FILMSS_Extension_7_JOFOC_(Redacted).pdf

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Ames Research Center (ARC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

For Fully Integrated Lifecycle Mission Support Services, Contract No.

NNA14AB82C

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) Ames Research Center (ARC):

The procuring agency is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the contracting activity is the Procurement Office located at ARC. This JOFOC is recorded in the

ARC JOFOC Log as JA-FY24-J12.

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 an extension to contract number NNA14AB82C with KBR Wyle

Services, LLC (KBR) for Fully Integrated Lifecycle Mission Support Services (FILMSS).

The contract extension will extend the current period of performance (POP) of the FILMSS contract for 4 months. The POP of the cost-plus-fixed-fee (CPFF) Core and the ordering period of the CPFF Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite-Quantity (IDIQ) will be extended from

August 1, 2024, through November 30, 2024, consisting of a four-month base period.

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 FILMSS contract provides critical program, science, engineering, operations, and project management support for such efforts as biosciences flight development projects (e.g., mission implementation, instrument development, and technology advancement efforts), collaborative science programs (e.g., astrobiology and virtual institutes), aeronautics research projects, and mission support functions for ARC. For flight and mission projects, the

FILMSS contract provides science support for all phases of engineering and project management in a project life cycle as defined in NASA Procedural Requirement (NPR)

7120.5F.

The FILMSS contract provides important program support to ARC in the following areas, and it is contemplated that support in these areas will continue during this extension period:

• Program and Projects Support (e.g., Aeronautics Projects Office Support)

• Spaceflight Project Support

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.

3204(a)(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. 3204(a)(1) is the determination that the highly specialized services required by NASA are only available from one responsible source and no other services will satisfy the Agency’s requirements as described below. In accordance with FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii) (B), for DoD, NASA, and Coast Guard, services may be deemed to be available from the original source in the case of follow-on contracts for the continued provision of highly specialized services when it is likely that award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the Agency’s requirements. Based on the rationale set forth below, the incumbent contractor, KBR, is the only responsible source that can reasonably satisfy the scope of work required during the contract extension without incurring unacceptable delays in fulfilling the Agency’s requirements, pending the resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award, in accordance with FAR

6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B). Even if other sources are found to be generally capable of performing the requirements, the nature of the acquisition is such that the additional time and resources required to run multiple competitions simultaneously would result in unacceptable delays in

NASA mission critical requirements, as well as substantial duplication of costs, as explained further below.

A 4-month extension to support the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive

FILMSS 2 contract award, rather than a new procurement for the same period, is the only feasible approach and is the most prudent course of action for NASA to take, such that it may continue to obtain the NASA ARC mission-essential services provided under the FILMSS contract. This makes the incumbent contractor the only responsible source that can reasonably satisfy the subject requirements pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award.

Failure to extend the contract would result in disruption of critical requirements which will continue to be performed under the FILMSS extension. A gap in performance of this requirement would cause significant delays in schedule, impact program budgets, increase risk to providing quality deliverables, and would have potentially long-term damaging consequences to our programmatic relationships within the Agency and with our customers.

Key examples include, but are not limited to:

• Essential work that would be impacted (for ARC mission-critical ISS, lunar & ground projects, missions, and critical R&D) including sustaining: (i) engineering, operations, and science development/implementation for biological science payloads (GeneLab, Rodent Research, MitoFlyght, Lunar Explorer Instrument for Space Biology

Applications (LEIA), and microbial initiatives), (ii) world-class science experiments,

(iii) management of facilities, (iv) data/sample archival development, and (v) bioinformatics development.

• The work on the GeneLab, Rodent Research, MitoFlyght (previous name: Artemis II

Biological Payloads), and LEIA programs provides continuous service of flight-worthy experimental hardware for research on orbit. In order to meet the required launch schedules, the FILMSS contract must continue, or there is a substantial risk of missing mission-critical milestones. Missing any project-specific mission-critical milestones would generate a major disturbance in the overall ISS launch schedule, with a ripple effect forcing the ISS Program and multiple science sponsors to re-plan and re-phase launch dates for the payload development community and other subsequently impacted payloads, causing a large negative impact on the cost, quality, and schedule of the ISS effort.

• The FILMSS contractor provides analytical chemistry support to life support technology development areas such as Air Revitalization, Water Recovery, and Waste

Management for the BioEngineering Branch.

