Attachment 5 - Draft Model Government Partnership Plan.pdf

The following is a model Government Partnership Plan between Fission Surface Power (FSP) System and the partner. This model establishes the basic parameters of the Government Partnership Plan.

As discussed in Section 3.4 of the Announcement for Partnership Proposals (AFPP), the participant is expected to provide a Government Partnership Plan, utilizing the model included in the AFPP. Any participant-proposed changes to the model must be highlighted with accompanying rationales explaining why the proposed changes are necessary. The final Government Partnership Plan will be negotiated prior to FSAA selection.

Instructions:

Yellow Highlights: Provide definitions for clarification and may be deleted prior to submission.

Green Highlights: Update with participant information

Fission Surface Power System

Government Partnership Plan

DRAFT

(December 5, 2025)

NASA Glenn Research Center

National Aeronautics and Space Administration

AMMENDMENTS AND HISTORY PAGE

Amend No.

DESCRIPTION DATE

- Initial Release TBD

Table of Contents

1. Purpose

2. Approach

2.1. Team Structure

3. Roles and Responsibilities

3.1. Partner

3.2. Government Partnership Team

4. Facility Access

5. Quarterly Program Management Reviews

6. Collaboration and Data Access

7. Regulatory and Safety Processes

8. Monitor Milestone Progress

8.1. Milestone Evaluation

8.1.1. Milestone Entrance Process

8.1.2. Milestone Exit Process

8.2. Milestone Change Process

9. Formal Government Feedback Process

1. Purpose Provide a narrative purpose statement for the partners proposed Government Partnership Plan.

The purpose of this Government Partnership Plan is to document the partner’s collaboration with NASA in the design, development, demonstration, and deployment of their Fission Surface Power system.

This plan enables sufficient insight for NASA to monitor milestone progress, provide assistance where appropriate, and understand developing issues and mitigation strategies, while allowing the partner to act autonomously. Simultaneously, the Plan enables the partner’s insight into key Government activities and resources, to facilitate collaborative progress toward FSP deployment in Q1 FY30 (timeline subject to change pending final AFPP posting). A Government Team will monitor technical development and implement NASA’s responsibilities specified in the FSAA.

2. Approach Provide a narrative summary of the partners approach to insight.

The Plan captures efforts towards completing the Funded Space Act Agreement (FSAA) for the development, demonstration, and deployment of a fission surface power system. This enables NASA to understand how the partner is performing towards the FSAA milestones, collaborate where appropriate, support regulatory and safety considerations, and understand developing issues and mitigation strategies to enable future NASA commercial power usage.

Insight and collaboration will be broken into the following area:

• Insight Area 1 - Quarterly Program Management Meetings o Partner and NASA will hold Quarterly Program Management Reviews (QPMR) to discuss Program Status

• Insight Area 2 - Collaboration o Partner will provide access for NASA personnel at the Primary Assembly and or Integration facility and other locations o Partner will provide NASA insight into their development and access to their data systems o NASA will provide insight into launch and landing vehicle program requirements and status o Partner and NASA will work together to identify issues and mitigation strategies

• Insight Area 3 - Regulatory and Safety Progress o Partner will provide access to certification data and expertise to support regulatory and safety matters

• Insight Area 4 - Monitor Milestone Progress o Partner provides data to NASA regarding milestone completion, to support NASA’s decision to progress to next milestone o NASA provides information regarding government activities and resources to support future milestones

• Insight Area 5 - Enable Future NASA Commercial Power Use o Partner will provide NASA access to certification data and expertise within their program so NASA can understand the design and operation of the FSP user interface

Figure 1 - Government Insight Flow

2.1. Team Structure

Provide a top-level description of how the Government Team would be integrated with the partner team.

The Government Team is a small team that can be augmented as necessary. The core government team members are dedicated and assigned to the partnership on a full-time basis. The core government team consists of the Government Partnership Manager, Technical Lead, System Integration Lead, and Safety and Regulatory Lead(s). Additional support members may be temporarily assigned as experts to support a specific short-term insight activity through requests made by the partner and agreed to by the Government Partnership Manager. These support team members may be from engineering, regulatory, operations, or other as-needed support organizations.

The government may use contractor support personnel to provide technical, business, and investment expertise in support of this partnership. All such support personnel will be subject to appropriate organizational and personal conflict-of-interest reviews and will be bound by nondisclosure agreements to protect partner proprietary information.

The NASA FSP Effort has a governing structure that interfaces with the Government Partnership Team. There are two team members relevant to the execution of the FSAA, the Program Executive and the Agreement Officer.

