Sole Source Justification_LEO Labs_final_080822_Redacted.pdf

NE-EA8000-22-01071

Version 3.0

SOLE SOURCE

FOR AN ACTION EXCEEDING THE SIMPLIFIED ACQUISITION THRESHOLD

USING SIMPLIFIED PROCEDURES FOR CERTAIN COMMERCIAL ITEMS

AUTHORITY: FAR 13.501(a)

Space Situational Awareness Tracking Data

1. Agency and contracting activity. Department of Commerce, NOAA Acquisition and Grants

Office (AGO), Satellite Information Acquisition Division (SIAD) and the Office of Space Commerce

(OSC).

2. Nature and/or description of the action being approved.

This is a sole source justification for a new requirement for commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) tracking data and products for the Low Earth Orbital (LEO) regime for testing and analysis of both the data and products themselves and also for experimental SSA activity and prototype development. A firm, fixed price contract is contemplated for award. The Government intends to solicit the following vendor:

LeoLabs Federal, Inc.

4795 Meadow Wood LN STE 315 Chantilly, Virginia 20151-2234 Unique Entity ID: SM8JX1KNX4L8 CAGE: 8MCP7

3. Description of supplies or services required to meet the agency’s needs (including the total estimated value).

This requirement is to provide space surveillance tracking data (observations, state vectors, ephemeris, etc.) from a radar (all weather, day/night) surveillance system with multiple collection sites located in both the northern and southern hemispheres. The surveillance systems need to provide commercially available coverage of space objects in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) independent of and not reliant on US Government systems. This will allow the Open Architecture Data Repository (OADR) Program and National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) to accomplish its mission of evaluating the suitability of commercial radar space situational awareness data for use in the OADR’s basic safety mission. The OADR is anticipated to be a cloud-based system designed to track satellites and debris in space, and eventually replace the space catalog currently maintained by the U.S. military. Between 50% and 75% of the products will be archived data (also referred to as Old Epoch Times Data) meaning data already collected and products already generated by the contractor for other purposes. The collection date for such archived data and products may have occurred no earlier than 1 January 2021, and should include high percentage of data and products from the Contractor’s collection systems located in the Southern Hemisphere or tropical regions of the Earth. The remaining 25% to 50% of the products will be specifically tasked for collection by the government (also referred to as Tasked Data). The precise mix of data is subject to negotiation and shall be agreed upon and finalized prior to contract award. Old Epoch Times and Tasked data shall be delivered on a monthly basis during the anticipated Period of Performance.

The total estimated value for this requirement is $4,800,000.

Base Period: September 16, 2022 – September 15, 2023 Option Period 1: September 16, 2023 – September 15, 2024

4. Statutory authority permitting the sole source (including brand name) acquisition.

☑ 41 U.S.C. 1901, using SAP up to $7.5M as authorized by FAR 13.500(a) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

□ 41 U.S.C. 1903, using SAP up to $15M for contingency operations as authorized by

FAR 13.500(c) and implemented by FAR 13.501(a).

5. Demonstration that the proposed contractor’s unique qualifications or the nature of the acquisition requires use of the authority cited. The contracting officer has determined the following circumstances justify the use of a sole source as supported below:

Only one source - LeoLabs is currently the sole industry provider of real-time LEO object tracking data and SSA support based on a global radar network with northern hemisphere, equatorial and southern hemisphere coverage. LeoLabs is the only company commercially providing an aggregated data set of commercial and government data to operational customers for operational use. LeoLabs provides critical SSA support via six (6) radars strategically located in both the northern and southern hemisphere (Alaska, Costa Rica, New Zealand, and Texas).

LeoLabs provides an end to end system that produces critical LEO object tracking data to commercial and government customers, independent of the United States Space Force (USSF) through the 18th Space Defense Squadron (SDS) (formerly 18th Space Control Squadron). All other commercial LEO data providers rely on object tracking capabilities that could be impacted by weather, have limited geographic coverage, or are wholly dependent upon combining their limited data with information provided by the 18th SDS. LeoLabs is currently the only commercial source for LEO object tracking data that can fill data gaps of the 18th SDS. If the particular LEO data is not obtained from LeoLabs, the Government will not be able to successfully demonstrate the feasibility of a congressionally mandated capability for hosting and processing accurate commercial SSA/STM data for quick access by commercial satellite operators, unencumbered by data maintained by the 18th SDS meant for "protect and defend" mission operations.

6. Description of 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 FAR Subpart 5.2 and, if not, which exception under FAR 5.202 applies.

The Contracting Officer posted the required synopsis of proposed sole source actions pursuant to FAR Subpart 5.2 on April 15, 2022. One response was received before the due date of April 30, 2022 for submitting capability statements. The single response received was from CelesTrak who requested issuance of a second sole source contract for their capabilities. Their capabilities include stratospherically based, deployable solar-powered drones designed for six months on- station duration with a generous payload capacity. The

OSC reviewed Celestrak’s capabilities and determined that they do not have the same or similar viable capability compared to the S- Band operational phased array radar data provided by LeoLabs. The OSC also determined that Celestrak’s drone-provided SSA data is not well understood and appeared quite restrictive to the amount of objects a drone can track per orbit, therefore the OSC determined them not capable of meeting this requirement.

Further, the Contracting Officer searched and found two companies in the Small Business Administration’s Dynamic Small Business Database who appear to have the same capabilities as LeoLabs. However, both small businesses, Xplore, Inc. and Snaju, LLC, confirmed to the Contracting Officer that they do not have the capabilities to meet this requirement.

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

The contracting officer determines that the anticipated price will be fair and reasonable in accordance with any of the basis listed in FAR 13.106-3(a)(2). To support the Contracting Officer’s determination, the contractor will be asked to provide invoices recently paid for similar items from either another Government or commercial customer to determine if the NOAA is being charged the same or lesser prices in comparison to their other customers.

8. Description of the market research conducted (see Part 10) and the results or a statement of the reason market research was not conducted.

Prior to the actions described in Section 6, the OSC and SIAD posted a Request for Information (RFI) to solicit available capabilities from industry for multiple types of data including LEO data through a notification on Contract Opportunities under the System for Award Management (SAM) on February 16, 2022. 32 responses were received for multiple types of data. However, out of all the responses received, the OSC determined that LeoLabs was the only respondent capable of providing radar-derived SSA data for the entire LEO enterprise from around the globe, or from an operational system with commercially available data. A further discussion of the market research can be found in the market research report located in the contract file.

9. Any other facts supporting the use of a sole source (including brand name), such as:

All supporting facts have been documented herein.

10. List of the sources that expressed a written interest in the acquisition.

-CelesTrak : Email of Procurement Interest received on April 29, 2022. The OSC’s analysis and determination of this company’s capabilities is discussed in Section 6.

11. A statement of the 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 Government will continue to conduct thorough market research periodically to gauge the marketplace capabilities for any comparable SSA data for future, similar requirements.

12. Technical/Requirements Representative Certification

I certify that this requirement constitutes the Government’s minimum needs and the supporting data provided herein is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Joyce Voyles Date Contracting Officer’s Representative (COR)

13. Office of General Counsel Concurrence

Concur

Florence Bridges Date Office of General Counsel

14. Contracting Officer’s Certification

I certify this justification is accurate and complete to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Gion Lalican Date Contracting Officer

15. NOAA Competition Advocate Approval:

Approve

Jeffrey S. Thomas NOAA Competition Advocate and Director, Acquisition and Grants Office

Date

Florence N. Bridges

8/8/22