80HQTR22R0004 Cover Letter.pdf

Rev.: 8/2020

September 27, 2022

TO: All Potential Offerors

SUBJECT: Draft Request for Proposal (DRFP), Solicitation No. 80HQTR22R0004, for

Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program

You are invited to review and comment on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration

(NASA) Headquarters’ Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) Program solicitation.

The principal purpose of this requirement is to acquire earth observation data and related services from commercial sources for the NASA Science Mission Directorate (SMD), Earth Sciences

Division (ESD). This effort will serve as a streamlined and flexible method for the Government to acquire data from commercial sources to support NASA’s Earth science research and application activities. Emphasis will be placed on data acquired by commercial constellations, affording the means of complementing NASA's Earth observations data with higher resolutions, increased temporal frequency or other novel capabilities. NASA will require adherence to government-defined End User License Agreements (EULAs) to enable broad levels of dissemination and shareability of the commercial data with other US government agencies and partners. There will be a set of government-defined license tiers (i.e., EULA tiers) associated with all contracts and task orders awarded for Scientific Non-Commercial Use. Specific details on the requirements can be found on the attached Draft Statement of Work (SOW), and End-

User License Agreement (EULA). EULAs are non-negotiable.

The CSDA Contract includes an On-Ramp feature, which allows the original solicitation to be periodically re-opened to give new vendors the opportunity to submit a proposal to NASA for evaluation and potential award. On-Ramps also give vendors already awarded a CSDA contract the opportunity to propose new data products developed (or data products based on new instruments) that were not available during initial proposal submission.

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 Multiple-Award, Indefinite Delivery Indefinite

Quantity (IDIQ) Contract with the ability to issue Firm Fixed Price task orders. The contract will have an effective ordering period of five (5) years from the contract effective date. The

North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 541990 and the small business size standard is $17.0M.

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

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD 20771

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

(2) 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

December 2022, with proposals being due approximately 30 calendar days later.

The anticipated contract award and effective date is early April 2023. The contract will be performed offsite at the Contractor’s facilities. Award to foreign contractors could potentially take an additional 90 days.

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

1. 2003 U.S. Commercial Remote Sensing Policy compliance is required for this acquisition. The policy directs the U.S. Government to rely on commercial remote sensing capabilities to the maximum practical extent, and to develop a long-term, sustainable relationship with the U.S. commercial remote sensing space industry. The fundamental goal of this policy is to advance and protect U.S. national security and foreign policy interests by maintaining the nation’s leadership in remote sensing space activities, and by sustaining and enhancing the U.S. remote sensing industry.

2. Compliance/adherence with the Government-defined End User License Agreements

(EULAs) is required and is non-negotiable.

3. 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 will be attainable electronically from the World 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 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 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

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, 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 HQ to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA HQ 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 Mayra

Nieves-Torres, Contracting Officer, at Mayra.A.Nieves-Torres@nasa.gov , within 14 calendar days after the release of this DRFP. 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).

Mayra A. Nieves-Torres

Contracting Officer

Enclosure:

Draft RFP 80HQTR22R0004

IT Security Management Plan (ITSMP) Template mailto:raymond.j.rubilotta@nasa.gov mailto:Mayra.A.Nieves-Torres@nasa.gov