• The FILMSS contractor also provides support for certain NASA funded, conducted, or supported Bio-Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, Life Science projects, and Flight

Projects. These activities include developing analytical procedures and methods, carrying out analysis, monitoring data for anomalies, and providing analytical reports.

• The FILMSS contractor also performs critical work to support major upcoming

SSERVI events/engagements, as well as NASA TOPS (Transition to Open Science)

Agency-wide e-learning portal development initiatives.

Additionally, FILMSS contractor support of the scientific efforts within the ARC Space

Biology Portfolio is critical to keeping the series of space biology experiments flowing to the

International Space Station. Any disruption in the contract will cause a disruption in this flow. Conducting research on the International Space Station has high payoff but comes at a high cost. Idling this research wastes this precious resource, taxpayer dollars, and delays scientific progress.

The FILMSS contractor also supports the Lunar Explorer for space biology Instrument

Applications (LEIA), which is the lunar biological payload that will fly on a Commercial

Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) lander. Any disruption in service will lead to the LEIA payload failing to meet future critical launch dates for the CLPS program. This leads directly to a loss of important science on radiation effects on the moon.

The FILMSS contractor team also provides support to the Rodent Research Biospecimen

Sharing Program (BSP). Disruption to this program would impact the scientific return from samples flown in space. Conducting research in space is very expensive and it is critical that we maximize the return on every dollar we spend.

The FILMSS contractor also provides support to the Space Life Sciences Training Program

(SLSTP) and GeneLab for High School (GL4HS). These sessions occur once a year and any disruption in the contract will cause NASA to miss critical deadlines and may result in the cancelation of the programs for this year.

There is also support to Bio-Nanotechnology, Synthetic Biology, Life Science projects, and

Flight Projects. These activities include developing analytical procedures and methods, carrying out analysis, monitoring data for anomalies and providing analytical reports. The technical impact if the FILMSS chemical analytical support personnel were disrupted for each of these BioEngineering Branch research areas includes:

• Air Revitalization: If the team is unable to analyze the effectiveness of the CO2 adsorption materials, this research area will not be able to conduct scheduled ground-based hardware integration with flight CO2 removal technology at MSFC or understand the efficacy for the systems under development to handle a wide range of volatile organic compounds. This would reduce the technology readiness levels

(TRLs) of the hardware, and not provide the requisite information needed for down-selection to be further advanced to become flight test articles.

• Analytical Chemistry Laboratory: Loss of this personnel would effectively shut down our Analytical Chemistry Labs. This loss of core capability would effectively eliminate the ability to understand the performance of many of our technologies. If these analyses were sent to external vendors instead, we would not be able to leverage the extensive equipment we already possess, and we would lose the ability to directly work with the staff to design custom analysis methods. This would dramatically increase costs and reduce the quality of the work.

The FILMSS contractor is also performing critical work to support major upcoming SSERVI events/engagements, including providing specialized and highly technical virtual collaboration logistics support for the recurring NASA HQ Lunar Surface Science Workshop

Series. These meetings are used by NASA HQ to obtain scientific and exploration-based priorities from the planetary science community in preparation for the Artemis Program.

The current FILMSS contractor, KBR, has the base of knowledge and experience with the critical and specialized support for the ARC projects that are necessary to successfully perform the on-going FILMSS requirements. A separate competition and award, potentially to a different contractor, for a 4-month period, would neither be feasible nor reasonable, given the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award.

Developing a competitive procurement that would serve to span the gap between the expiration of the FILMSS contract and the orderly transition of requirements to the FILMSS

2 contract is considered impractical based on the aforementioned facts, and it would substantially delay support for the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive

FILMSS 2 contract award, because essential procurement personnel would need to then refocus their efforts from FILMSS 2 to another competitive procurement.

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 June

27, 2024, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of

NASA’s intent to award this sole-source extension to KBR. 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 cost analysis techniques will include comparing the proposed cost to historical actuals for similar work previously performed on the FILMSS contract, completing a detailed cost element analysis, and completing a price analysis by comparison of proposed price to the

IGCE to ensure that the final agreed-to costs and fee for Core requirements and any task orders issued during the extension period are fair and reasonable. The objectives will be developed and documented in a Pre-Negotiation Position Memorandum (PPM) prior to the initiation of negotiations and will be approved in accordance with FAR 15.406 prior to conducting negotiations. A Price Negotiation Memorandum (PNM) will be completed to document the settlement agreement after the conclusion of negotiations.

