AURA JOFOC.pdf

Rev.:01/2021

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

For Roman Space Telescope Project Science Operations Center

1. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2(b)(1) – Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.”

This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by

National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center

(GSFC).

The procuring agency is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the contracting activity is Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC).

2. FAR 6.303-2(b)(2) – The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition to award a sole-source new work modification to contract number

80GSFC19C0054 with the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy (AURA) for the Roman Space Telescope (Roman) Science Operations Center (SOC) at the Space

Telescope Science Institute (STScI). AURA will provide science operations system engineering, system development, operations, science research support, scientific community engagement and public outreach support for the Roman Project.

AURA, operating the Roman SOC at the STScI for NASA, will be part of a mission team that GSFC leads and includes many participants, including the

Infrared Processing and Analysis Center (IPAC) at Caltech, the Jet Propulsion

Laboratory (JPL), international partners, and other support contractors.

On July 1, 2019, Contract 80GSFC19C0054 was awarded to AURA on a sole source basis. The period of performance expires on September 30, 2021. AURA has provided science system engineering and ground system design for science planning and scheduling systems, a data processing pipeline system for the Wide-Field Instrument

(WFI), science research, a science data archive design, and public outreach support for the

Roman mission.

3. FAR 6.303-2(b)(3) – A description of the supplies or services required, to meet the

Agency’s needs (including the estimated value):

NASA requires a contractor that can provide science operations support for Roman during development, launch, commissioning, and the first year of operations. The SOC is essential to realize the high scientific return from the Roman mission. The contractor will implement the SOC per the Critical Design Review (CDR) design to meet the

Roman Science, Mission, and Ground System Requirements. The contractor shall develop, test, and operate systems to perform scheduling, data processing, data archival, data accessibility and analysis, science simulation and tool support, and science community engagement and public outreach leveraging the existing Hubble

Space Telescope and James Webb Space Telescope inventory of software, systems, and processes. The contractor shall participate in the overall mission ground system development, integration, test, launch operations, on-orbit commissioning, and one year of post-commissioning operations.

The period of performance for this proposed contract extension is October 1, 2021, through

September 30, 2027. The total cost-plus fixed fee estimated value of this effort is approximately $157M.

4. FAR 6.303-2(b)(4) – An identification of the statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition:

The statutory authority permitting other than full and open competition is 10 U.S.C. 2304(c)

(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

5. FAR 6.303-2(b)(5) – A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

The rationale supporting the use of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) (1) is justified because AURA is the only organization qualified to perform the subject requirements based on:

1) AURA’s extensive and unique knowledge, experience, and expertise gained on

NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope (HST) and the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) facility-class astrophysics missions.

2) AURA’s singular position to foster scientific synergy and coordinate science operations among three of NASA’s most important astrophysics missions.

The Roman observatory is being developed on a challenging schedule. The Mission

Operations Review, the Operations Readiness Review, and the Post Launch Assessment

Review will take place during the planned period of performance of this contract. Only an experienced contractor with extensive, state-of-the-art expertise in astronomy, science operations (including planning, scheduling, data processing, analysis, and archiving), optics, detectors, systems engineering, and outreach will meet the required elements of the contract statement of work needed to meet the mission requirements within the defined mission timeline. AURA is the only known source that has the expertise to successfully achieve the international reach and challenging objectives of the Roman program.

AURA currently operates the science operations center for the HST and is preparing for the launch and operations of the JWST mission. The Roman SOC design and eventual science program execution are based on many similar aspects of these missions. Roman will execute extensive sky surveys, and individually targeted observations. Many critical planning, scheduling, and data-handling activities will be similar to those performed on HST and JWST.

AURA’s direct experience and unique position to apply economy-of-scale synergies with HST and JWST is to the advantage of the Government. The utilization of these mission-proven concepts, methodologies, software, and science-driven systems engineering approach are essential to the successful execution of the Roman science mission. The reuse of tools and organizational expertise ensures maximum cost efficiency and application of lessons learned.

This is the only available path that obtains the necessary technical resources required during the Roman mission development and test, launch, commissioning, and early operations phases, and provides a proven path for science productivity to NASA and the astronomical community.

AURA’s decades of experience covers all of the functional areas required to support the

Roman SOC due to their prior experience with HST and JWST, including:

1) Scheduling and instrument commanding.

2) Data pipeline, calibration, and commissioning.

3) Broad community accessibility to science ready archival data.

4) Community and science team engagement and support.

5) Scientific research.

6) Public outreach.

7) Collaboration with domestic and international project partners.

This includes the scheduling function performed on HST by the heritage software, and the event driven operations tested for JWST which maximize the efficiency of the observatory, essential for Roman to meet challenging observation requirements within its 5-year mission.

Reuse of the HST and JWST systems provide an economical approach to meeting the data management requirements of Roman, and AURA’s expertise and experience provides a path to enabling integration of custom data processing which will be critical for Roman users. This makes AURA unique, and the only responsible source for this work.

