You are invited to review and comment on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Goddard Space Flight Center’s Geostationary Extended Observations (GeoXO) Atmospheric Composition (ACX) Instrument Implementation solicitation.  The Atmospheric Composition (ACX) is a hyperspectral, UV through visible imaging spectrometer, used to measure environment data as part of a 3-axis stabilized, geostationary weather satellite system. The ACX remotely collects imagery of the superregional area for national air quality forecasting capability, hazard forecasting, and fire pollutant forecasting and warnings.  The contract scope includes the tasks necessary to design, analyze, develop, fabricate, integrate, test, verify, and support launch of the ACX, supply and maintain the instrument Ground Support Equipment (GSE), and support the Mission Operations at the NOAA Satellite Operations Facility (NSOF). 

Potential offerors are encouraged to comment on all aspects of the draft solicitation, including the requirements, schedules, proposal instructions, and evaluation approaches, any perceived safety, occupational health, security (including information technology security), environmental, export control, and/or other programmatic risk issues associated with performance of the work. 

NOTE:  New requirements that the potential offerors should specifically review are as follows:  ACXPORD129 (within channel response uniformity); ACXPORD131 (center wavelength); ACXPORD211 (stray light); ACXPORD204 to ACXPORD209 (VA); and ACXUIID43 (average operational power).

Also, Section L.11 GSFC 52.215-203 Offer Volume (APR 2022) of the RFP specifies:

If the offeror is involved in an impending or already consummated corporate transaction such as an acquisition, or merger with another company, or restructuring, whether announced publicly or not, the Offeror must provide information to convey any potential impacts of that corporate transaction on its proposal and any subsequent contract that may be awarded.

This competitive acquisition will result in a Cost-Plus-Award-Fee (CPAF) hardware contract that will consist of parts and materials for an Engineering Development Model (EDM)-if proposed and agreed to by the Government and three flight models. The period of performance includes efforts required to design, analyze, fabricate, integrate, test, evaluate, verify, store and support launch activities. The delivery schedule and/or period of performance of this contract is based upon a spacecraft launch date of October 2035 for Delivery Item 3, FM-1; November 2040 for Delivery Item 4, FM-2 (Option 1); and TBD for Delivery Item 5, FM-3 (Option 2).  The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this acquisition is 336414 and the small business size standard is 1250.

Potential offerors should ensure its company is listed in the online database(s) for the following:

1. System for award management: https://www.sam.gov/SAM/
2. U.S. Department of Labor Veterans’ Employment and Training Service, VETS-4212 Reports: https://vets4212.dol.gov/vets4212/
3. Date Universal Numbering System (and the transition to the US Government’s unique entity identifier (UEI)): https://www.gsa.gov/about-us/organization/federal-acquisition-service/office-of-systems-management/integrated-award-environment-iae/iae-information-kit/unique-entity-identifier-update

The successful offeror must pass an Equal Employment Opportunity (EEO) clearance before contract award (See FAR 22.805).

The current planned release date for the Final Request for Proposal (RFP) is on or about September 25, 2023, with proposals being due approximately 30 calendar days after RFP release.

The anticipated contract award date and effective date is mid- late April 2024. The contract will be performed offsite at the Contractor’s facilities, and onsite at GSFC.

The following additional information is provided to assist in understanding this acquisition:

1. Proposals for this solicitation are required to be submitted through NASA’s

Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box (EFSS Box), a FedRAMP Moderate certified platform. Potential offerors, especially those that have not previously submitted a proposal utilizing NASA’s EFSS Box, are encouraged to review the solicitation instruction entitled “Electronic Proposal Delivery - Proposal Marking and Delivery Through NASA’s EFSS Box” which provides instructions related to the submission of proposal via EFSS Box. Offerors are encouraged to check with their corporate IT staff to determine if there were firewall restrictions that would need to be addressed prior to the submission of proposal files through NASA’s EFSS Box.

In order to control and protect sensitive data owned by the Government and its Contractors, NASA policy requires all acquisition-related documents be released in Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF).     

Documents related to this acquisition, including this letter, the solicitation, attachments, exhibits, any amendments and links to online reference/technical/bidders library will be attainable electronically from the World Wide Web through the Government-wide point of entry website at www.beta.SAM.gov. Potential Offerors are requested to periodically monitor the websites for updates.

NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) clause 1852.215-84, OMBUDSMAN, is applicable. The Ombudsman for this acquisition is Raymond “Ray” Rubilotta, Associate Director, [email protected], 301-286-5867.

This DRFP is not a solicitation and NASA is not requesting proposals.  This DRFP does not commit NASA GSFC to pay any proposal preparation costs, nor does it obligate NASA GSFC to procure or contract for this requirement.  This request is not an authorization to proceed, and does not authorize payment for any charges incurred by the offeror for performing any of the work called for in this solicitation.

Any comments regarding the DRFP should be submitted electronically in writing, to

Tracey A. Jones, Contracting Officer, at [email protected], within 14 calendar days after the release of this DRFP. If a respondent believes their comments contain confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive, or business information, those questions/comments shall be marked appropriately.  However, questions that are marked as containing confidential, proprietary, competition sensitive or business information will not be provided a Government response.  The Government will consider all comments received in preparation of the Final RFP.  To the extent a comment leads the Government to revise the acquisition approach or requirements, the change will be reflected in the Final RFP.  Some DRFP questions and comments may receive a posted response to the GPE if the Contracting Officer determines that a response would facilitate additional understanding of the solicitation.  The Government may also respond via the GPE to comments and/or questions received following the issuance of the Final Request for Proposal (RFP).