Series-1 Flight Elements RFI.pdf

NEON Series-1 Project Flight Elements RFI January 8, 2025

Table of Contents 1 Introduction 2 Implementation Approach 3 Technical Reference Parameters

3.1 Mission Requirements

3.1.1 Orbit Parameters

3.1.2 Mission Lifetime

3.1.3 Target Launch Dates

3.1.4 Spacecraft LTAN Reconfiguration

3.1.5 Launch

3.1.6 Propulsion and Delta-V

3.1.7 Operational Availability

3.1.8 Timing and Position

3.1.9 Data

3.1.10 Communications

3.1.11 Space Mission Security

3.1.12 Orbital Debris

3.2 Payload Accommodations

3.2.1 Instrument Payload

3.2.2 Geolocation Performance

3.2.3 Electronics and Interfaces

3.2.4 Thermal Interface

3.2.5 Contamination Control

3.2.6 Calibration Maneuvers

4 Information Requested

4.1 RFI Response Instructions

4.2 Industry Discussions

4.3 Points of Contact

4.4 Response Submission and Questions

1 INTRODUCTION

The purpose of this Request For Information (RFI) is to gather information on available spacecraft concepts that meet mission needs and inform the acquisition strategy for acquiring the first four missions of NOAA’s next generation low earth orbiting environmental monitoring satellite architecture.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is partnering with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in formulation activities for the Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program to plan and develop the next-generation Low Earth Orbit (LEO) environmental monitoring satellite architecture. NEON program goals and objectives are to support NOAA's environmental monitoring responsibilities by developing and operating space-borne assets and associated ground systems to collect and provide the nation with critical environmental monitoring data to support meteorological forecasts, predictive environmental modeling, and related national needs.

The NEON Series-1 project will be formulated to be the first operational space element of the NEON program targeting the highest priority subset of essential space-based environmental observations that address the National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) strategic objective to evolve the LEO architecture to an enterprise system of systems that exploits and deploys new observation capabilities. The Series-1 project is charged with providing continuity with and improvements to the product baseline for microwave sounding currently provided by the Polar Operational Environmental Satellites (POES) and the Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) utilizing a series of strategically responsive smallsat missions.

As described in the NEON program overview briefing package accompanying this RFI (NEON Program Overview.pdf), the NEON program is expecting to pursue more than two dozen missions by 2050 to populate a distributed architecture for environmental monitoring. The NEON Series-1 project is expected to consist of developing and flying the first four single-instrument satellites launched individually into two different orbital planes between 2032 and 2037 as the initial elements of the NEON program’s environmental monitoring constellation. The Series-1 project is exploring the application of proven commercial small spacecraft, access to space capabilities, and the commercial satellite operations marketplace to enable more efficient and effective global measurements.

The instrument payload on each of the four Series-1 satellites will be the new Sounder for Microwave-Based Applications (SMBA) that will be acquired via a competitive opportunity separate from the subject matter of this RFI. SMBA instruments will be provided to the spacecraft developer as Government Furnished Equipment (GFE) for satellite integration, test, launch and operations.

The subject matter of this RFI comprises implementation approaches and spacecraft concepts (i.e., Flight Elements) to be utilized by the Series-1 project to fly and operate the first four Government-furnished and owned SMBA instruments and supply the resulting science and ancillary data to the Government for processing, archiving, and distribution.

2 IMPLEMENTATION APPROACH

The Government is exploring implementation approaches for the development of the spacecraft, spacecraft-to-instrument integration and environmental testing, mission operations, and launch services, and intends to use responses to this RFI to inform decision making. While the Government has made no decisions yet regarding the implementation strategy, the basic notional envisioned strategy is to fly four missions, each with a single Government-furnished and owned SMBA microwave sounding instrument in low earth orbit, via a single contract for:

- Four spacecraft buses and interfaces

- Satellite (spacecraft and instrument) integration and test

- Five years of mission operations services for each satellite with optional extensions in a contractor-provided and owned facility

- All flight/ground networking/communications equipment and services to operate the satellite and deliver data to a NOAA operated science data processing facility

The Government is considering including launch services in the same single contract for four separate launches for each of the four satellite systems.

The Government is exploring the trade space of asset ownership by considering a hosted primary payload approach where the contract includes spacecrafts, satellite integration and test with the government furnished SMBA instruments, launch services, mission operations, and delivery of data to the NOAA facility as a commercial service where the contractor retains ownership of the spacecraft and is accountable for delivering data from the instrument over the mission life. The SMBA instrument would be the sole instrument payload on each satellite.

