JOFOC Onramp posting_Clean_PM11-19-21_Redacted.pdf

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

(In accordance with Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.3 – Other than Full and Open Competition)

1. This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters (HQ):

The procuring agency is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the contracting activity is NASA Headquarters (HQ), Washington, DC.

2. The nature and/or description of the action being approved:

This justification provides the rationale for using other than full and open competition to award a sole-source commercial Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) for Earth science data acquisitions to Airbus DS GEO Inc. (Airbus). NASA will examine and analyze this data to help determine the utility of commercial, satellite constellation-based products for advancing NASA's science and applications development goals. The outcomes will be used to inform NASA's policies and approaches for engaging more substantively with private sector small-satellite constellation operators for future data purchases.

3. Description of the supplies or services required, including an estimated value:

NASA intends to initiate the onramp phase of the Commercial Smallsat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program. NASA intends to continually onramp new commercial small-satellite constellation vendors to acquire and validate small satellite constellation data products, determine their value to the research community, and identify data policies for government use of the commercially acquired data products. It is NASA's objective to determine if private sector Earth observation products derived from small-satellite constellations can provide a cost-effective means to augment and/or complement the suite of Earth observations acquired by NASA and other US government agencies and those by International partners and agencies made available to NASA and its stakeholders.

NASA will focus on unique imagery that might augment NASA-accessible data. NASA will also procure associated metadata (documentation, access routines, and basic characterization information) to fully assess the data’s value.

The Government intends to use FAR Part 13.5 Simplified Procedures for Certain Commercial items and 13.303 Blanket Purchase Agreements (BPAs) for acquiring this data.

The resultant contract type will be a commercial Blanket Purchase Agreement (BPA) with a period of performance of up to 5 years anticipated to begin September 2020. The Government estimates that the value of calls through the BPA will be $7M or less per call.

Through extensive market research, described later in this document, two companies have been identified that can meet NASA’s objectives. Airbus met the criteria of having existing small satellite constellations (3 or more fully commissioned satellites in non-geostationary orbit with consistent, large-scale -complete longitudinal-coverage) that produce Earth observing data sets. Emphasis was placed on data acquired by

“When the supplies or services required by the agency are available from only one responsible source, or, for NASA, from only one or a limited number of responsible sources, and no other type of supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements, full and open competition need not be provided for.”

5. A demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited:

The rational supporting the use of 10 U.S.C. 2304 (c) (1) is availability of unique commercial satellite imagery as described below.

Congress requested NASA utilize available satellite data from local businesses, public or private sectors to assist in our missions. Since NASA’s missions are highly complex, diversified, and technologically advanced, even with the requisite data that is available in-house, objective and independent data can be essential to support unbiased, long-range understanding of the earth’s processes. The proposed contractor’s unique qualifications are contained in Section 3 above.

6. 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 Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 5.2:

A Request for Information (RFI) notice to the Federal Business Opportunities (FedBizOpps (FBO)) website was published on September 10, 2019 with statements of capability due on October 2, 2019, in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting informed potential sources of NASA HQ’s intent to potentially award sole-source BPAs to valid providers of unique small satellite constellation data sets.

A special notice was published May 6, 2020, to beta.sam.gov with the Government’s intent to award this sole-source BPA to Airbus and it provided potential sources with the opportunity to be considered based on their qualifications and capability statements due May 21, 2020. The results of this synopsis are contained in Section 10 below.

7. A determination by the contracting officer that the anticipated cost to the Government will be fair and reasonable:

Airbus shall be required to submit a quotation to be evaluated and negotiated by the Government. The proposed price(s) will be evaluated by the Contracting Officer’s Representative and the Contracting Officer in conjunction with a management representative(s) of the Earth Science Division to determine that the price(s) associated with the unique data set and the identified supporting data and data use authorization are fair and reasonable.

8. Description of the market research conducted, and the results, or a statement of the reasons market research was not conducted:

A RFI was issued on September 10, 2019, with 3 responses received. Evaluation of these responses is documented in section 6 of this document. A special notice was posted on May 6, 2020, and the responses and actions taken to respond are documented in section 10 of this document.

9. Other facts supporting the use of other than full and open competition:

Market research and detailed evaluation of the RFI by NASA Program Staff indicated that there was not overlap in the information provided by the viable responders to the RFI, which indicates that competition between the vendors does not exist at the time of BPA award.

10. Sources, if any, that expressed an interest, in writing, in the acquisition:

As stated above in Section 6, in accordance with the requirements of FAR Subpart 5.2, a notice of NASA HQ’s intent to award this sole-source action was synopsized on the beta.sam.gov website. The synopsis notified all interested sources that this requirement will be issued on a sole-source basis and provided them an opportunity to submit their interest and capabilities to the Contracting Officer within 15 days of the synopsis publication.

Three responses were received from the special notice posted on May 6, 2020:

. None of these companies were found able to meet NASA’s requirement and were so notified by NASA and were informed of the next on-ramp opportunity anticipated for the Fall of 2020 when the next RFI will be issued.

11. The actions 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 for alternative solutions or new sources. At present, NASA is considering plans to formally re-engage the community every one to two years through an RFI requesting capability statements to evaluate and determine if additional BPAs for datasets should be issued. To encourage and research the opportunities for competition, all types of data that support NASA’s Earth observing requirements and/or supplement the NASA-generated data sets will be considered under the next RFI, including those types of data selected for an award under this RFI. If this activity and/or other market research determines that there is the potential for competition among commercial suppliers of any relevant datasets desired by NASA, subsequent actions will be competed.