STARSSIII_JOFOC_FINAL_SBU_51821-OGC_Redacted.pdf

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Rev.:01/2021 associated with the ASDC at NASA LaRC. The scope includes, but is not limited to, the following requirements (by technical area): Atmospheric Composition Science, Lidar Missions, Climate Science Missions, Climate Science Research and Analysis, Chemistry and Dynamics Science, Cross-cutting Science, Atmospheric Science Data Center, Engineering Science Technology and Missions, and Science Flight Project Management. These services primarily support the SD at NASA LaRC.

NASA LaRC stood up a Procurement Development Team (PDT) over a year ago to "perform a grassroots assessment to find synergies between the requirements of its major on-site research contracts. The PDT looked at the changing missions and mission requirements across the enterprise, and developed recommendations for how to procure these vital services and deliver on the agency’s plan for Moon to Mars; along with its other vital Science, Aeronautics, and Exploration efforts for 2021 and beyond."

The scope of the PDT involved, but was not limited to, assessing current and future requirements needs to identify gaps and synergies across LaRC, assessing current contracts and agreements including: the Technology, Engineering, and Aerospace Mission Support (TEAMS) 3 contract (80LARC17C0003), the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA) 20-year Cooperative Agreement (80LARC17C0004), the NIA Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract (NNL13AA08B), the Science, Technology, and Research Services (STARSS) III contract (NNL16AA05C) and the remaining portions of the Langley Information Technology Enhanced Services (LITES) II contract (NNL15AA03B), and then making recommendations for meeting future needs. The PDT completed its activities in 2020, making recommendations for (1) a common set of technical service categories for research services, (2) services no longer required, (3) services that could be moved to enterprise contracts, and (4) services that consolidated to remove duplication across contracts.

A follow-on AST was then stood up focusing on how best to align requirements for the purpose of developing the most efficient and effective acquisition strategy to attain vital, specialized engineering, technology, science, and research support services to meet those needs. The objectives of the PDT and AST activities align with the tenets of NASA’s Mission Support Future Architecture Program (MAP) for Engineering Services, which include (1) streamline acquisition and small business practices and processes (2) establish clearly defined enterprise contract requirements/deliverables, and (3) reduce redundant and duplicative contracts and other instruments across the Agency.

The AST’s current effort to develop a more efficient acquisition strategy and reduce the contract footprint is not new to NASA LaRC. In the past, LaRC consolidated 11 procurements (6 contracts and 5 Blanket Purchase Agreements) into what is now TEAMS.

LaRC also implemented similar consolidation strategies to derive what is now STARSS.

LaRC has more recently taken steps to streamline further including foregoing re-competes of the 11 multiple award Basic and Applied Aerospace Research and Technology (BAAART) contracts in favor of the General Services Administration’s One Acquisition Solution for Integrated Services (OASIS) suite of contracts and other recent proactive decisions to consolidate LaRC contracts pursuant to MAP. Hence, the AST is building upon past successes to further optimize and reduce the LaRC contract portfolio.

The AST will complete the acquisition strategy in July 2021 and transition the effort to a Requirements Development Team (RDT) and Source Evaluation Boards (SEBs) for executing the requirements development, procurement strategy, solicitation development, and source evaluation work. Key acquisition milestones for the follow-on contract award(s) arising from the AST’s strategy are as follows: Procurement Strategy Meeting December of 2022, Final Request for Proposal issued in March of 2022, Award in January of 2023, and Contract Start in April 2023 after an approximately 80-day phase-in period.

This schedule is based on the life cycle of five separate contracts in order to align the existing contract periods of performance with the AST acquisition milestones for the future procurements. If the STARSS III contract is not extended by 18 months, the window of opportunity to consolidate the STARSS requirements into the center-wide acquisition will be unacceptably delayed until 2026.

Based on this schedule requirement, LaRC’s requested 18-month extension until May 31, 2023 will enable the AST and SEB to complete their activities and align STARSS III requirements with the anticipated start date of the new consolidated engineering, science, and research support services contract(s) while providing a 2-month reserve in case of unforeseen schedule slips. The contract value will be increased by an estimated $79,000,000, from $253,353,964 to $332,353,964, as a result of the extension.

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 United States Code (U.S.C.) 2304(c)(1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii), 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) is that the services needed are available only from one responsible source and no other type of service will satisfy the needs of the Agency as described below.

In accordance with FAR 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii), services may be deemed to be available from only 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.

When considering the diverse and specialized requirements as described above in paragraph 3, the incumbent STARSS III contractor, SSAI, Inc., is the only contractor that can provide uninterrupted services without substantial duplication of effort or costs that would otherwise be incurred if NASA LaRC were to attempt to procure a new contract for these services under this bridge extension request. Competing and awarding a new contract to a new contractor, or expending the resources to add the work into an existing enterprise contract without the specialized contractor expertise, for an 18-month period is not in the best interest of the Government nor the contractor community. The cost of competing, awarding, and administering a contract would create a substantial duplication of cost to the Government that is not expected to be recovered through competition. Additionally, market research conducted by LaRC and in coordination with HQ OP and the Engineering Services

Enterprise Requirements Manager (ERM) identified no existing or planned contract that could accommodate STARSS III’s specialized services. An 18-month period of performance extension to the existing STARSS III contract allows the Acquisition Strategy Team (AST) at LaRC to finish their work and execute follow-on procurement(s) that enable the mission.

Further, transitioning specialized scientific research in an ad-hoc manner and/or twice in a short period would be highly disruptive to established mission workflows. The STARSS III contract supports the SD with the development, implementation, and operation of advanced instruments, missions and projects, advanced scientific research, applied sciences, education and outreach, as well as a full range of activities associated with the ASDC at NASA LaRC.

Without the extension, attempting a transition could result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency’s requirements and capability gaps, resulting in major mission impacts to operational and scientific data retrieval from active remote sensing instruments. Specifically, disruption and unacceptable delays to critical Climate and Radiation, Atmospheric Composition, and Air Quality research activities could include:

Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observations (CALIPSO) is nearing end of life and relies on experienced STARSS III team members for continuous monitoring of instrument health for payload commands. Current staff is intimately familiar with CALIPSO, and their expertise is required for algorithm updates and end of life/de-orbit activities if instrument degradation or failure occurs.

Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) would experience an enhanced risk to troubleshooting and recovery from potential anomalous activity in the CERES FM1-6 instruments. It would require several weeks of on-site activity to onboard and train new instrument operations staff to support operations of CERES FM1-6 instruments.

Stratospheric Aerosol and Gas Experiment SAGE-III may experience major impacts to the primary requirement of science data delivery. The effect could be irretrievable loss of science data if operations personnel are not capable of addressing anomalies.

In addition, STARSS III staff are responsible for nearly all science data production for CERES. A disruption in contract personnel will affect science data product processing and delivery to the public.

The ASDC is 90% staffed through STARSS III and an interim solution would significantly increase the risk of outages affecting data access (ingest, archival, and distribution) of over 100 science data products and impact nearly a dozen science instruments and field campaigns.

Flight projects and campaigns on critical timelines such as the CLARREO Pathfinder and Convective Processes Experiment – Aerosols & Winds (CPEX-AW/HALO) would experience delays in algorithm development activities, critical field support and data processing capability.

Increased risk of data disruption for ongoing research and analysis activities including unrecoverable losses to the decades-long radiation budget science record, Prediction Of Worldwide Energy Resources (POWER) data sets, Satellite Cloud and Radiation Property retrieval System (SatCORPS) information, and disruption to Earth science data for numerous other notable projects support for LaRC’s SD.

In addition, the STARSS III contractor employs a highly specialized scientific workforce that would be difficult to replace in a short period. Repetitive contract transitions that are not intentionally planned nor offer the required amount of time to effectively transition institutional and operational knowledge could result in the loss of key senior technical workforce and would affect the continuity of the mission.

An extension of the STARSS III contract will allow time for NASA to complete the restructuring of research, science and engineering support services consistent with Agency transformation initiatives including MAP and effectively provide for services to be transitioned to a carefully planned enterprise solution by the end of the requested STARSS III contract extension period.

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:

Based on the requirements of this action, FAR 6.302-1(a)(2), Only one responsible source and no other supplies and services will satisfy agency needs, full and open competition need not be provided for. Therefore, following the approval of this JOFOC, a notice to the Government Point of Entry (GPE) website (beta.sam.gov) will be published in accordance with FAR Subpart 5.2. This posting will inform potential sources of NASA’s intent to award a sole-source bridge modification to SSAI.

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 will determine the cost to the Government to be fair and reasonable prior to award of the modification pursuant to the requirements of FAR 15.403-4.

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:

NASA recognizes that market research would produce offerors capable of providing the necessary research, science, and engineering support services. However, as discussed in detail in paragraphs 3 and 5, it is not practical, feasible, or cost effective to conduct a competition at this time to onboard a new contractor, and satisfactorily ensure performance without great risk of disruption or degradation of the mission. The costs and disruptions would be greatly exacerbated if the requirements were competed again a short time later pursuant to the AST’s acquisition strategy. Additionally, the AST researched potential enterprise and strategic sourcing options for the STARSS III work, in collaboration with HQ OP and the Engineering Services PSL Enterprise Requirements Manager (ERM) and identified no existing contracts capable of meeting the specialized science and research services required.

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

None. The requirements of FAR 6.303-2(b)(9)(iii) are detailed in paragraph 5 above.

10. FAR 6.303-2(b)(10) – A listing of the sources, if any, that expressed an interest in writing in the acquisition:

In accordance with FAR Subpart 5.201(b)(1)(ii), NASA intends to synopsize this modification to an existing contract for additional services wherein additional sources may respond. In addition, NASA recognizes that market research would produce offerors capable of providing the necessary engineering, science, and research support services. However, as discussed in detail in paragraphs 3 and 5, services are deemed to be available only from the original source in the case of this bridge contract modification 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 and unacceptable delays. Therefore, it is not practical, feasible, or cost effective to conduct a competition at this time to onboard a new contractor, and satisfactorily ensure performance without substantial duplication of cost, and great risk of unacceptable delays, disruption and degradation of the mission.

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:

NASA will continue to examine the market in the future for alternative solutions or new sources before executing any subsequent acquisitions for the same requirement. In fact, the ongoing AST activities will overcome barriers to competition for any subsequent procurements.

STARSS III

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION

SIGNATURE PAGE

Use the following signature authority for proposed actions over $15M, but not exceeding

$100M:

Technical Representative: I certify that the facts presented in this justification are accurate and complete.

Robert F. Estes Contracting Officer Representative

Contracting Officer: I hereby certify that the above justification is complete and accurate to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Octavia L. Hicks Contracting Officer

CONCURRENCES:

Stephen P. DeLange Office of the General Counsel at Langley Research Center

David Young Competition Advocate at Langley Research Center

APPROVAL:

Susan E. McClain Head of Contracting Activity at Langley Research Center

ROBERT

ESTES

Digitally signed by

ROBERT ESTES

Date: 2021.05.17 17 24:14 -04'00'

OCTAVIA

HICKS

Digitally signed by

OCTAVIA HICKS

Date: 2021.05.18 08:50 07 -04'00'

Stephen Delange

Digitally signed by Stephen Delange Date: 2021.05.18 10 59:17 -04'00'

DAVID

YOUNG

Digitally signed by

DAVID YOUNG

Date: 2021.05.24 16:12:37 -04'00'

SUSAN

MCCLAIN

Digitally signed by

SUSAN MCCLAIN

Date: 2021 06.03 19:47:09 -04'00'