A--NASA BALLOON OPERATIONS CONTRACT

NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) has a follow-on requirement for Balloon Flight Program Operations services. These services include operating and maintaining the Columbia Scientific Balloon Facility (CSBF), and providing engineering services to support the NASA Balloon Program. CSBF is a Government-owned facility located in Palestine, Texas, with a permanent balloon staging facility at Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Contractor will also be required to provide operational balloon flight support including launching, tracking, and recovering scientific balloons and payloads, and to provide engineering services for operational support, quality control, and balloon research and development. Contract services will be performed at multiple locations including at the CSBF, at Wallops Flight Facility (WFF) located at Wallops Island VA, and at the Contractor's facility. The Government does not intend to acquire a commercial item using FAR Part 12. This procurement will be a full and open competition. The NAICS Code and Size Standard are 541330 and $3.5M respectively. All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency. The anticipated that we will release a Draft RFP on or about May 22, 2013. We anticpate that the final RFP will be issued on or about July 23, 2013.The primary point of contact for questions/concerns related to this aquisition is Mickey M. Merritt. This notice does not constitute a soliciation of proposal or a commitment by the Government. Interested parties are responsible for monitoring the Internet site for schedule updates, the release of the solicitation, and amendments (if any). The solicitation and documents related to this procurement will be availble over the Internet. These documents will reside on a World Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW broser application. THe internet site, or URL, for the NASA Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/EPS/bizops.cgi?gr=D&pin= . It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor the Internet site for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any). NASA Clause 1852.215-84, Ombudsman, is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at http://prod.nais.nasa.gov/pub/pub_library/Omb.html .