SOURCES SOUGHT NOTICE_FINAL.pdf

Type of Notice

This is a Sources Sought Notice (SSN). This is NOT a Solicitation for Proposals, Proposal Abstracts, or Quotations, nor does it guarantee a solicitation will be issued. Requests for a solicitation will not receive a response. The purpose of this notice is to obtain market research information regarding the capability of qualified sources to perform a potential requirement.

The assigned NAICS code is 541519, Other Computer Related Services, with a small business size standard of $34 million. The Government accepts recommendations for alternative NAICS codes. If a recommendation is provided, please provide the rationale for any code applicable to the planned acquisition other than the NAICS code assigned.

Any information submitted in response to this SSN is strictly voluntary. The Government will neither award a contract solely based on this notice, nor pay for any information submitted by respondents. Failing to provide a response to this announcement will not prohibit/exclude an interested vendor from participating in a future solicitation.

Background

The mission of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)/National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service (NESDIS) is to provide timely access to global environmental data from satellites and other sources to promote, protect, and enhance the Nation's economy, security, environment, and quality of life. To meet its mission responsibilities, NESDIS acquires and manages the antenna ground systems for the Nation's operational environmental satellites and provides antenna ground system services to partner missions. The NOAA/NESDIS antenna enterprise is comprised of antennas at the Wallops Command and Data Acquisition Station (WCDAS) in Wallops Island, VA; the Fairbanks Command and Data Acquisition Station (FCDAS) in Fairbanks, AK; the Consolidated Backup (CBU) Facility in Fairmont, WV; and the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF) in Suitland, MD and may include other sites in the future.

The antenna ground system supports spacecraft in various orbital regimes including Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO), Low Earth Orbit (LEO), and Space Weather Operations (SWO) Lagrange Point Orbits used by both NOAA and its partners. The NOAA/NESDIS antenna ground system simultaneously supports satellites actively collecting weather data as well as satellites in a backup on-orbit storage mode and satellites in transfer phase. Spacecrafts include those owned/operated by NOAA, non-NOAA US partners, and international partners.

Through the NESDIS Antenna as a Service (NAaaS) program, NESDIS seeks to achieve cost savings and efficiencies by offering users access to antenna services or infrastructure enabling transitions from operating as a single user/mission to a common service-oriented architecture.

Project Requirements

The Government anticipates issuing a resulting multiple-award, Indefinite‐Delivery, Indefinite‐Quantity (IDIQ) contract with assigned task area awards for Program Integration, Operations, Maintenance, and Sustainment as outlined in the DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW). The anticipated multiple-award IDIQ will include a 5-year base ordering period and an option for a 2nd, 5-year ordering period. Based on results of the SSN, the Government anticipates awarding in Quarter 2 of Fiscal Year 2027.

The nature of the work pertains to services to deliver innovative and cost-effective approaches for operations, maintenance, and sustainment of the OSPO antenna ground systems that support LEO, GEO, and SWO and partner missions. The Operational activities are performed to ensure effective command and control of satellites, acquisition of mission data, and efficient use of NESDIS and commercial ground networks. Operations are supported on a 24-hour x 7 days basis with defined remote backup and contingency capabilities that ensure the high availability and reliability of services. Manage antenna ground system maintenance to include, routine inspections, preventive maintenance, calibration, troubleshooting, and equipment replacement and installation. The sustainment addresses obsolescence of existing hardware and software through the provision of any necessary updates, replacements, and development of enhancements which may include the installation of new antennas and or the removal of existing antennas. There will be a NAaaS enterprise Programmatic Integrator (PI) who will ensure integration and collaboration across all activities and Task Orders. For informational purposes, a DRAFT SOW is attached to assist in gaining a more in‐depth understanding of the overall needs.

Capability Submissions

We encourage all responsible sources, particularly small businesses, to submit a response to this notice. Capable sources should submit a response that clearly details the capability to provide the salient characteristics and key capabilities described in the DRAFT SOW. Please limit the length of the response to no more than 10 pages.