For all acquisition strategies under consideration, downlinked science and ancillary data will be provided to NOAA NESDIS for Government implementation of data ingest, processing, archiving and distribution.

The Government expects that the responding contractor will have at least a very significant direct role in and responsibility for spacecraft/satellite development and integration to enable sufficient Government insight into instrument accommodations and related mission risk areas, even if other aspects of the contract elements are performed by contractor partner organizations. Throughout this document, the term Flight Elements Contractor is used to describe the contractor responsible for the spacecraft, satellite integration and test, ground system, operations, and data delivery, and, if not provided by the Government, launch services.

Respondents to this RFI should assume that the SMBA instrument provider will directly support instrument integration and test with the spacecraft as well as launch and commissioning activities with Government facilitation of that relationship. Upon initiation of routine satellite operations after completion of on-orbit commissioning activities, it is expected that the SMBA instrument contractor will support in a periodic or anomaly role only, with routine instrument operations being led by the Flight Elements contractor. Following launch, there will be occasional Government instrument-related interaction with the Flight Elements contractor with examples being data quality troubleshooting or instrument calibration activities.

The Government nominally expects to require each Series-1 mission to be the primary launch vehicle payload to enable launch date/orbit control as necessary to populate and replenish the on-orbit constellation. However, if the respondent thinks that sufficient launch date/orbit priority and flexibility as a secondary ride share payload might be achievable in the planned launch years, the Government is open to considering such approaches.

The Government is seeking industry feedback on the above implementation strategies and trade space as well as recommendations and rationale for any excursions or alternate approaches.

3 TECHNICAL REFERENCE PARAMETERS

The following reference parameters should be considered in the responses to this RFI for the NEON Series-1 Flight Elements. The NEON Series-1 mission consists of four individual flight missions to two distinct sun synchronous orbits. Each spacecraft will carry one SMBA instrument. The four SMBA instruments, one carried by each spacecraft, should be assumed to be identical.

3.1 Mission Requirements

3.1.1 Orbit Parameters

The planned orbits are 16-day ground track repeated Sun-Synchronous Orbit (SSO) at nominal altitude of 824 km (±17 km) with ground track repeatability accuracy of ±20 km at equator. Two distinct SSOs have a nominal Local Time of Ascending Node (LTAN) of 13:30 or 17:30 ±10 minutes.

3.1.2 Mission Lifetime

Each satellite is expected to operate at least five (5) years following the completion of orbit raising activities and up to two (2) months of commissioning. The satellite should also have the capability of a two (2)-year ground storage period that includes routine maintenance and monitoring activities to ensure no loss of functionalities. The project may request addition of consumables to enable up to 7 years of on-orbit operations.

3.1.3 Target Launch Dates

Each satellite will be launched separately and are notionally planned to launch into 17:30 LTAN or 13:30 LTAN orbits alternatively. The first launch should be assumed to be in 2032 with the following three launches occurring over the subsequent five years as needed to populate the constellation.

3.1.4 Spacecraft LTAN Reconfiguration

Each spacecraft should be reconfigurable to launch into either the 17:30 or 13:30 LTAN with no more than nine months’ notice to enable responsive maintenance of the on-orbit constellation.

3.1.5 Launch

NEON Series-1 satellites must be launched on a commercially provided launch vehicle with demonstrated flight experience of at least six (6) consecutive successful flights.

3.1.6 Propulsion and Delta-V

The spacecraft should have a minimum Delta-V capability to provide adequate change in velocity to accomplish the following over the mission lifetime:

• Orbit insertion (correction of launch vehicle errors) and orbit raising.

• Orbit maintenance for planned mission life such as drag make-up burns to maintain altitude within ±17 km, and inclination burn to maintain mean local time of ascending node within ±10 minutes if applicable.

• Momentum unloading.

• Collision avoidance.

• Disposal, based on the orbital debris plan per Section 3.1.12.

Note: All maneuvers should be executed in an appropriate timeframe or orientation to meet the spacecraft availability parameter per Section 3.1.7.

