NASA GSFC is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for the LISA Laser Head acquisition. LISA is a European Space Agency (ESA)-led mission consisting of three (3) spacecraft (S/C) that are separated by 2.5 million kilometers in an Earth-trailing orbit. The three (3) S/C will relay laser beams back and forth between the different S/C and the signals will be combined to search for gravitational wave signatures coming from distortions of spacetime. Gravitational waves are created during events such as supermassive black hole mergers, collisions between two black holes that are millions, or even billions, of times bigger than our Sun, and from other distant systems including smaller, stellar mass black holes orbiting supermassive black holes. Gravitational waves are a powerful new probe of the Universe that uses gravity instead of light to take measure of dynamic astrophysical phenomena. Part of NASA GSFC’s contributions to the LISA mission with ESA is to supply the laser heads (LH) for the mission.  The LH-emitted laser light is used to form three sets of optical interferometers between S/C for measuring picometer-level length changes over 2.5-million km with the low received power.  This acquisition is for the design, fabrication, alignment, testing, verification, and delivery of one (1) engineering model (EM), one (1) qualification model (QM), twelve (12) flight models (FM), two (2) flight spare (FS) laser heads, two (2) flight spare laser heads unassembled kits, and post-delivery support for both the Laser System (LS) integration and testing at GSFC, and observatory integration and test programs for the LISA mission.

NASA GSFC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for LISA Laser Head acquisition.   The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.

No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring this website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

Interested firms that possess the capability to meet the above requirement as described in the attached DRAFT Statement of Work (SOW) are encouraged to submit a capability statement indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort. In addition to submitting a capability statement in response to this RFI, please answer the following questions for informational purposes:

1. From your company’s perspective, what are the biggest programmatic, technical, and/or logistics challenges for your company in producing the various laser head models and quantities for the LISA program as stated in this RFI?  The notional delivery schedule for the LH is shown in Appendix A in this RFI.
2. What supply chain issues, if any, do your company foresee?
3. Your company is invited to provide informal information and recommendations for fashioning this proposed acquisition. Recommendation areas may include the type of contract, anticipated contract terms & conditions, incentives, variations in delivery schedule, price and/or cost proposal support, and any other areas that your company believes is relevant for the Government to achieve its stated objective.  Your company may opine regarding what portion of the work could be set-aside for small businesses if all the required work cannot be provided by a small business.  Details to support any recommendations for partial small business set-asides should be included.   
4. What can NASA GSFC specifically do to promote competition for this requirement?
5. Can the company provide a description of heritage spaceborne or airborne hardware similar to LISA in terms of production volume?
6. What facilities and resources are available to support and meet the production volume, environmental testing (TVAC, shock/vibration, etc.) and performance verification of the LISA laser?
7. LISA is going to be a multi-contract effort with integration done by NASA at GSFC and/or NASA at ESA.  Can the company provide examples of previous programs that show experiences interacting with other US or foreign during instrument level integration and testing?
8. From your company’s perspective, NASA GSFC will GFE the µNPRO to the laser vendor, what are some challenges if any will your company encounter? 
9. From your company’s perspective, would your company be open to procuring the µNPRO and/or the Power Amplifier Module? 
10. If the results of this market research indicate it is in the Government’s best interest to conduct the LISA Laser Head acquisition as a competitive procurement, is there any assumptions, comments, concerns, and/or questions relating to the contemplated requirement for determining the best value proposal?

Submission Instructions:

Interested parties having the required capabilities necessary to meet the Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) Laser Head requirement described herein should submit a capability statement of no more than 20 pages, using no less than 12-point Times New Roman font indicating the ability to perform all aspects of the effort. 

All capability statements and RFI responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Contracting Officer(s) Christopher King at [email protected], Wanda Moore at [email protected], and LISA Study Manager Terence Doiron at [email protected] no later than 12:00PM Eastern on March 18, 2024. NASA GSFC requests any questions or comments about this RFI be submitted to the same point of contacts listed above no later than 12:00PM Eastern on March 1, 2024.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information solicited. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation.

Thank you for your interest.