Fair Opportunity Exception - FSOC IV Posting Jan 12 2026.pdf

Rev.:5/2024

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Goddard Space Flight Center

Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity

Description of the action being approved: This justification documents the basis for issuing an order under the General Service Administration’s (GSA) One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services Plus (OASIS+) contract with Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation using an exception to the Fair Opportunity process.

Description of the supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs: This action will result in a Cost-Plus-Fixed-Fee (CPFF) order. The objective of this effort is to enhance, build upon, and maintain the atmospheric modeling and simulation capabilities developed in previous contract iterations. These tools and databases are used to study the effects of the atmosphere on Free-Space Optical Communications (FSOC). FSOC is an optical communication technology that uses light propagating in free space to wirelessly transmit data for telecommunications or computer networking. "Free space" means air, outer space, vacuum, or something similar. This contrasts with using solids such as optical fiber cable. The technology is useful where the physical connections are impractical due to high costs or other considerations. Specifically, at NASA, they are used in certain applications such as those that support the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD), Deep Space Optical Communications (DSOC), the upcoming Orion Artemis-II Optical Communication mission (O2O), Low Cost Optical Terminal (LCOT), as well as on previous lasercomm missions including Lunar Laser Communications Demo (LLCD), Terrabyte Infrared Delivery System (TBIRD), and the Integrated LCRD LEO User Modem and Amplifier Terminal (ILLUMA-T) experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). FSOC, however, is greatly impacted by the atmosphere.

Studies on clouds, turbulence, and aerosols are required in order to quantify the atmospheric effects, perform risk reduction, and system definition tradeoffs. Trade studies are also required to determine the optimal ground station network sizing and ground station locations, characterization and prediction of atmospherics at proposed Optical Ground Stations (OGS); and to assess various operational concepts to achieve high availability of both the near earth and deep space to ground optical links. The total estimated cost of the proposed order, including fee and costs associated with using OASIS+, is and the estimated period of performance includes a 12-month base period and an additional 4, 12-month option periods. An optional 6-month extension permitted by FAR 52.217-8 is also included.

Identification of Exception to Fair Opportunity

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(A), The agency need for the supplies or services is so urgent that providing a fair opportunity would result in unacceptable delays.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(C), The order must be issued on a sole-source basis in the interest of economy and efficiency because it is a logical follow-on to an order already issued under the contract, provided that all awardees were given a fair opportunity to be considered for the original order.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(D), It is necessary to place an order to satisfy a minimum guarantee.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(E), For orders exceeding the simplified acquisition threshold a statute expressly authorizes or requires that the purchase be made from a specified source.

FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(F) In accordance with section 1331 of Public Law 111-240 (15 U.S.C. 644(r)), contracting officers may, at their discretion, set aside orders for any of the small business concerns identified in 19.000(a)(3). When setting aside orders for small business concerns, the specific small business program eligibility requirements identified in part 19 apply.

Supporting Rationale

The only company who is capable of providing the supplies or services because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized is listed below:

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (NG) 7575 Colshire Drive Mclean, Virginia 22102-7508 Unique Entity ID (UEID): DJUCEANK2KP4

NG is the only company uniquely qualified to provide the required services at the required minimum levels due to the years of experience and capabilities they have accumulated developing, deploying and maintaining technologies under the U.S. Government's FSOC programs including the several contract iterations they’ve had to perform for NASA. These unique qualifications and experience include:

(1) Collection, archival, and processing of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) past and current Geostationary Operational Environment Satellites (GOES) and international geostationary imagery and proprietary cloud analysis;

(2) Cloud coverage retrieval software from satellite and ground based Infrared Cloud Imagers;

(3) Ground station network optimization through the Lasercom Network Optimization Tool

(LNOT);

(4) Operational concepts simulation;

(5) Field campaigns and validation studies through Consultative Committee on Space Data Systems (CCSDS) compliant atmospheric instrumentation and the network trafficking of the data back to NG;

(6) Cloud analysis and prediction using artificial intelligence techniques for link handover;

and

(7) Development of standards (blue book) within the CCSDS community.

(8) Top Secret security access required to conduct elements of the services (DD 254 requirement).

