A--PARTNERSHIP OPPORTUNITY FOR THE AXP EXTENDIBLE OPTICAL BENCH STRUCTURE

This partnership opportunity is being issued to select a teaming partner to: - Help develop the AXP Extendible Optical Bench (EOB) design for the initial proposal submission. - Assist in the Phase A studies if AXP is selected and funded for a phase A study. - Oversee (including building, integrating, and testing) the complete flight EOB system should AXP be selected. The development and operations for the remainder of the AXP mission, including spacecraft, mission operations and data reduction will be the responsibility of GSFC. Launch vehicle procurement will be the responsibility of NASA HQ. For the portion of this partnership opportunity dealing with the preparation of the initial submission to the SMEX AO, there will be no exchange of funds between the teaming partners. Funding will be available for Phase A and subsequent phases should AXP be selected for those additional phases. The requested information through this POD is for preliminary planning purposes only and does not constitute a commitment, implied or otherwise, that NASA will solicit the submitter for a procurement of any related effort in the future. NASA will not be responsible for any costs incurred by submitters in furnishing this information. This solicitation/synopsis is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for the information solicited. An ombudsman has been appointed. See Internet Note - B. The documents for this partnership opportunity will be in Microsoft Office Suite (Word 6.0, Excel 5.0, or PowerPoint 4.0) format and will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The WWW address, or URL, of the NASA/GSFC Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=C&pin=51. It is the offerors responsibility to monitor this cite for the release of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the Partnership Opportunity Document and amendments, if any. Any referenced notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nasanote.html.