NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) intends to issue a sole source Request for Proposals (RFP) to Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation (BATC) for continued performance under the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Instrument Servicing (HIS) contract.
This continued performance is required to ensure uninterrupted support to cover existing and potential repairs to HST science instruments through Servicing Mission 4 (SM4).
The HIS contract was awarded in 1998 as an Indefinite Delivery, Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contract to maximize long-term HST science return through repair and re-use of previously developed hardware and software and common support functions. The HIS contract allows the Government to leverage this unique opportunity by achieving efficient, optimized use and allocation of common resources.
Due to anomalies experienced with current on-orbit instruments, the manifest for SM4 was previously modified to include additional instrument repair efforts. An increase to the maximum value of this IDIQ contract is necessary to allow completion of the design and development effort required for SM4. In order to meet the HST SM4 schedule, and provide the specialized expertise to implement instrument repair solutions, a sole source procurement from BATC is required. No other companies have the knowledge and understanding of the unique HST instruments who can provide the flight hardware in time to support the August 2008 launch date.
BATC has designed, built, assembled, integrated and tested three generations of flight instruments for HST. There are currently four instruments on HST built by BATC, including the Advanced Camera for Surveys (ACS) and the Space Telescope Imaging Spectrograph (STIS). The continued performance under this contract will allow Ball to continue support for on-orbit anomaly investigation as well as hardware, software, and integration activities for the ACS and STIS repairs that are planned for SM4.
BATC will continue support of overall HST on-orbit instrument servicing and anomaly resolution; participate as a member of the Independent Team to review the current HST instrument power supply designs; provide a new Low Voltage Power Supply (LVPS), CCD Electronics Boxes (CEB), and power harness for ACS repair; provide support for designing the interfaces to the ACS power connector; complete development of the STIS repair; provide support for the development and fabrication of the ACS-Repair tools; and provide support for testing and evaluating system performance for Engineering and Flight Model builds of the instrument repair solutions.
The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12.
An Ombudsman has been appointed. See NASA Specific Note “B”. See Notes 22 and 26. Statutory authority for this sole source procurement is 10 U.S.C. 2304 ( C ) (1)—Only One Responsible Source.
However, organizations that believe they can provide these services without any detrimental impact to the program schedules, may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact not later than 3:00PM EST on March 19, 2008. Such capabilities/qualifications will be evaluated solely for the purpose of determining whether or not to conduct this procurement on a competitive basis.
A determination by the Government not to compete this proposed effort on a full and open competition basis, based upon responses to this notice, is solely within the discretion of the government.
Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice.
All qualified responsible sources may submit an offer, which shall be considered by the agency.
An Ombudsman has been appointed. See NASA specific Note “B”.
Any referenced notes may be viewed at the following URL’s linked below.
