The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) intends to negotiate and award a sole source contract extension to the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO), 60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02130-1516 for the High Resolution Coronal Imager (Hi-C) Telescope Reflight. Reflight of the existing Hi-C instrument has been competitively selected as part of NASA Proposal Number 17-HTIDS17_2-0033, in response to NASA Program Announcement Number NNH17ZDA001N-HTIDS of which SAO is part of the team. The 2018 Hi-C Reflight was proposed and selected as a direct continuation of the original 2012 investigation and 2016 reflight to observe the sun with the same spatial and temporal resolution at different wavelengths. This Reflight requires the same instrument, technical performance, and vendor capabilities successfully provided by SAO relative to optical performance and analysis, integration, and science applications as the 2012 and 2016 missions. The Hi-C reflight mission requires the same or better optical performance as the 2012 mission. No other source has the highly specialized equipment, procedures, and expertise required available to handle the existing Hi-C optical system and achieve the required performance prior to the Science Mission Directorate launch date. Replication of the requisite intellectual knowledge and physical equipment from another source is cost prohibitive within the budgetary and schedule constraints of the Science Mission Directorate's (SMD's) Hi-C Reflight selection. The SMD science selection is predicated on the optics performance enabled by SAO proprietary optics mounting and equipment. Technical risk to the existing Hi-C system from untested procedures and equipment is not acceptable since reduction in optical resolution due to stress print-through of untested procedures or equipment from another vendor would result in a significant risk to mission success criteria, and a moderate risk of damaging existing Hi-C telescope components such that the selected mission could not be flown. Utilization of another source would potentially invalidate the basis for the Hi-C Reflight selection. Any programmatic questions should be addressed to Todd Holloway at [email protected]. Contractual questions should be addressed to Mr. Gary Bass at [email protected].

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