Government Team members are predominantly based at NASA centers; however, when negotiated and agreed to by the partner, a small number of personnel may be co-located at or near the partner’s facility located in XX. In these circumstances, NASA is responsible for providing personnel travel allowance, and the partner is responsible for providing office space, if necessary. Provisions for IT support and other substantial support are negotiated and documented. Co-located personnel can consist of either core team and/or support team members and are expected to spend substantial time with the Partner to establish efficient and effective communication rhythms. NASA support can be tailored to accommodate Partner needs.

3. Roles and Responsibilities

3.1. Partner

Provide detailed descriptions of the partner roles and responsibilities for relevant positions.

The primary point of contact for the Government Team is the Partner Partnership Manager who leads a team responsible for ensuring understanding and implementation of the established FSAA.

The partner may define additional roles if desired.

• Partner Partnership Manager o Prime point of contact for the Government Partnership Team o Responsible for ensuring implementation of the established FSAA o Coordinates partner efforts to enable government insight o Ensures adequate resources are available for the partner’s team o Ensures proper control and distribution of all supporting data/information o Assists in recommending and coordinating additional support team resources as needed

3.2. Government Partnership Team

Provide detailed descriptions of the Government Team’s roles and responsibilities for relevant positions. The partner may define additional roles if desired.

The core government team promotes collaboration and acts as the liaison between NASA and the partner. The Government Partnership Manager, Technical Lead, System Integration Lead, and Safety and Regulatory Lead(s) work together to establish and maintain effective insight leadership. The core team’s focus is on successful execution of insight for milestones negotiated by NASA and the partner. The core team is responsible for ensuring understanding and implementation of the established FSAA(s). The core team is also required to provide programmatic training, set expectations, and define roles and responsibilities for all other Government Team personnel.

• Government Partnership Manager o Leads the Government Partnership Team o May be co located at the Partner facility o Prime point of contact with the partner o Represents the FSP Program Executive o Responsible for the products and overall management of the Government

Partnership Team, along with the successful execution of the FSAA o Coordinates within NASA to enable partner insight into government activities o Ensures adequate resources are available for the core government team and supporting team o Ensures proper control and distribution of supporting data/information

• Technical Lead o Coordinates with the Government Partnership Manager to support technical reviews and assessments of milestones o Interface with the partner technical lead, if applicable o Provides technical collaboration as requested by the partner o Assists in recommending and coordinating additional support team resources as needed

• Systems Integration Lead o Coordinates with the Government Partnership Manager to HLS integration efforts, support technical reviews, and assessments of milestones o Interface with the partner integration lead, if applicable o Provides HLS integration collaboration as requested by the partner o Assists in recommending and coordinating additional support team resources as needed

• Safety and Regulatory Lead(s) o Coordinates with the Government Partnership Manager to support S&MA reviews and assessments of milestones o Coordinates with the Government Partnership Manager to support regulatory reviews and assessments of milestones o Interface with the partner S&MA and/or regulatory lead(s), if applicable o Provides S&MA collaboration as requested by the partner o Provides regulatory collaboration as requested by the partner o Assists in recommending and coordinating additional support team resources as needed

• Program Executive o Serves as the empowered and accountable NASA official for execution of the FSP Effort.

• Agreement Officer o Serves as the administrator of the FSAA with a warrant sufficient to obligate funds on behalf of NASA.

4. Facility Access Provide a detailed description of how the Government Team will access partner facilities and what limitations will be expected.

The FSAA describes the obligations of NASA and the partner as they relate to accessing each other’s facilities. The Government Team and the partner will work together to verify the proper access control procedures are in place to support the evaluation and assessment of milestone activities and for appropriate collaboration.

When negotiated and agreed to by the partner, a small number of personnel are co-located at or near the partner’s facility and the partner is responsible for providing office space, if necessary. The partner will provide normal business hour facility access to the core Government Team throughout the execution of the FSAA and will provide facility access for additional support as needed.

Provisions for IT support and other substantial support will be negotiated and documented.

At a minimum, the partner will provide access for:

• Observation of partner internal reviews (i.e. engineering review boards, test readiness reviews, risk boards)

• Observation of major development and demonstration tests at the subsystem level and integrated level

• Observation of milestone exit criteria when applicable

5. Quarterly Program Management Reviews Provide a detailed description of the Quarterly Program Management Review.

The partner will provide Quarterly Program Management Reviews (QPMRs) throughout the execution of the FSAA. This review will summarize the partner’s progress and will feature an open dialogue between the partner and the Government Team to discuss any developing issues and mitigation strategies.

The QPMRs will include, but are not limited to:

(a) A summary of progress since the last QPMR

(b) A summary of planned progress for the next quarter, including insight into Government or major sub-partner activities

(c) A summary of milestone changes with proposed dispositions

(d) Details of any issues with mitigation strategies and a status of those discussed or identified in the previous QPMR

(e) A risk management status that includes a description of the top programmatic risks with a discussion of potential impacts to the FSP safety, technical, cost and schedule performance, and the associated mitigation strategies.

