ICESat-2 -JOFOC Clean 15Dec20 Final_Redacted.pdf

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

For (ICESat-2 Spacecraft Mission Operations/ICESat-2 Mission Operations)

1. Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.303-2(b)(1) Identification of the agency and for other than full and open

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

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

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

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 contract to Northrop Grumman Space Systems (NGSS) for mission operations engineering support necessary to maintain spacecraft health and safety and resolve in-flight spacecraft anomalies.

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

NGSS will provide mission operations support, including planning and scheduling, data processing and analysis, anomaly identification and resolution, and delivery of science and engineering data products. The NASA/GSFC Earth Science Mission Operations (ESMO) Project requires expert and knowledgeable system and component engineering services for in-flight spacecraft operations and diagnosis, planning, and resolution of anomalies for NGSS developed subsystems on the ICESat-2 spacecraft. In-flight anomalies cannot necessarily be predicted, and thus, a timely recognition of the problem, and thorough analysis to understand the underlying problem and planning for an effective response is required if an incident occurs. In order to provide effective in-flight spacecraft operations and diagnosis and resolution services, the Government requires the following engineering services:

Mission operations engineering support and analysis to include but not limited to the following:

a. On-console support to monitor and maintain the health of the ICESat-2 spacecraft, collect telemetry data and process all health and status telemetry data to assess the performance of each spacecraft subsystem and instrument.

b. Planning and executing orbit maintenance and collision avoidance maneuvers.

c. Engineering analysis of products and reports related to short-term and long-term spacecraft subsystem behavior, data trends and telemetry signature.

d. Engineering analysis of data or other issues related to previous spacecraft subsystem anomalies.

e. Engineering support and analysis of NASA/GSFC Advanced Topographic Laser Altimeter System (ATLAS) instrument and planning and executing laser conjunction mitigations.

The period of performance for this contract will be a 1 year base with four 1 year option periods from November 15, 2021 through November 14, 2026. Additionally, the estimated value of this action is

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 completion is 10 U.S.C.

2304(c)(1), as implemented by Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-

5. FAR 6.303-2(b)(5) 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 NGSS is uniquely qualified to perform the highly specialized services required as they developed the ICESat-2 spacecraft. The spacecraft subsystems are complex and mission-unique manufactured by NGSS. NGSS was responsible for designing, developing, and providing the subsystem flight hardware, software, test procedures, Interface Control Documents, operational guides, and other documentation for the ICESat-2 spacecraft. As part of subsystem development efforts, NGSS has participated in anomaly investigation efforts for NAS -2 mission. As such, NGSS has the corporate knowledge and expertise to provide mission operations and anomaly resolution support that others cannot.

Acquisition from a source other than NGSS will result in a substantial duplication of cost related to parallel operations. For any contractor other than NGSS, a bridge contract would need to be put in place with the existing contract to overlap current operations with the potential new vendor and execute parallel operations while the new contractor becomes proficient with ICESat-2 mission operations, instrument, and ground system. Parallel or dual operations for a 9-15 months overlap would result in significant additional costs to the Government The award of a contract to NGSS substantially reduces the technical risk and cost associated with parallel operations.

Further, the learning curve for a contractor other than NGSS presents substantial risk to the Government. A new contractor team may be familiar with mission operations, however they would not be familiar with the technical details of the ICESat-2 subsystems and instruments and therefore may not recognize issues in a timely fashion or understand the depth and extent of the issue. A slow or ineffective response would result in additional costs to the Government, and risk loss of, or damage to, the spacecraft. Many organizations rely on the ICESat-2 data transmissions, a loss of data or delay in processing data due to a spacecraft subsystem anomaly would cause substantial cost impacts to the Government and the science community.

In addition, acquisition from a source other than NGSS would result in the need to establish a new Mission Operations Center (MOC) at GSFC as well as tools to support the operations since the tools are proprietary to, and both are physically located at NGSS. This includes test hardware and software (including analysis tools) and engineering models. The NGSS analysis tools were developed by NGSS for ICESat-2 to support integration and test, and development of mission operations. NGSS is therefore in a unique position to utilize the already existing ground components for modeling, test runs, simulations, and providing anomaly diagnosis and resolution services.

The on-going availability of NGSS expertise will be even more valuable as spacecraft subsystem hardware components age on orbit. The unique ability of NGSS to perform spacecraft mission operations and anomaly resolution will enable the NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center to reduce risk related to the potential loss of, or serious damage to, a national asset currently on-orbit (the ICESat-2 spacecraft which is currently valued at approximately

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 November 10, 2020 in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential

-source contract to NGSS. The results of this synopsis are contained 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:

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.

GSFC will perform a comprehensive evaluation of the Contractor's proposal to ensure that the negotiated cost is fair and reasonable. The proposed costs will be evaluated by the Contracting labor hours, skill mix, other direct costs, indirect costs, 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:

The Government has conducted market research and determined NGSS is the only responsible contractor for this effort. There are very few onboard spacecraft subsystems manufacturers. Spacecraft subsystems are unique in which specialized expertise is required to produce, integrate and troubleshoot anomalies within these subsystems. Although there are other companies that provide Mission Operations Support, NGSS is the only vendor that has the unique capabilities to provide this support to ICESat-2 as they were responsible for designing, developing, and providing the subsystem flight hardware, software, test procedures, Interface Control Documents, and operational procedures for the ICESat-2 spacecraft. Due to this, no other institution has the knowledge of the ICESat-2 spacecraft and ATLAS science instrument operations, flight instrument design and calibration, and anomaly response resolution to be able to continue the mission operations and data analysis phase.

This market research is a result of years working with satellite developers, and involvement in the process of development and on-orbit operations. Technical interchange and working group meetings have been conducted to access performance of the mission and the effectiveness of another service provider in terms of risk to meeting requirements and the protection of a national asset. The projects past and current experience with the spacecraft developer have been invaluable in determining the path forward to ensure spacecraft health and safety.

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 -source action was synopsized on the GPE website (beta.sam.gov) per FAR Subpart 5.2 (See Section 6 above). The synopsis was posted on November 10, 2020 with responses due on November 25, 2020. The Government received no responses.

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:

No actions are anticipated by the Agency to remove or overcome the barriers to competition for any subsequent acquisition of similar services because it is unlikely that subsequent acquisitions will occur. At this time, the need for continued operation of the ICESat-2 observatory and ATLAS instrument under the ICESat-2 mission beyond the 5-year period of this JOFOC has not been determined. Any future decision for continued operations will be based on the technical/scientific merits of the mission and the availability of funds. If the Agency determines that ICESat-2 shall continue mission operations, then a follow-on sole source contract with NGSS may be necessary based on their unique knowledge and capabilities as described above. Any such follow-on contract will be supported by a properly approved JOFOC.

In addition, 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.