JOFOC JA-FY022-J09 9-15-22 REDACTED.pdf

JA-FY22-J09

Rev.:01/2021

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

Ames Research Center (ARC)

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

(JOFOC)

For Material Property Testing of Thermal Protection System (TPS) Materials

Contract Number TBD

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 NASA, and the contracting activity is ARC- code JAI. This JOFOC is recorded in the ARC JOFOC/JEFO/LSJ Log as JA-FY22-J09.

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 Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with KRATOS

Defense & Rocket Support Services, Inc (KRATOS), located in 10680 Treena Street, 6th

Floor, San Diego, California to conduct high quality and high accuracy material property characterization of NASA-provided thermal protection system materials ranging from low density conformable or flexible materials to fully densified composites. The testing will support the Entry Systems and Technology (TS) Division at ARC including but not limited to the following projects: the Mars Sample Return Earth Entry System Aeroshell TPS (MSR

EEV TPS) project, the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator -Domestic (PICA-D) project, the Conformal PICA (C-PICA) project, Orion/Artemis project and various internal research and development (IRAD) projects within TS Division.

This procurement is a follow-on to contract NNA12AB86B, awarded on August 23, 2012, and ended in 2017, with similar scope of work.

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 contractor shall perform material property characterization of NASA-provided thermal protection system materials. These services may include, but are not limited to:

1) Thermal conductivity over a range of temperatures and pressures by guarded hot plate, comparative longitudinal heat flow, radial inflow;

2) Specific heat by adiabatic drop calorimetry or differential scanning calorimetry;

3) Thermal expansion;

4) Tensile strength, strain to failure and modulus;

5) Compression strength, strain to failure and modulus;

6) Shear strength;

7) Gas permeability

A Blanket Purchase Agreement is contemplated and will have a five-year ordering period with a minimum ordering value of $5,000.00 and a maximum ordering value of $2,450,000.

There will be no options on this BPA since there is no core baseline level of work. Work will be authorized on an as-needed basis via award of firm-fixed-price (FFP) BPA calls.

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), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.is described below:

ARC has previously awarded five purchase orders to Southern Research Institute (SoRI) of

Birmingham, Alabama for testing of NASA-provided TPS materials (NNA12AB39P, NNA11AB64P, NNA08BC29P, NNA07BB10P, NNA06BC04P and NNA12AB86B).

ARC’s current and future test requirements include the next generation of the same materials that were acquired and evaluated in the previous procurements. During previous awards, the contractor successfully completed testing for at least 3 different projects (Heatshield for

Extreme Entry Environment Technology – HEEET, Orion Crew Module and 3D Materials –

3DMAT) with these materials. The previous awards have established proven and repeatable testing results that led to successful spaceflight missions, and those test procedures and specific characterizations are required again for upcoming missions including Mars Sample

Return and Dragonfly. The TPS materials testing requirements ceased at the end of

NNA12AB86B contract in 2017, until the Mars Sample Return and Dragonfly Program raised the needs again in 2022 for the same effort to support TPS material property testing, feeding the design and verification to achieve a 2027 launch date.

On May 24, 2022, KRATOS acquired SoRI’s entire engineering division, including the exclusive facilities, experience and expertise required for this effort. In accordance with FAR

6.302-1(a)(2)(iii), for DoD, NASA, and the Coast Guard, services may be deemed to be available only 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 substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition; or unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements. The current requirement is the continuation of highly specialized testing services previously performed by SoRI (now KRATOS) on previous ARC contract

NNA12AB86B, awarding to any other source would result in substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition, because no other source has the required experience in testing the unique TPS materials.

To ensure the continuity of test results, prior test results will be compared with results of current testing for the same or similar materials. Past experience within the ARC technical organization shows that when different facilities test materials with nominally the same techniques, they get different results since there are nuances the testing requires that comes only through experience. No other contractor has the past experience testing these unique

TPS materials that have significant flight heritage on NASA missions that have flown in space. The continuity between test procedures used on same or similar materials in previous and current efforts is crucial for NASA’s projects because this ensures the continuity of TPS material performance with existing NASA databases and material response models, thus reducing programmatic risk.

KRATOS is the only US company with the facilities and personnel with technical skills capable of providing reduced pressure guarded hot plate (GHP) testing and comparative rod

(CR) tests for materials of low thermal conductivity (<0.09 W/m*K). Some examples of

KRATOSs other unique (built in-house) testing capabilities include tensile test fixtures with air bearings for 100% frictionless alignment for high accuracy mechanical testing. The techniques and in-house equipment KRATOS has developed do not exist anywhere else in the US, to the knowledge of the TS Division.

Because of the need to maintain traceability of new/developmental TPS materials with materials that have flight heritage, NASA requires special attention to quality assurance during the course of current and future test efforts. KRATOS has the requisite process specifications, staff, and training in place to test NASA’s TPS materials (3MDCP, PICA-D, HEEET, etc.) immediately without the need to purchase and/or modify capital equipment or facilities. This capability will allow NASA to meet critical SMD milestones in support of the

Mars Sample Return (MSR) Earth Entry Vehicle (EEV), MSR Sample Return Lander (SRL) and Dragonfly projects.

In summary, no other contractor can provide the unique facilities, technical capabilities, and associated engineering experience currently required by the various projects as mentioned in section 2, which are expected to launch in year 2025-2026. Therefore, it is reasonable to conclude that the TPS testing requirements of NASA ARC can only be satisfied by the unique capabilities available from only one responsible source, KRATOS.

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

August 3, 2022, and closed on August 11, 2022, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of NASA’s intent to award this sole-source BPA to

KRATOS of San Diego CA. 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. Like the previous contract, a FFP pricing list for the test procedures anticipated to be ordered by

NASA ARC over the five-year period of performance will be requested in the solicitation.

Then, prior to executing each FFP BPA call, the Contractor shall be required to submit a proposal to be evaluated and negotiated by the Government. Certified pricing data will not be required since the exception at FAR 15.403-1(b)(3) applies. However, the contracting officer will require the contractor to submit sufficient information to evaluate, through price analysis, the reasonableness of the prices of the commercial testing services, in accordance with FAR 15.403-1(c)(3)(ii). The price analysis will be performed by comparison of the proposed prices to historical prices paid by the Government in accordance with FAR

15.404-1(b)(2). The price analysis will ensure that the final agreed-to price is fair and reasonable. Pre-negotiation objectives will be prepared prior to the initiation of negotiations and will be approved in accordance with FAR 15.406 prior to the conduct of negotiations.

Price Negotiation Memoranda will be drafted and approved following the completion of negotiations prior to each BPA call being awarded.

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 search was conducted in the following databases:

- SBA Dynamic data base using the NAICS Code 541380 and key words “Thermal shield modeling” and “Thermal shield simulation” yielded zero matches.

- GSA Advantage using the NAICS Code 541380 and key words “thermal shield” yielded 14 results.

- Department of Veterans Affairs website (www.vetbiz.va.gov) for any potential vendors who had experience with Federal contracting, using NAICS code 541380 and key words

“Thermal shield” yielded 2 results.

After reviewing the Market Research Results, it’s clear to the CO and the COR that while there are additional firms in the industry, past experience with ARC’s highly specialized TPS materials is crucial to complete this requirement without creating unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's missions.

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

None.

http://www.acquisition.gov/far/current/html/Subpart%2015_4.html#wp1208599 http://www.vetbiz.va.gov/

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 on August 3, 2022, and closed on August 11, 2022.

(See Section 6 above). KRATOS was the only company that responded to this sole source notice. KRATOS’s response demonstrated the required capabilities that they will be able to meet all the Government’s requirement.

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 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.