- NASA has issued a solicitation for On-Ramp III of the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV contract vehicle, aiming to acquire spacecraft and related technologies.
- Interested parties have until October 31, 2023, to submit their proposals, with the acquisition resulting in multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts.
September 19, 2023, United States- NASA has officially opened the competition for the third On-Ramp of its Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) program. According to a request for proposals posted on SAM.gov, the purpose of Rapid IV is to “provide the government with a flexible way to acquire spacecraft and related technologies and services in support of various agency missions, including those of NASA.”
The On-Ramp feature of the program allows for the reopening of the Rapid IV solicitation. This enables existing contract awardees and potential candidates to propose new spacecraft designs or update their existing catalogs. In the past, companies such as Thales Alenia Space, Lockheed Martin, QinetiQ’s space business, and Space Flight Laboratory have been added to the original Rapid IV participants via On-Ramps I and II.
The acquisition process will result in multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts. These contracts will feature a base period that ends on August 31, 2025, and include one five-year option period. Interested parties have until October 31, 2023, to respond to the solicitation.
The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) outlines that the scope of work includes “design and development of the spacecraft (i.e., Cubesats to Geosats), integration of Government provided scientific instruments, spacecraft/observatory integration and test, shipment of observatory to launch site, observatory launch support, on-orbit checkout of observatory, and on-orbit operations as required.”
The range of possible NASA missions that could utilize the Rapid IV contract is broad and includes potential missions like Landsat Next, Atmosphere Observing System – Polar (AOS-P), and NOAA Near Earth Orbit Network (NEON) program, among others.
Prospective offerors must submit a written response of their intent to submit a proposal to Cynthia White via electronic transmission at Cynthia.L.White@nasa.gov, by October 10, 2023. All proposal instructions and evaluation procedures are available in Sections L and M of the Rapid IV On-Ramp III RFP.
