CMC3 JOFOC.pdf

Rev.:01/2021

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION (NASA)

LYNDON B. JOHNSON SPACE CENTER (JSC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

For the Cargo Mission Contract 3 (CMC3) 80JSC017C0015

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 JOFOC prepared by NASA JSC. The procuring agency is NASA and the contracting activity is JSC.

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 for the continuation of services for contract number 80JSC017C0015, CMC3 with Leidos, Inc. for:

a. Pressurized cargo packing/unpacking for delivery to and from the International

Space Station (ISS), Orion Program and the other exploration programs.

b. Sustaining engineering for Flight Crew Equipment (FCE).

c. Determining the most efficient way to pack manifested cargo, verifying the adequacy of the cargo carriers, physically packing pressurized cargo into sub-carriers and returning the cargo to the providers upon return.

d. Capability to build hardware as needed for cargo transport and FCE.

This JOFOC seeks approval to increase the Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) Maximum Not to Exceed (NTE) amount from $20,591,000 to $90,591,000 for an increase of $70,000,000 for the CMC3 Contract.

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):

The purpose of CMC3 is to provide analytical and physical processing activities to human spaceflight programs (such as the ISS, Orion, Gateway, and Human Landing Systems (HLS) Programs) to support their cargo requirements, and provide sustaining engineering and maintenance and operations for FCE. Additionally, CMC3 provides development and hardware fabrication services, as required to execute contract scope. Integration with International Partners and Commercial Visiting Vehicles (including the Commercial Resupply Services, United States Crew Vehicles, and the HLS) is required to accomplish the required scope. The contract was originally established to support the ongoing and critical needs of the ISS and Orion and their utilization. The contract was also envisioned to support exploration programs that had similar needs of FCE products and services.

The original IDIQ NTE was provided by NASA based on historical data from the previous contract. However, the increase of activity on ISS along with current work on Orion and the addition of Gateway and HLS has led to an overall increase in the total contract value and has resulted in a need to increase the IDIQ NTE.. Section C, SOW (Foreword) states, “The CMC supports the NASA ISS, Orion, and future Exploration Programs…” during the Industry Day held on November 9, 2016, NASA briefed industry that the CMC3 contract would potentially include “future exploration programs.” Lastly, the source selection statement included “future Exploration Programs” as part of the procurement requirements.

Furthermore, an increase in the IDIQ NTE does not change any requirements of this contract; rather it will enable NASA's Human Exploration and Operations Programs to continue utilizing this contract for their increased demand through the life of CMC3 until we do a re-competition.

An additional $70 million of NTE value will enable CMC3 to continue to provide ongoing and critical support to the exploration programs as well as ISS and Orion for the life of the contract through September 2024. The approval of this justification will permit Leidos via the CMC3 contract to continue to provide the products and services for these multiple human space flight programs to meet the Agency’s near-term milestones.

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 United States Code (U.S.C.) 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302- 1(a)(2)(iii)(B), “Only one responsible source.” The services required by the Agency are available from only one responsible source and no other type of 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 that Leidos is the only vendor capable of maintaining the products, processes, services, and schedules in the timeframe required that are critical to the respective programs discussed above. Awarding to any other source will result in unacceptable delays. Leidos possess the expertise, labor skills, and contractual relationships to properly manage flight crew equipment and cargo/payload processing for human spaceflight. Seamless continuation of the scope of work contained within the current contract is critical to ISS mission success, particularly in the area of cargo processing and sustaining.

Cargo resupply missions are a critical need for the ISS Program. Routine delivery of supplies supports continued human presence on orbit, ongoing research and utilization, and sustaining of the ISS. Mitigating schedule risk and maintaining uninterrupted cargo resupply services to and from the ISS is essential to ensure that the ISS remains a viable, life-sustaining, and productive facility. These services provide delivery of items that not only sustain the day-to-day operations of the ISS, but also deliver scientific research critical to the advancement of humans on both Earth and in space. These scientific investigations require years of preparation in advance of launch and are often on strict timelines that depend on reliable launch schedules.

