LISA Laser

NASA's Shared Services Center has published a Special Notice announcing a sole source procurement for LISA Laser Reliability Subject Matter Expert support. The contracting agency intends to award the contract to Scott Andrew Merritt, located in Manassas, Virginia, who has been determined to be the sole provider of this specialized service. The procurement will be executed at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and conducted using commercial item procedures under FAR Parts 12 and 13. This Special Notice was posted on March 18, 2026, and invites interested organizations to demonstrate why the procurement should be conducted on a competitive basis. The NAICS classification for this procurement is 541690 (Other Scientific and Technical Consulting Services), with a PSC code of R408.

The objective of this procurement is to engage a Laser Reliability Subject Matter Expert to support NASA's contribution to the European Space Agency's LISA (Laser Interferometer Space Antenna) gravitational wave astronomy mission. The contractor will establish a comprehensive reliability program for the highly stable ~2W laser system, including developing reliability models, implementing Design of Experiment trials, analyzing lifetest data, and conducting vendor evaluations both domestically and internationally. Organizations wishing to challenge the sole source determination must submit written capabilities and qualifications demonstrating why competitive bidding should be pursued; submissions must be received by Cara Craft (Cara.s.craft@nasa.gov) no later than 1 p.m. Central Standard Time on March 23, 2026, with oral communications not being acceptable. Only organizations capable of providing advanced reliability engineering and subject matter expertise in laser systems are eligible to participate. The majority of work will be performed at the contractor's facility with travel required to support vendor evaluations and technical interchange meetings throughout the period of performance.