(f) The status and schedule for demonstrating technical progress. This will include:

(1) A status of the FSP design requirements and verifications activities

(2) A summary of any tasks required to be repeated in the event of changes to the FSP baseline.

(3) A review of system performance, specifications, tests, technical milestones, key components, etc. to assess technical progress toward deployment.

(4) Status of the Integrated Master Schedule (IMS) progress to date and schedule reserves.

Identification of interdependencies among tasks associated with all development, and associated risks, impacts and mitigation plans.

(g) A cost assessment that provides updates to the expected costs through the final milestone.

The cost assessment will:

(1) Clearly identify and forecast potential cost growth from the milestone value, highlighting any changes since the previous QPMR or milestone.

(2) Detail risk mitigation strategies associated with potential cost growth, including planned methods of resolving potential cash flow needs and potential impacts to the launch readiness date (LRD).

(3) Provide an integrated assessment of the cost growth and its impact(s) to the most current IMS.

(4) Provide details of cost share and financial forecasts.

Both the Government Partnership Manager and partner will be permitted to invite relevant stake holders to the Quarterly Program Management Meetings with the intent to keep the QPMRs collaborative and informative, without adding administrative burden on the partner.

Between QPMRs, the partner and the Government Partnership Manager will meet at least monthly to review the IMS.

The IMS is an integrated logically linked schedule and should capture the activities and the lower-level work necessary to support all activities in an electronic, machine-readable format (Microsoft Project is preferred). The IMS will be used to verify attainability of partnership objectives and requirements, and to evaluate progress. The IMS should include all partnership milestones, activities, and tasks leading to the proposed LRD and through FSP system deployment and operation on the lunar surface. The IMS should show percentage completion of all Design, Development, Testing and Evaluation (DDT&E) tasks. The IMS should provide the ability to fully identify, analyze, mitigate and control schedule risks and impacts; accurately identify and analyze critical path activities; and allow its users to easily measure the progress towards achieving launch readiness. The IMS should contain baseline schedule data, as well as the current schedule status updated monthly.

At a minimum, the IMS should identify tasks at the Subsystem level for major activities or products associated with DDT&E. Additionally, at a minimum, the IMS should be formatted with the largest increment of time being measured in units of months. The IMS should identify priorities of tasks;

order and sequence of tasks; primary, secondary, and tertiary critical paths; schedule margin; and dependencies and relationships among tasks. The IMS should clearly identify tasks or activities which have a dependency on a NASA delivery or approval and should distinguish tasks or activities which are conducted jointly with NASA including tasks related to integration with the HLS launch vehicle. A schedule health check tool should be used to evaluate IMS schedule health metrics

(such as those in the DCMA 14-Point Schedule Assessment) to ensure the health and quality of the

IMS.

6. Collaboration and Data Access Provide a detailed description of how the Government Team will access partner data products and what limitations will be expected.

The FSAA describes the responsibilities of NASA and the partner as they relate to rights to each other’s data. The Government Team and the partner will work together to gain timely access to data, in native electronic format, to support the evaluation and assessment of milestone activities and to enable the controlled flow of information to the appropriate Government Team personnel.

The Government Team is responsible for implementing and following all provisions of the FSAA for protecting the partner’s sensitive data and data rights, and for acting in accordance with the provisions of the FSAA. The Government Team is responsible for reformatting or rephrasing data provided by the partner to satisfy NASA requirements. This approach eliminates burdening the partner with requests for re-producing or uniquely packaging this information and data and minimizes the need for any special re-formatting.

The Government Team will also work with the partner to establish the appropriate access and process for sharing Government-owned information and data in accordance with the terms of the FSAA and/or based on publicly available information, such as NASA-owned/non-proprietary specifications, standards, lessons learned, and data.

The partner will provide access to the Government Team to review data, in native electronic format, in either a shared data repository or directly through the partner’s networks. At a minimum, the partner will provide access to:

• Analytical models and analysis results

• Drawings and design documents

• Test plans, processes, and facilities

• Test results, and impacts to design

• Interface control products

• Requirements compliance assessment

• Non-comformances and corrective actions

• Risk assessment

• Integrated master schedule broken out to the task level

7. Regulatory and Safety Processes Provide a detailed description of how the Government Team will evaluate regulatory and safety processes.

