The RSDO Rapid II procurement maintains Indefinite Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts with five spacecraft vendors for providing Core System Spacecraft, Options and Mission Specific modifications to the Core spacecraft, and Non-standard services (studies). By having contracts in place with the vendors, acquisition time for spacecraft has been significantly shortened by the use of Delivery Orders. Depending on customer requirements, a Fixed Price Delivery Order can be placed in 30 to 90 days. RSDO contracts are open and available to any US Government Agent. The baseline contract documentation and formats are available in the Customer Resources page.

Spacecraft in the Rapid II catalog have been mated and interface-tested with the launch vehicle, including full approval from range safety. Many spacecraft in the Rapid II catalog also have flight experience (and in some cases extensive flight experience owing to commercial programs which have used the spacecraft previously).

Catalog spacecraft should NOT be viewed as fixed, immutable items, but as starting points for potential missions. Because every mission is different, mission-unique modifications are made to spacecraft acquired under Rapid II in order to accommodate the unique requirements of the mission, such as in the areas of instrument accommodation, space-ground communications, and operations; these mission unique modifications are included in the spacecraft acquired under Rapid II.

The Rapid II catalog includes recurring "on-ramps" through which catalog and new spacecraft providers can propose additional spacecraft during semi-annual opportunities.

Currently, there are 18 different spacecraft in the Rapid II catalog.

The baseline scope of work includes spacecraft build and test, interface control document generation and interface integration, mission-unique modification design, instrument integration and test, environmental test, shipment to launch site, launch vehicle integration support, and on-orbit checkout.

Payload capabilities range widely, and can be seen in detail in by viewing the Spacecraft Capabilities Matrix. These capabilities are baseline and can be modified to meet individual mission needs. Also, additional busses with new capabilities will be added to the catalog which may expand these baseline capabilities.

It should be noted that the RSA program is not a fit for every mission, but is most appropriate for missions which have the flexibility to wait until instrument and ground system interfaces mature. Significant cost savings can be realized without compromising reliability, performance, or safety.

The Rapid II Contracts (extension) started 3 January 2005 and ran through 3 January 2008.

Currently, there are eight vendors in the Rapid II catalog:

• Ball Aerospace
• EADS Astrium
• General Dynamics - Advanced Information Systems
• MICROSAT Systems
• Orbital Sciences
• Space Systems Loral
• Surrey Satellite Technology Limited
• ThalesAlenia Space