Note: For reference, the current project team estimate of minimum Delta-V is 250 m/s, but spacecraft features and parameters heavily influence this estimate

3.1.7 Operational Availability

The spacecraft should be in an operational mode to support science operations greater than 99.5% over any 30-day period for the mission lifetime. Maneuvers, momentum unloading, or other operations that cause mission and payload accommodation parameters to be violated should not be counted toward the satisfaction of mission availability requirements, with the exception of instrument calibration time. The total time spent in planned spacecraft outages that prevent acquisition/transmission of operational data must not exceed 2 hours per month over the mission lifetime.

3.1.8 Timing and Position

The spacecraft should use the GPS to determine position and provide time at the tone and timing pulses to the spacecraft. Universal Time Code (UTC) registration accuracy should be within ±1 msec.

The instrument will use the Time Of Day (TOD) pulse and TOD packet to synchronize a time reference for instrument data with an accuracy of ±500 micro-seconds of the spacecraft time.

Using this synchronization, any instrument packet time tag will be within ±1.5 milli-seconds of

UTC.

3.1.9 Data

3.1.9.1 Data Rate

Instrument-to-spacecraft data interface rates are 3.0 Mbps at orbit average and 10.0 Mbps at peak allocation.

3.1.9.2 Data Storage

On board data storage should be sufficient to store at least 8 hours of science data and telemetry at the maximum orbital average data rates.

3.1.9.3 Data Latency

3.1.9.3.1 Spacecraft to NOAA Ground System (NGS) ingest latency The mission should be capable of delivering mission science data to the NGS ingest location within fifty (50) minutes from time of observation and collection by satellite.

3.1.9.3.2 Spacecraft to regional field terminals latency

The spacecraft should make data provided by the instruments available for downlink within 1 minute of receipt via a near-real time constant X-band broadcast High Rate Data (HRD) downlink capability.

This maximum onboard latency ensures the HRD downlink provides near real-time mission data to direct broadcast users worldwide within line-of-sight view.

3.1.10 Communications

The satellite should be capable of simultaneously 1) receiving commands and transmitting real-time telemetry through the ground network, 2) transmitting Stored Mission Data through the ground network, and 3) continuously transmitting direct broadcast science data to field terminal users worldwide, i.e., HRD. Specifically, 3) is via X-band which NOAA has and maintains licenses in 7250 - 7850 MHz.

The satellite should comply with all applicable sections of national and international radio rules, regulations, and recommendations, including but not limited to compliance with applicable recommendations and resolutions issued by the Space Frequency Coordination Group.

3.1.11 Space Mission Security

The space vehicle and the ground segment security approaches should be in accordance with NASA's Space Security: Best Practices Guide (BPG), Revision B (SS BPG, Rev B). The BPG has security principles for “Space Mission” and “Ground”. Commands and loads to the spacecraft should be encrypted at the ground source and be decrypted at the final destination (i.e., each spacecraft) and should have the FIPS 140 certificate. Ground segment computer systems/components should have a moderate impact IT security posture (e.g., FIPS SP 800-53).

3.1.12 Orbital Debris

The proposed spacecraft must conform to orbital debris and spacecraft re-entry requirements per NASA-STD-8719.14C, Process for Limiting Orbital Debris.

3.2 Payload Accommodations

The SMBA instrument is the single instrument aboard the NEON Series-1 satellite. The nadir-facing instrument field of view collects hyperspectral microwave radiometric data that are used to calculate the vertical distribution of temperature, moisture, and pressure in the Earth's atmosphere.

3.2.1 Instrument Payload

For the purposes of this RFI, the notional mass, power, and data allocations of the SMBA instrument are summarized in Table 1 for spaceacecraft sizing allocations. The SMBA instrument is described in the NEON Series-1 Overview package provided with this RFI.

https://newspaceeconomy.ca/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/space-security-best-practices-guide-bpg-rev-b.pdf https://nvlpubs.nist.gov/nistpubs/FIPS/NIST.FIPS.140-3.pdf https://doi.org/10.6028/NIST.SP.800-53r5 https://standards.nasa.gov/sites/default/files/standards/NASA/C/0/nasa-std-871914c.pdf

Table 1. SMBA Payload Characteristics

Parameter Value

Volume Allocation (nadir deck)

140 cm x 120 cm x 120 cm (nadir direction).