The partner will provide access to the Government Team to review data, in native electronic format, in either a shared data repository or directly through the partner’s networks. At a minimum, the Partner will provide access to:

• Safety review products and processes

• Reliability, maintainability, logistics, and supportability processes and products including, but not limited to Failure Modes and Effects Analysis, Critical Items List, Safety Hazard Analysis, Reliability Analysis/Models, and Probabilistic Risk Assessments

• Data to support a government-led system-specific Safety Analysis Report (SAR) and an Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Board (INSRB)

• Data to support compliance with NSPM-20 and NPR 8715.26 “NASA Nuclear Flight Safety”

• Data to support compliance with NPR 8715.6 “Orbital Debris Mitigation” and NPR 8715.24

“Planetary Protection Provisions for Robotic Extraterrestrial Missions”

• Data to support compliance with DOE-STD-1271-2025 “Authorization Pathway for Nuclear

Facilities” and NASA-STD-3001 “NASA Spaceflight Human-System Standard”

• Data to support compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act

8. Monitor Milestone Progress

8.1. Milestone Evaluation

Provide a detailed description of how the Government Team will evaluate milestone success criteria.

All milestone entrance and success criteria have been established in the FSAA. Since milestones vary in complexity, so can the associated data products, activities, and evaluation processes.

8.1.1. Milestone Entrance Process

The partner will use reasonable efforts to notify the Government Partnership Manager, with a Coordination Memo, no more than five (5) business days prior to the date they intend to enter a milestone. The Coordination Memo will document that all entrance criteria have been achieved.

Once notified, the Government Partnership Manager will verify that all entrance criteria have been met. The Government Partnership Manager will issue a Coordination Memo, in concurrence with the Program Executive, with final approval for the partner to enter the milestone.

In the event that NASA requires the performance of the Option Period milestones identified in Appendix A of the FSAA, NASA will provide written notice to the Partner within 30 days of the completion of the final Base Period milestone.

8.1.2. Milestone Exit Process

At milestone completion, a milestone review is conducted by the partner to provide completed activity and product results, where applicable. The Government Team reviews the data package and provides feedback to the Partner. The milestone review will vary depending on milestone complexity and may range in complexity from a Coordination Memo to a formal review board.

Following the milestone review, the partner will use reasonable efforts to notify the Government Partnership Manager, with a Coordination Memo, no more than five (5) business days prior to the date they intend to exit the milestone. The Coordination Memo will document all success criteria have been achieved.

Once notified, the Government Partnership Manager will coordinate with the Government Team to perform a technical review and provide feedback to the partner. Once the Government Partnership Manager verifies that all exit criteria have been met, they will coordinate with the Agreement Officer and Program Executive to draft a Milestone Completion Memo. The Agreement Officer will issue the final Milestone Completion Memo approving the Partner to invoice for the agreed to milestone payment in the FSAA and formally exit the milestone.

8.2. Milestone Change Process

There may be instances where changes to a milestone are needed from what was originally stated in the FSAA. Any milestone modifications are considered modifications to the FSAA and subject to Article 25 of the FSAA.

Prior to initiating any milestone changes, the partner and Government Partnership Manager discuss the details of the changes. The Government Partnership Manager coordinates with the Program Executive and Agreement Officer to determine a recommendation for acceptance. The recommendation may be either acceptance of the change with a Coordination Memo for minor changes, like clarification of technical criteria or minor milestone date changes, or acceptance of the change with a FSAA modification for major changes, like milestone content addition/removal or changes to milestone value. Modification to the FSAA shall be executed, in writing, and signed by an authorized representative for NASA and the partner.

Milestone schedules will be reviewed on a quarterly basis at the QPMR.

9. Formal Government Feedback Process Provide a detailed description of how the partner will collaborate with the Government Team to provide access to design and certification data to understand the design and operation of the FSP system to enable NASA to utilize the FSP system capabilities.

The FSAA describes the responsibilities of NASA and the partner as they relate to design requirements and development considerations. The Government Team and the partner will work together to gain timely access to data, in native electronic format, to support the evaluation and assessment of designs and processes to enable the controlled flow of information to the appropriate Government Team personnel.

Throughout the execution of the FSAA, the Government Team may propose changes to the partner’s design or processes to meet the FSP Effort objectives. These are intended to provide feedback from the Government Team to the partner on issues that may prevent the partner from exiting the current, or a future, milestone or that may inhibit NASA from maintaining nuclear authority and indemnification, and from future commercial power purchases (e.g. interface mismatches, quality issues, or regulatory conformance issues). They are not formal change orders.

Feedback may arise throughout the execution of a milestone, at a milestone review, at a QPMR, or as part of the Government Insight Team’s regular insight interactions. Formal Government Feedback will include a detailed description of the potential issue as well as a constructive alteration to correct the issue.

Formal Government Feedback will be submitted to the partner, as a coordination memo, for formal acknowledgment. The partner will acknowledge the coordination memo within five (5) business days with either a narrative response, including a plan of action to address the issue, and/or a timeline to present a response, as appropriate.

8.2. Milestone Change Process

9. Formal Government Feedback Process