Notice of Contract Action

NOTICE OF CONTRACT ACTION (NOCA) 18 July 2014 NOTICE OF INTENT TO AWARD A SOLE-SOURCE CONTRACT THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR COMPETITIVE PROPOSALS. This is a notice of intent to award a sole source contract under the statutory authority of 10 USC 2304(c) (1), as set forth in Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) 6.302-1(a)(2)(iii)(B), only one source is capable of providing the supplies or services required at the level of quality required because the supplies or services are unique or highly specialized and award to any other source would result in unacceptable delays in fulfilling the agency's requirements. The Government has conducted extensive market research leading up to development of its acquisition strategy. As a result, the government found that the incumbent contractor is the only source that can provide the immediate services for the current critical mission. As the current contract ordering period has expired, the government requires a short 24-month (18 months + 6 month extention of services) carry-over contract to bridge the gap for a follow-on contract. A competitive solicitation for a follow-on requirement will be released during the 24-month carry-over contract. This sole source contract will allow the incumbent, MEI Technologies Inc., to provide continuing mission assurance support of SMC/SDD's mission until the follow-on DoD Human-rated Support Contract (DHSC) contract is awarded. This contract provides for the full spectrum of activities to support the flight of Department of Defense and reimbursable payloads on the International Space Station, its resupply launch vehicles, and related research platforms. The effort includes: mission design/development; complete integration of payloads to the ISS and launch vehicles following NASA requirements; thermal and structural modeling and development; safety engineering; development, design, build, integration, test and qualify manned space flight hardware/software for use in the pressurized, unpressurized, and to be deployed from the ISS; on-orbit operations of payloads; program management, crew training, configuration management, DoD ops center, LAN and laboratory management; logistics support; and access to commercial flight opportunities. The above represents the only scope that will be procured under this contract. This sole source action will result in a contract with pricing requirements to include cost plus fixed fee (CPFF) line items. The sole purpose of this contract is to ensure these critical mission requirements continue. While this notice of intent is for informational purposes only, and is not a request for competitive proposals, interested parties (to include small and small disadvantaged businesses) may identify their interest and technical capability, and submit information which will be considered by the agency. Please keep the responses to 15 one-sided pages or less. The applicable NAICS code is 541712 with a corresponding size standard of 1,000 employees. The product service code is AR32. This announcement constitutes the only notice for this carry-over effort. The incumbent is the only contractor who currently can provide this DoD Human-rated Support Contract (DHSC) support given the unique and highly skilled nature of the effort. At this time, there are no other contractors who are capable of providing these services without an unacceptable delay to mission schedules. As stated previously, competition is expected for the follow-on effort. The solicitation for that competition is expected to be released in late 2014. Notices regarding that acquisition will be posted to FedBizOpps.