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

ARC conducted market research in support of the decision to award this contract extension to

KBR. Based on the Contracting Officer’s Representative’s (COR) technical knowledge of the current FILMSS requirements, in addition to the reasons stated herein, market research supports that KBR is the sole responsible source able to fulfill the short-term FILMSS requirements.

Market research was performed in June of 2024 which included a synopsis posted on June

27, 2024, on the Contract Opportunities site located on SAM.gov. The purpose of the synopsis was to (i) notify industry of NASA’s intent to extend the contract on a sole-source basis, and (ii) solicit information about interested sources that are capable of providing the required highly specialized support services during the extended POP. Interested organizations were requested to submit their capabilities and qualifications in writing. The synopsis notice of intent was not a request for competitive proposals, and a determination by the Government not to compete the subject procurement action on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to the notice, was solely within the discretion of the

Government. The results of this synopsis are summarized in Section 10 below.

Additional market research was completed which included review of the Dynamic Small

Business Search (DSBS) and NASA Vendor Database (NVDB), revealing several firms that can provide various types of space flight and bioscience support. However, only KBR would be able to perform the work without adversely impacting important schedules of mission-critical work currently being performed on the contract.

The COR and the Contracting Officer (CO) conducted research to determine whether there were sources capable of performing the above stated requirements for NASA’s project and engineering support services. The research included a series of meetings with the COR and members of Code S management and other requirements owners. Based on those discussions, it was clear that while there are numerous firms in the industry, the scope of highly specialized work required can only be accomplished by the current contractor under the proposed extension without creating substantial duplication of work efforts, cost incurred to date, and undue risk to on-going mission critical work. Failure to extend the contract within a short timeframe would cause significant disruption and impacts to NASA ARC missions and to the R&D facilities.

Market research indicates that in accordance with FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A) and (B), KBR is the only responsible source that can provide the required highly specialized services without:

(i) substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition), and (ii) unacceptable delays in meeting Agency requirements.

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

The pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award will take up to four additional months beyond the current FILMSS Contract POP, including time for phase-in activities before the start of the new contract. Therefore, it is not reasonable or possible to conduct a separate competition at the same time as the competition that will address the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award. The Government would require the same amount of time to conduct another competition to cover the NASA ARC mission-essential services provided under a FILMSS

Contract extension. Conducting a competition for the FILMSS 4-month extension while also supporting the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award would necessitate standing up a new evaluation team when the current board already exists, but is waiting for the GAO decision. Under FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(A), the likely substantial duplication of cost that makes KBR the only responsible source for the follow-on extension contract includes the costs of civil servant labor working on two separate boards and two 60-day phase-in costs. As such, the incumbent is the only responsible source that can reasonably satisfy the current requirements pending the resolution of a GAO protest to the

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). The synopsis provided instructions for how interested organizations can submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the required effort. The synopsis was posted on June 27, 2024, for at least a fifteen-day duration, with a response due date of July 12, 2024. No capabilities and qualifications response statements were received from industry for this FILMSS Extension 7 announcement. The synopsis notice of intent was not a request for competitive proposals, and a determination by the Government not to compete the subject procurement action on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to the notice, was solely within the discretion of the Government.

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:

ARC is currently in the process of supporting the pending resolution of a GAO protest to the

This sole-source award of a 4-month extension to the FILMSS contract is necessary to: (i) provide the additional time needed for GAO and the Agency to resolve a protest to the competitive FILMSS 2 contract award, and (ii) to update preparations for phase-in/phase-out activities.

Since the FILMSS 2 RFP is a competitive procurement, there are no actions the Agency needs to take to remove or overcome any barriers to competition before any subsequent acquisition for these services.

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.

FOR REFERENCE ONLY – PDF PROVIDED SEPARATELY FOR SIGNATURE

Fully Integrated Lifecycle Mission Support Services

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

SIGNATURE PAGE

I certify that the facts presented in this justification are accurate and complete.

Arlene Schwartz

Technical Representative

I hereby certify that the above justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Devin M. Mooers

Contracting Officer

APPROVED:

Lauren N. Johnson

Competition Advocate

Ames Research Center (ARC)