The effort under the CMC3 Contract ensures that critical supplies, research, and payloads are delivered to and from the ISS within the timeline discussed above and intact. In order to maintain a reliable stream of resources to and from the ISS, the CMC3 contractor is required to develop and certify supplies to meet each visiting vehicle’s environmental requirements, as well as the ISS requirements; receive cargo from multiple sites/vendors/partners/researchers; develop unique packing systems and layouts to protect the spaceflight cargo; and establish complex logistical systems to process the thousands of kilograms of cargo mass that are delivered and received on each mission.

As the agency seeks to transform its procurement activities to more of an enterprise model via the Mission Support Future Architecture Program, the exploration programs (such as Orion, HLS, and Gateway) seek to leverage ISS-like products and services for their programs. Utilizing the CMC3 contract, allows the agency to share resources and lower operating costs across all the mission centric programs. Even though each program may have unique requirements and parameters related to its missions, there is enough synergy across all the programs to warrant this approach.

CMC3 is a hybrid contract consisting of a base requirement and an IDIQ portion where the IDIQ portion of the contract is a much smaller portion of this hybrid contract. If a new vendor is selected to conduct cargo processing activities, this will result in enormous cost to the ISS Program given the significant number of areas of interface the non IDIQ portion of the CMC3 contract maintains in order to conduct cargo planning, packing and processing and return. The time taken away from normal duties in order to ensure a seamless handover at the multitude of touchpoints would be significant and could pose a threat to mission success given the multiple opportunities for a missed connection or communication, or the increased amount of workforce hours required to complete mission planning and execution.

Ceasing to continue with the IDIQ portion of the CMC3 contract will cause significant disruption in ISS mission planning, and threaten ISS science, which is enabled by the effective cargo processing procedures carried out by the current contractor.

The Contractor’s technical knowledge, expertise, and experience has been determined to be the only system, which satisfies NASA requirements. In summary, it is in the best interest of the Agency to maintain its investment in the current CMC expertise and prevent the loss of the invaluable knowledge base and capabilities, which provide essential and unique services to NASA. A new competition will cause undue risk to space operation services, which are vital to NASA’s ongoing ISS mission. Additionally, competition would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the near-term NASA requirements for all these programs.

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 (Sam.gov) was published on July 7, 2021, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source modification to Leidos, Inc. The results of this synopsis are summarized in Section 10 below.

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

The CO’s signature on this document indicates that the CO 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.

Proposed estimated costs will be analyzed using the negotiated rates in the contract, Defense Contract Management Agency approved Forward Pricing Rate Recommendations, and data requested from the Contractor. A technical evaluation will also be performed to analyze the basis of estimate and assess if the proposal is adequate to meet the requirements of the Statement of Work. The CO will review the results of the technical and cost analysis to identify any major issues or concerns. Any proposal issues or concerns will be addressed during fact-finding and resolved as necessary through negotiations.

The final cost to the Government will be determined by the negotiated delivery orders under the contract not to exceed $90,591,000. A certificate of Current Cost or Pricing Data will be requested as required.

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:

A notice of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the GPE website (Sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). A notice to the GPE website (Sam.gov) was published on July 7, 2021, and closed on July 22, 2021. NASA did not receive any responses to the synopsis.

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 (Sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). A notice to the GPE website (Sam.gov) was published on July 7, 2021, and closed on July 22, 2021. NASA did not receive any responses to 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:

The requiring organization has a continuing need for the services provided under the CMC3 contract. It is anticipated the ISS program will be extended to at least 2028. If this is the case, a competition will be held for a follow-on contract upon the completion of the CMC3 contract, which ends September 20, 2024. Initiating a competition for the IDIQ portion of the CMC3 contract to accommodate these increased program requirements prior to the end of the period of performance of the current contract is not practical and introduces significant risk and potential disruption to each of the programs currently using the CMC3 contract.

The Agency will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions or new sources before executing any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirements.