Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing

Lawrence Livermore National Security, LLC (LLNS) is seeking a spacecraft bus provider for a NASA Astrophysics Small Satellite Explorers (SMEX) Program mission. The Department of Energy is the sponsoring agency for this pre-solicitation notice, which requires a vendor to co-engineer a spacecraft capable of accommodating a 45cm telescope and delivering an integrated observatory to a launch services provider. The primary technical performance objective involves developing a spacecraft with precise boresight stability, compatible with an Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle Secondary Payload Adapter (EELV ESPA) Grande-class bus. Vendors are requested to submit a Rough Order of Magnitude (ROM) estimate and technical write-up by April 18, 2025, with responses to be emailed to garcia288@llnl.gov. The evaluation will likely focus on technical capabilities, previous mission experiences, integration facilities, and comprehensive subsystem specifications.

The pre-solicitation notice does not indicate any specific set-aside designations, making the opportunity open to a broad range of aerospace manufacturers. The project anticipates developing one to three spacecraft for a 700km sun-synchronous orbit, with a planned 2-month initialization period and minimum 24-month mission duration. The spacecraft bus must support a payload up to 50 kg, provide 200W orbit average power, and maintain precise attitude control with 7 arcsecond orientation knowledge. While no specific award value is disclosed, the project involves a 48-month timeline from order receipt to launch, encompassing non-recurring and recurring engineering phases. The spacecraft is designed with a 26-month operational lifetime and must meet rigorous environmental and radiation tolerance requirements, including >20 krad(Si) radiation tolerance and operational temperatures between -20C to +60C.