Sustaining Engineering Services for Vegetable Production System (Veggie)

NASA's Kennedy Space Center intends to contract on a sole source basis with the Sierra Nevada Corporation for sustaining engineering services in support of the Vegetable Production System (Veggie) project. Veggie is a deployable plant growth unit capable of producing salad-type crops aboard the International space Station (ISS) for consumption by the crew. Veggie plant growth units are sized to fit into existing ISS racks and connect to ISS power and control systems. The Veggie project includes ISS flight hardware, ground hardware, associated spares, and consumable items. Orbital Technologies Corporation (Orbitec), manufactured the Veggie plant growth units and has provided sustaining engineering services for Veggie and associated hardware to NASA. Orbitech was acquired by the Sierra Nevada Corporation and operates as a wholly owned subsidiary, thus NASA will contract with Sierra Nevada Corporation for the required services. NASA requires sustaining engineering services for Veggie in support of the ISS program. The scope of Veggie sustaining engineering includes drawing updates, design modifications, troubleshooting, and provisioning ancillary equipment for unique experiments. The Sierra Nevada Corporation is the only source capable of performing these services without causing a signifcant delay and duplication of costs to the ISS Program. The planned contract will be fixed-priced, with a 1 year base period of performance and 4 option years, for a total performance period of 5 years. Interested organizations may submit their capabilities and qualifications to perform the effort in writing to the identified point of contact no later than 12:00 pm local time on November 17, 2017. 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. The solicitation number NNK18639163R shall be used to reference any written response provided under this notice. Oral communications are not acceptable in response to this notice. The North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code for this requirement is 541330, Engineering Services, with a size standard of $15M. 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.