Mass Allocation 170 kg*

Power Allocation 330W Orbit Average Power (OAP) end of life*

Data Allocation 3.0 Mbps Orbit Average / 10.0 Mbps Peak

* includes government held margin

3.2.2 Geolocation Performance

The known geolocation of the SMBA instrument boresight, referenced to the center of the effective field of view for any channel, must be within 1500 m (3 sigma), of the true location of the field of view, at nadir, on the WGS84 reference ellipsoid, at any time during nominal operations. This includes spacecraft orbit knowledge, spacecraft pointing knowledge, and instrument alignment.

3.2.2.1 Orbit Knowledge

The spacecraft should be able to obtain orbit knowledge of 75 m per axis (3σ).

3.2.2.2 Science Operations Pointing

The spacecraft nadir face should be fixed within the control and knowledge parameters below:

Pointing Accuracy: ≤ 900 arcsec per axis (3σ) Pointing Knowledge (static and dynamic): ≤ 75 arcsec per axis (3σ) Pointing Stability (peak-to-peak) ≤ 30 arcsec 3σ per axis (over 1 second)

To avoid ambiguity, pointing terminology is shown in Figure 1. Also, the pointing knowledge listed above includes static (e.g., misalignment, attitude reference bias, 0G and launch shift, etc.)

and dynamic (e.g., attitude reference knowledge, spacecraft induced jitter, thermal distortion, etc.) errors.

Figure 1: Pointing terminology.

3.2.3 Electronics and Interfaces

The SMBA to spacecraft data interface is yet to be determined but is likely to utilize a high-speed data communication protocol such as Ethernet or SpaceWire. The SMBA instrument is able to operate over a voltage range is 26-34 VDC at the payload interface.

3.2.4 Thermal Interface

The spacecraft should accommodate heat dissipation from the instrument nominally between 200

- 250 W and maintain the interface temperature of the baseplate at a setpoint temperature of 15oC.

Note: If this exceeds your design’s capability, please provide your level of heat sink capability to support the mission in your response to question T-5.

3.2.5 Contamination Control

Adequate contractor defined precautions should be taken during spacecraft integration and testing (I&T) to minimize contamination by both particles and hydrocarbons. Materials used in the spacecraft must be selected to be consistent with meeting low outgassing rates.

Surface cleanliness levels will be monitored through witness samples particle fall-out plates, direct surface cleanliness testing, and UV and white light inspection during satellite-level activities. Cleaning operations will be performed as necessary. During assembly, cleaning, system I&T, and launch site processing, the satellite should be processed in an ISO 14644-1 Class 8 (or FED STD 209E equivalent Class 100K) cleanroom environment (or better).

3.2.6 Calibration Maneuvers

Notional calibration maneuvers required to support the SMBA instruments are presented in Table 1.

Table 1: SMBA Calibration Maneuvers at Commissioning (Notional)

Maneuver Description Duration Constraints Rationale

SMBA

Earth Limb Image

Once (during

LEO&A)

Roll (up to +38°)

Dwell for up to 5 minutes at target.

(4 minutes minimum)

During Eclipse, to allow main lobes of outer most beams to be scanned off the Earth limb

Measure:

- Magnitude of cross-track scan bias

- Magnitude of sidelobe contamination

- Radiometric equivalency of Earth/Space-view

SMBA

Deep Space (Back-flip)

Once (during

LEO&A)

Pitch (+360°) over ~⅓ orbit (Eclipse duration)

@ slowest constant rate to return to Earth-pointing by Eclipse exit

~⅓ orbit

(Eclipse duration)

No Dwell at target.

Desired slew rate (~0.15 deg/sec)

During Eclipse, starting @ terminator crossing in the Science Mode attitude; return to Earth-pointing by Eclipse exit.

Perform 1-3 days after full moon (SMBA to view moon during back-flip maneuver)

Primary: Obtain knowledge of non-uniformities/biases across Earth view sector and estimate flat reflector emissivity; perform on-orbit evaluation of beam-pointing; and check for radio frequency interference from on-board transmitters.

