NASA/ Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a requirement for  898 lbs.  of I-220-H instrument-grade beryllium to support the construction of the Earth Dynamics Geodetic Explorer (EDGE) 1.2 m diameter Beryllium (Be) telescope being built by General Dynamics Missions Systems (GDMS) as per the guidelines and criteria of the 2023 Earth System Explorers (ESE) competitive Announcement of Opportunity (AO) # NNH23ZDA016O.

Under the authority of the competitive Announcement of Opportunity NNH23ZDA016O,   NASAs Earth System Explorers (ESE) program selected four proposals, including EDGE, for concept studies of missions to help NASA better understand Earth science key focus areas including greenhouse gases, the ozone layer, ocean surface currents, and changes in ice and glaciers around the world. These four investigations are part of the agency’s new ESE Program – which conducts principal investigator-led space science missions as recommended by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine 2017 Decadal Survey for Earth Science and Applications from Space.

Beryllium is a critical component required to manufacture the EDGE telescope due to the metal’s unique qualification of being light, strong, less prone to expansion and shrinkage, magnetically more transparent, and a better electrical and thermal conductor than alternative materials. I-220-H grade beryllium metal has the highest tensile yield strength and highest micro yield strength (PEL) of all beryllium metal grades and is the NASA standard material of choice for all Space telescopes. The I-220-H grade NASA selects for space applications is only available from Materion Brush Inc., because no other vendor has the access and knowledge to mine beryllium containing bertrandite ore from the vertically integrated Materion delta mine in Utah. Materion Brush is the only US based manufacturer of beryllium metal with the other commercially available sources being in Kazakhstan and China, making Materion Brush the western world's sole, commercially viable source of beryllium ore.

NASA/ GSFC intends to issue a sole source contract to acquire the item from Materion Brush, Inc., under the authority of 10 U.S.C. 2304(c) (1), as implemented by FAR 6.302-1, “Only one responsible source and no other supplies or services will satisfy agency requirements.”

The Government intends 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 Pavi Tumbapura at [email protected] no later than 12:00pm EST on July 23, 2024. 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