Orbital Safety Analysis (OSA) Support - Synopsis

NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a requirement for The Orbital Safety Analysis (OSA) team that provides support to the NASA Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis (CARA) program and the Johnson Space Center Flight Operations Directorate by identifying, refining, and reporting close approaches between NASA-supported assets and the Department of Defense high accuracy catalog. The Human Space Flight Orbital Safety Analysis (OSA) Subject Matter Expert (SME) provides support to the NASA Human Space Flight missions by providing ongoing analysis as required to support human space flight missions. The OSA work and team are resident at Vandenberg Space Force Base, CA (VSFB) and the 19th SDS, Dahlgren Naval Air Station, VA. The OSAs collaborate with their counterparts in the 18th Space Control Squadron and the Commercial Integration Cell in support of NASA interests.

NASA/GSFC intends to issue a sole source contract to acquire the services from Omitron, Inc. Omitron, Inc. is the only source available for the unique support being contracted for due to the following:

Omitron is the current provider of Orbital Safety Analysis services for NASA.Omitron has been the provider of this service for NASA since the inception ofconjunction assessment in the 1980s and has developed the specialized labor skills toperform these functions (working with the ASW legacy FORTRAN code, analysis oforbit determination solutions within the context of the orbital conjunctions, statisticalanalysis of the particular risk associated with close approaches between two orbitingbodies, understanding of 18th Space Defense Squadron’s (USSF) way of handlingcritical events like a conjunction). No other contractor has all these specialized skills.

Omitron developed and owns the rights to the Astrodynamics Support Workstation(ASW) software that is used to perform conjunction assessment. As a result, no othervendor would have access to the source code making it impossible for that vendor toperform updates and maintenance. Even if NASA were able to purchase the sourcecode (undoubtedly at a high price), Omitron developer expertise is needed tounderstand the architecture in order to make changes to this large and complexsoftware system in a timely fashion and with minimal risk, so Omitron would still berequired as a contractual partner on this effort.

Finally, even if the above considerations could be overcome during the time oftransition there would be a gap that would present an unacceptably high risk ofcatastrophic loss of mission assets (data, equipment) and the possibility of loss ofhuman life on the ISS and other international crewed missions.

The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort electronically via email to Jacob Perez Jacob.a.perez@nasa.gov not later than 4:30PM EST on November 17, 2023. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this acquisition on a competitive basis. A determination by the Government not to compete this acquisition on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the Government.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at : https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/Procurement-Ombuds-Comp-Advocate-Listing.pdf