Secondary: Amplitude calibration, sidelobe characterization

4 INFORMATION REQUESTED

This is a request for information and is for planning and information purposes only. This is not a request for proposal or quotation, nor is this a solicitation for a contract or grant award. This RFI does not obligate the Government in any way. The Government will not reimburse the respondents for any costs associated with the information submitted in response to this request.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on www.sam.gov (https://www.sam.gov/). It is the interested party’s responsibility to monitor these sites for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

The information is requested for planning purposes only, subject to FAR Clause 52.215-3, entitled "Solicitation for Information for Planning Purposes.” As part of the study and review process, the study team intends on using material provided to evaluate concept feasibility, which includes distribution and presentation of material as part of review processes. Care should be taken if providing and marking material provided per the RFI as other than suitable for full and open distribution, such as proprietary or sensitive material as it will limit the study team’s ability to use appropriate material to evaluate concept feasibility. Neither export controlled nor classified material should be submitted and will be destroyed upon receipt without further consideration. To the full extent that it is protected pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act and other laws and regulations, information identified by a respondent as “Proprietary or Confidential” will be kept confidential.

As part of its assessment of industry capabilities, NASA may contact respondents to this RFI for clarifications or further information.

https://www.sam.gov/

4.1 RFI Response Instructions

Interested parties should submit a response with a written statement of interest or capability.

Responses should be in Microsoft Word (.doc or docx) or Portable Document Format (.pdf).

Please provide responses to the contacts below by February 12, 2025. Although the government encourages responses to each question, not all questions must be answered to participate. The government intends to discuss each of these questions in an interview format with respondents.

Please limit the RFI response to a maximum of 25 pages total. Any specific requests identified below for documents or examples do not count against the total page count.

The response should include responses to the following requests and questions:

Technical Implementation:

T-1. Candidate Spacecraft Offering(s)

a. Provide a description, diagrams, and key parameters (e.g., size, weight, and power estimates) of your spacecraft offering that will accommodate the SMBA microwave sounder instrument and meet mission requirements. Assess the expected first order compliance with the provided Technical Reference Parameters provided in section 3 above.

b. Provide the top risks/challenges you foresee with your development approach for the Series-1 Flight Elements.

c. Describe the mission unique changes to your suitable commercial/production spacecraft offering needed to meet the reference parameters in section 3, including accommodation of the SMBA instrument. In the description, please describe the level of those changes (e.g., % NRE vs RE) to the basic spacecraft design that would be needed to accommodate the mission unique requirements and any significant design drivers that the Government should consider.

d. Describe the heritage and Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of your spacecraft offering.

T-2. Provide information regarding the annual production rate and flight rate of your relevant spacecraft offering(s).

T-3. Provide evidence of the flight success of your relevant spacecraft offering(s), including an assessment of demonstrated on-orbit reliability (Rsp) as defined below (adapted from Appendix D of Goddard Procedural Requirement (GPR) 8705.4A):

Rsp = number of successful missions lasting 5 years (or longer) without a major systemic problem related to the product (minimum mission success criteria were met) out of the last 5 space flights of the product, divided by 5. If only 4 attempts have been made with all successful, then Rsp = 1.

T-4. Briefly describe your degree of experience building a series or production line of spacecraft and provide a description of the series/production for context (i.e., size/class of mission, quantities delivered over what durations).

T-5. How would you recommend the Government design the instrument interface and operations to best enable easy integration and operation with your spacecraft?

a. Describe your experience providing radiative cooling systems for payloads and recommendations on interface definition (e.g., payload providing thermal radiator/control

vs. spacecraft provided).

T-6. Do you use qualified processes for the design, fabrication, build, and test of your spacecraft? If yes, describe the process you use for qualification.

T-7. Satellite and Mission Integration Provide information regarding your nominal commercial satellite integration and test flow and environmental test philosophy and process. Please provide information on the design qualification and test standards that would be proposed for the spacecraft and integrated satellite.

T-8. Mission Operations Services Provide information regarding your company’s approach to satellite mission operations services, including anticipated ground station services, the tradeoffs to incorporating Government ground stations in your ground architecture, and the ability to provide science data to NOAA’s cloud-based ground enterprise.

Programmatic Implementation:

P-1. Implementation approach

a. Provide a brief assessment of the Government’s notional plan to include spacecraft development, satellite system integration and test, mission operations, networking/communications, and possibly launch services in a single contract.

i. What risks or opportunities do you envision with this implementation approach?

b. Describe your company’s envisioned role(s) in your development and implementation of all or some of the elements within this single contract.

i. Identify which aspects of the contract might be acquired externally or via existing corporate partner relationships.

c. Describe the envisioned payload provider’s roles, responsibilities, and authorities during development, integration, test, and operations.

d. Provide an assessment of the hosted primary payload approach (refer to Section 2, para.

3). Is this an approach your company has experience with or would be interested in pursuing; any key concerns/risks?