General capability statements or documents are acceptable if they address the information sought in this notice.

All capability statements sent in response to this SSN must be submitted via email to Kortney Carter, Contract Specialist, at kortney.carter@noaa.gov and Jame Chang, Contracting Officer at jame.chang@noaa.gov by 2:00 PM Eastern Time, Monday, September 22, 2025. Submitted Capability Statements, with a minimum font of 12 point on

8.5 x 11-inch paper in PDF format, to include the cover page shall include the following:

(1) Company name, address, and website (if applicable)

(2) Unique Entity ID

(3) Company’s size and socio-economic status in relation to the aforementioned NAICS Codes (e.g., other than small business, small business, 8(a), veteran‐owned small business, service‐disabled veteran owned small business, HUBZone small business, small disadvantaged business, and/or women owned small business), as validated via the System for Award Management (SAM.gov) and Dynamic Small Business Search.

(4) Company point of contact ‐ name, title, phone number, and email address

(5) Acknowledgement of task area(s) of interest (Program Integration, Operations, Maintenance, and/or Sustainment)

(6) Clear demonstration of capabilities with providing the required services for each task area of interest outlined in the DRAFT SOW. For the following task areas, please ensure the following capabilities are discussed to ensure the most critical aspects are addressed:

● Program Integration – Expertise and Capability with:

o Program/Project management of satellite ground and IT systems sustainment development involving multiple vendors o Earned Value Management o Systems engineering processes including Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) and Digital Systems Engineering (DE).

o Requirements Management and Risk Management o Program Control of Integrated Master Schedules, Budgets, Costs o Development of ground system refresh/evolution roadmaps o Contract transitions

● Operations - Expertise and Capability with:

o Satellite pre/post launch activities and transition to operations of ground system elements.

o Detection, identification and assessment of antenna ground system anomalies.

o Managing, monitoring, and configuring the associated antenna ground segment elements.

o Ensuring continuous security compliance in the operational environment.

● Maintenance – Expertise and Capability with:

o Preventive Maintenance: Changes to antenna ground systems or software with the intent to prevent errors, problems or failures before they occur.

o Corrective Maintenance: Reactive (emergency) and routine (planned) fixes that are needed because of anomalies such as network and data outages, hardware failures, security vulnerabilities and software problems.

o Limited Scope Adaptive Maintenance- Modifications that can be performed by operations support personnel, and that maintain current system requirements and the controlled configuration and interfaces.

● Sustainment – Expertise and Capability with:

o Incorporating next generation technologies to promote and further enterprise objectives.

o Developing, integrating, testing and implementing of new sub-component upgrades of an existing ground antenna system.

o Decommissioning and disposition of retired Antenna Assets

(7) Statement of interest in subcontracting portions of the task area(s) of interest, anticipated percentage of work that would be subcontracted out, and key elements to be subcontracted.

(8) Relevant information not specifically mentioned above that your company believes is beneficial to the Government to consider to finalize its market research and acquisition strategy.

Entities performing lead system integrator functions in the acquisition of a major system are prohibited from having any direct financial interest in the development or construction of any individual system or element of any system of systems. Therefore, the potential awardee for the program integration task area would not be eligible as an awardee for the other three task areas.

Questions and comments shall be submitted via the attached NCAGSS SSN Questions Form no later than 15 days after the posting of this notice.

Disclaimer and Important Notes

The Government reserves the right to use information provided by respondents for any purpose deemed necessary and legally appropriate. Any potential source responding to this notice should ensure that its response is sufficiently detailed to allow the Government to determine the potential sources’ capabilities to perform the criteria above.

Respondents are advised that the Government is under no obligation to provide feedback to respondents with respect to the information submitted. After a review of the responses received, a pre-solicitation synopsis and/or solicitation may be published. All responses shall only contain UNCLASSIFIED material. Standard brochures will not be considered a sufficient response to this notice.