The unique state-of-the-art capabilities that are proprietary to NG include the following:

(1) Nearly 150 Terabytes of data collected over the last 28 years (e.g., atmospheric data, analysis results) which is relevant to optical communications and the work that this effort requires;

(2) The Cloud Mask Generator (CMG) database which consists of cloud depiction data collected over the last 28 years, at a 4 km, 15-minute resolution. The CMG algorithm uses multi-spectral imagery from the GOES and sophisticated remote sensing algorithms to determine the probability of clouds for each satellite pixel. NG has developed a 1km version of the CMG under the current FSOC contract that runs in real-time which supported the Lunar Laser Communication Demonstration (LLCD). NASA is currently utilizing this same capability on the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration

(LCRD);

(3) The Lasercom Network Optimization Tool (LNOT), which was developed by NG in order to identify specific candidate ground stations to be used in a high availability FSOC network. NG has enhanced LNOT by incorporating many other Concept of Operations (CONOPS) including Low Earth Orbit (LEO), Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) and Deep Space scenarios. LNOT provides a climatological assessment of the performance of a free space optical communications system based on clouds and optical turbulence;

(4) The Lasercom Simulator (LSIM) which helps make decisions that mitigate the effects of the atmosphere, and will be crucial for next generation Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) optical links;

(5) Two state-of-the-art computational labs in order to specifically support free space optical communications programs which include:

a) NG's Sleet Lab is used to support unclassified processing for various customers.

The lab includes custom computational gear used specifically for data collection and various risk reduction analyses, trade studies, and simulations.

b) The NG Virgo supercomputing cluster is used to support free space optical communications studies of atmospheric turbulence and numerical cloud prediction.

Attempting to redevelop the above listed validated databases and modeling tools would pose a significant risk to NASA’s budget and schedule, and would prove to be a duplication of efforts for tools that already exist and have already been proven to meet NASA’s minimum requirements.

The NG team also consists of specialized experts in the fields of atmospheric science and high performance computing, and has participated in the development and constant upgrading of all the tools currently being used.

Determination that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable

This order will be placed against NG’s OASIS+ contract (Unrestricted (UR) Pool, Technical and Engineering Domain, NAICS Code 541990) using the procedures in FAR 16.505(b), Orders under multiple-award contracts, and the OASIS+ buyer’s ordering guide. The contractor will be required to provide certified cost and pricing data with its proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the government pursuant to FAR 15.403-4. The proposed costs will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer’s Representative and the Contracting Officer to determine that the direct labor rates, direct labor hours, skill mix, other direct costs, indirect costs, and fee(s) are fair and reasonable, and consistent with the rquirement.

Other Facts

This is a follow-on procurement to task order #80HQTR20F0138 issued under contract #47QTCK18D0011. The contract is a GSA Alliant 2 Governmentwide Acquisition Contract (GWAC). The task order, which expires on July 3, 2025, was awarded on June 29, 2020, with an effective date of July 4, 2020, to the following large business:

Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (NG) (CAGE Code: 5FVX56) 7575 Colshire Drive McLean, VA 22102-7508

The task order was awarded on an Exception to Fair Opportunity basis using the authority at FAR 16.505(b)(2)(i)(B), Only one awardee is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services ordered are unique or highly specialized. However, the Alliant 2 contract and the task order was novated to the following company effective February 1, 2021:

Peraton, Inc. (CAGE Code: 8UL20) 12975 Worldgate Drive Herndon, VA 20170

With this novation, Peraton became the prime contract holder while NG became the subcontractor who continued to perform the services and maintained the unique capabilities and proprietary nature of the services.

Market research performed included the following:

Held a meeting with Peraton and NG, separately on or around July 2024 for market research purposes to determine their capabilities and available government-wide contract vehicles.

o Determined that companies would have to subcontract with NG in order to perform a majority of the services. NG owns the rights to the databases and tools that will need to be maintained as part of the required services. Further, NG does not allow other companies to perform work on their products, thus, no other vendors were considered.

o Identified the NG OASIS+ contract which has the scope, value, and duration to meet NASA requirements.

Query of NASA’s strategically sourced contracts.

Query of GSA databases for relevant information.

A statement of the actions, if any, the agency may take to remove or overcome any barriers that led to the restricted consideration before any subsequent acquisition for the supplies or services is made:

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