P-2. System Integration and Test

a. Briefly describe your company’s capabilities, facilities, and recent experience integrating a complex instrument system to your spacecraft. Include a discussion of the capability and capacity to integrate the specified quantities of systems.

P-3. Long Term Storage

a. Describe your company’s experience, facilities, and approach for ensuring integrated satellite health for extend storage time periods (> 3 years).

P-4. Launch Services

a. Describe your company’s recent experience obtaining commercial launch services for your satellites and leading launch site integration and range safety activities.

b. If possible, please identify which U.S. launch vehicles you would consider to be potential candidates to launch the Series-1 missions.

c. Illustrate the static envelope of your offering in the launch configuration for your envisioned potential launch vehicles.

d. Describe any experience with flexible and responsive launches services where, for example, a customer needs to launch a mission to address an on-orbit issue.

e. Should the Government require each Series-1 mission to be the primary launch vehicle payload to enable launch date/orbit control as necessary to populate and replenish the on-orbit constellation, or can a secondary ride share approach provide sufficient launch call up responsiveness?

P-5. Mission Operations and Networking/Communication

a. Describe your company’s (or potential partner organization’s) capabilities, facilities, and recent experience operating or overseeing operation of your satellites, as well as your envisioned networking/communications capabilities. How would this network be utilized to support the mission objectives?

b. Describe your envisioned uplink and downlink communications architecture.

c. Do you envision needing to use Government-owned ground station assets?

P-6. Security

a. Describe your company’s approach to providing Information Technology (IT) security for both the mission operations and satellite components of the NEON Series-1 architecture, including the ability to maintain a system at Moderate security levels under NIST SP 800- 53.

P-7. Schedule

a. Provide a rough estimate of the envisioned first flight satellite implementation schedule from contract award to completion of spacecraft I&T, satellite I&T, and launch assuming a first launch will be required in 2032.

b. What production cadence would you envision for spacecraft/satellites 2-4?

c. How many months prior to each launch would you require the SMBA payload to be delivered and ready for satellite integration?

P-8. Systems Engineering

a. Describe your company’s systems engineering approaches and how they will be applied to this effort.

b. Describe your company’s milestone review and lower-level detailed review processes, including how criteria for these reviews are defined.

P-9. Mission Assurance

a. Provide a description of your company’s approach, philosophy, any certifications, processes, and procedures for building quality, safety, and reliability into your satellites.

b. Is there a common safety and mission assurance standard that you follow? If so, is it something that might be provided to the Government to improve our understanding of your practices (does not count against the RFI total page count)?

c. Include a description of how you envision customer involvement in flight hardware failures and issue resolution prior to instrument integration onto the vehicle and after customer provided instrument integration onto the vehicle. Is this different than how you approach a commercial customer?

P-10. Government Insight What means of insight, control, and reporting would you recommend the Government use to monitor your commercial processes and techniques to best enable quality and mission success?

a. What Government participation and authority would you envision in decision making for integration, shipment, and launch?

P-11. Formulation Studies

a. Please provide any recommendations for possible future studies related to the formulation of the NEON Series-1 missions.

Other Recommendations:

What other recommendations do you have regarding how the NEON Series-1 project Flight Elements should be acquired?

4.2 Industry Discussions

Within 60 days of receipt of responses, the NEON Series-1 project is planning to offer one-on-one discussions with the respondents of this RFI at NASA GSFC or virtually to informally discuss the responses and related topics.

4.3 Points of Contact

Travis Hagelberg, Contracting Officer travis.m.hagelberg@nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 171.0 Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 United States

Project Point of Contact:

Roger Clason, NASA Deputy Program Director, Office of Low Earth Orbit Observations roger.n.clason@nasa.gov NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 470.0 Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 United States

4.4 Response Submission and Questions

Responses should be submitted via electronic mail (e-mail) to both points of contact above per the instructions in this notice. The subject line of the submission should be "NEON Series-1 Flight Elements RFI".

Respondents are encouraged to submit any questions regarding this request to both points of contact above within one week of release of this RFI to allow the Government time to develop responses prior to the due date for submissions. The subject line of questions should be "Questions regarding NEON Series-1 Flight Elements RFI." As practicable, questions and any responses provided will be posted to the same location as the RFI prior to the response due date to assist all potential respondents. The Government reserves the discretion to determine which questions are practical to respond to and post.