order has the capability to have sub projects.

We have certain areas that we have to track particular cost.

For example, currently commercial air systems or crane usage, or if a project manager has a different funding line, that one aspect of a project came from customer X or something else, and another aspect of project customer.

Why?

But they're all under the same task order.

You can break out funding within the projects and that's the main reason why we are sticking with our existing Tom system versus the NASA Tom system is that project functionality.

I'm I'm I'm able to us to have better funds fidelity tracking to report to our commercial customers about where all their money goes.

And also I'm unable to project manager to to track cost based on mean deliver board or big chunks of deliverables for for projects.

Just for example, there's a planning section.

There's an operations section.

There's a there's a post mission section for example, and that is the purpose as to why I was answer your question, Sir.

All right.

Alright ohh look at the online question.

Yeah, I got it online.

Devin D I've seen the considerations for concurrent operations considerations and how the evaluation is between WW

Walps flight facility and other range support poker.

What sort of concurrent operations will be expected to concur simultaneously at Walt's?

Great question.

So if I understand it correctly, it's it's based on many facets.

So if you see this behind me, you're going to recognize that you can't do 50 missions a year if you only do one at the time from the beginning to the end.

So there's a lot of things that have to happen in a parallel path fashion at at a high level.

We'll look at it like if you're launching one rocket on Monday and one on Friday, right, you can't do nothing for the second rocket until the First Rock rocket launches.

You got the other rockets have to be on the pad, or at least

I'm kind of testing capability doing end to end testing through the range, testing out your systems.

So we have to have the the capability to both test and launch to meet this cadence.

So as far as what's expected, given our current state and where we're it it it's to help us get to where we need to be to be able to do that.

Now when it comes to umm, the other nuance to the question about poker versus things here I'm have you looked at the couple charts previously?

I Jeff showed that we do have missions deployed elsewhere in the world while we're still launching things here, we have to be able to take our mobile assets, move them out to our location X, which is unknown to this exact time and have people to go operate those things to support that launch.

While we have people testing and integrating and being ready and then launching here at Wallops as well as the general expectation is that we have to be to do everything that answer the question.

I'm not sure if if the person can respond.

Think so?

They they also have another one, so I'll go to the next one.

Uh is welfare facility working with the FAA's joint Space

Operations Group for Air space or clearance, or do you plan to work with them in the future?

Good, good, good question about the FA, that part of the air traffic operations in an organization we've been working with since 2017 when they first strode up the joint Space

Operations Group, they they went around to all the ranges and

Wallops really embraced them in terms of explaining to them, our process is how we, how we plan and for airspace, how we communicate and coordinate airspace here because we have a lot of entities, the Navy, the FA, different entities within those that we we work with again with a big diverse mission set.

The airspace has never cut and dry uh, so I mentioned earlier the the airspace or the areas off the coast of Florida being busy with the air routes.

Well, the the coastal areas around here are very busy with a lot of Navy activities and adding commercial space and NASA launch range activities are, you know is just piles on.

So yeah, we've worked with them.

We've continued and working groups with joint Space

Operations Group and helping the FAA develop their commercial space road map that they published every years ago and continued to today.

And now as we step into.

Launch operations like for example with Rocket Lab electron, there is a a shifting and approaches that that we've been working with closely both with AST and Ato in the FAA.

So the answer is a big yes and we continue to because all the problems aren't solved.

Umm, we're very active in working with the Range

Commanders Council.

I was just at a range operations Group A few weeks ago over at

Pax River and this is a big this is a big topic amongst all the ranges in terms of management of airspace impact the airspace or the airline industry and so how how the FAA balances all of that.

So we're right in the mix and working with them on that.

Get up the pace on the questions that right.

Now, Wayne Friedman, AI solutions, you mentioned a range

PM on the NASA side who coordinates submission and that that person will parse out the piece of work that goes on to the WRC contract, but also parse out work that goes to other contracts.

So two questions really.

One is, is that how it's done today on the current contract?

And secondly, well, we have access to the responses of the other other contracts that are involved in supporting the same mission or is there, how's that coordinated?

That's your question, Sir.

The so it's done currently is it's with that like I said, I'm a brief earlier on the range PM is the central focal point for all aspects for mission readiness and there may be multiple contracts, but but I'm primarily multiple NASA code supporting a mission for example, you have a safety component, you have an engineering component, some of which is contracted some which is not on both sides of that.

Then you have the range component which is yours and then some.

I I'm using the aircraft office etcetera.

So will you be aware of their responses?

I mean, not from a financial standpoint, but from a what things are theirs and what are they doing that are gonna impact what you're doing?

Absolutely.

Generally, the way most most PMS do it is they have mission meetings every week or every couple of days, depending on how close the launch we are, where all involved parties from the same room or the same virtual room talking about their responsibilities and their readiness for launch that culminates with formal reviews like the range review and uh launch training for you and what's the new one, not the ISB, but yes, MSR, which which is ultimately the the pre range ranges of you where where we're showing this is our requirements from each piece and this is how we're going to do it.

Does the board accept as that's the formal aspect.

So the short answer to the question is yes, you're going to be aware, and yes, it's critical for your success as well as ours that everyone talks to each other and it's still there be dependencies across contracts usually is yes.

Thanks, Sir.

Uh, a question?

What about?

OK, me and my Martino accent.

So they're going to be dependencies for a single mission and understand how you're gonna work dependency across multiple missions because you're gonna be in parallel.

And if you go with a structure with 1:00 PM for one mission.

How?

How you're gonna go parallel?

Great question.

So I'm I understand that is if you look at the box drawn around one project, it's fairly easy to understand and it's fairly well defined it if you look at the overall box, which is the range and all of the pieces have to fit within it.

That's the crux of what you're getting at, right, Sir.

Ah, that is a challenge.

I'm not gonna sugarcoat it.

We we do with that challenge even now with what we had 20 some launches a year.

Umm, conflicts about conflicting assets?

How, if one mission wants to use right asset X at the same time as another mission when it really comes down to is a priority based decision made by the range chief if and if it can't be solved in the project manager level.

So ultimately, during our weekly staff meetings, all the project managers talk about what's going on with their projects.

There is a range schedule system which is resource loaded that we currently are using that shows where those conflicts live.

It's up to the project managers to cross talk with each other, which happens every 10 minutes constantly to deconflict these assets and or resource limitations will call them across all aspects of the board to to either reschedule or readjust because there is some flexibility and if it comes down to a scenario where they're absolutely is no flexibility, it's just I have to do this and you have to do that and we can't both be there at the same time.

Then it goes the rains chief or, if necessary, 800 director, or possibly even higher, depending on the mission itself and other folks to make the priority decision about which mission is gonna get to do what we need to do, we need to do it.

Fortunately, we're in a current state now where most problems are handled by the PMS and are able to be rescheduled or or slightly adjusted or done done together and maybe different sides of the room or something to make these emissions happen as we move into the future, that's gonna get more challenging and we're stutly aware of that.

We're also reworking our mission process through a miss.

Yes, we deal with it today.

And yes, it's going to get worse.

Well, and you expected that the conflicting happening at the government level NASA level or while the conflicts exist at all levels, uh, and all aspects of the projects, meaning in the safety world, for example, there might be only one safety engineer who's available right now be somebody else…