AURA is uniquely situated to develop the SOC systems to satisfy the requirements and SOC design developed under their current contract, to plan and execute the simultaneous planning and scheduling of wide-field imaging surveys, pointed imaging observations, and coronagraphic observations, perform Wide Field imaging data processing, and make mission data available via a public archive. AURA has extensive expertise with imaging surveys from

HST. There are three very large, long duration, highly optimized HST programs that began in

2010, which involved surveys. These include: the Cosmic Assembly Near-infrared Deep

Extragalactic Legacy Survey; the Panchromatic Hubble Andromeda Treasury program; and the

Cluster Lensing and Supernova Survey with Hubble. Having operated HST for more than 30 years, AURA has unparalleled experience with General Observer (GO) observations and the design of the associated ground system elements for imagers, spectrographs, and coronagraphs.

AURA’s experience with the technical and programmatic issues related to science operations center development, test, and operations for the HST and JWST missions will be very similar to those for Roman and is unrivaled.

AURA scientists continue to demonstrate leadership in the field of calibration. Since the instruments on HST and JWST share many similarities with the Roman Wide Field Imager

(WFI), AURA’s experience with these data-processing approaches and software programs is directly applicable to the development, test, and operations of calibration systems and efficient calibration observation sequences for the Roman mission. Based on their vast experience, AURA will save significant amounts of time and effort versus another source.

Roman intends to utilize the Mikulski Archive for Space Telescopes (MAST), operated and maintained by AURA, to archive its data and make it accessible to the science community.

Teaming with AURA will greatly benefit the Roman mission directly from the existing infrastructure and synergies gained with the HST and JWST missions.

Community and science team engagement and support is another area in which AURA has unique experience and expertise. AURA’s extensive existing relationships with astronomers worldwide, developed through executing the HST science program for more than 30years, is unique in both industry and academia. This position to engage the astronomical community is deeper and more extensive by virtue of their leadership role in both mission and science operations of JWST. AURA’s successful methodology and communications infrastructure is already in place to immediately support Roman.

There are identifiable technical engineering areas where AURA’s developed expertise from the science and archive operations of other missions will uniquely support the development, test, and operations of the Roman SOC. These include: the reuse of designs and existing software from HST (3 million lines of code) and JWST (6 million lines of code); the reuse of methodologies (e.g., the data processing workflow, database management structures, and recalibration schemes, etc.); and, the existence of experienced knowledgeable staff. Given the ability of AURA to leverage these existing systems, processes, and expertise, it would be difficult for any other vendor to accomplish this work within the same time and cost constraints, and not introduce substantial schedule and cost risk to the mission.

6. FAR 6.303-2(b)(6) – A description of the efforts made to ensure that offers are solicited from as many potential sources as practicable, including whether a notice was or will be publicized as required by Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under 5.202 applies:

A notice to the Government Point of Entry (GPE) website (beta.sam.gov) was published on

April 6, 2021, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of

NASA’s intent to award this sole-source modification to AURA. The results of this synopsis are summarized in Section 10 below.

7. FAR 6.303-2(b)(7) – A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

The Contracting Officer’s signature on this document indicates that the Contracting Officer has determined that the anticipated cost to the government will be fair and reasonable. The

Contractor shall be required to submit a proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the

Government. Prior to execution of the contractual instrument, a proposal analysis will be performed. The proposal analysis will ensure that the final agreed-to price for the contract action is fair and reasonable. The proposed costs will be evaluated by the contracting officer’s representative and the contracting officer to determine that the direct labor rates, hours, and other costs, skill mix, and fee(s) are fair and reasonable.

8. FAR 6.303-2(b)(8) – Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons a market research was not conducted:

Knowledge of the relevant science-data-processing contractor marketplace, by senior members of the project’s scientific and technical staff, was used to identify other potential sources for this procurement. They are as follows:

1) While there are other organizations recognized for significant contributions to astronomy and astrophysical research, none have the detailed knowledge and experience in operating large, complex space observatories.

2) There are no other identified organizations that can provide the Government with the significant synergistic benefits to/with both HST and JWST as detailed in Section 5.

9. FAR 6.303-2(b)(9) – Any other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

None.

10. FAR 6.303-2(b)(10) – A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed an interest in writing in the acquisition:

A notice of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the GPE website (beta.sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above).

The synopsis notified all interested sources that this requirement will be issued on a sole-source basis, and provided an opportunity to submit their interest and capabilities to the contracting officer within 15 days of the synopsis publication.

No responses were received upon the expiration of the synopsis.

11. FAR 6.303-2(b)(11) – A statement of actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services required:

This effort does not include the remaining 4 years of mission operations anticipated to complete the primary mission or the anticipated mission operations extension based on scientific merit. Future decisions for continued support will be based on the technical/scientific merits and the availability of funds. At that time, additional market research will be conducted to determine if other viable commercial sources exist.