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Contract Opportunity

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for the Human Health and Performance Contract 2 (HHPC2). JSC is issuing this Request For Information (RFI)/Sources Sought Synopsis (SSS) as a means of conducting market research to identify parties having an interest in and the resources to support this requirement. This action will be a follow-on procurement to the current NASA HHPC, contract number NNJ15HK11B. The result of this market research will contribute to determine the type and method of procurement. The applicable North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) code assigned to this procurement is 541715.

NASA JSC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Business and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI) and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for HHPC2. The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB) or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received.

This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and there is no solicitation at this time. This request for capability information does not constitute a request for proposals and submission of any information in response to this market survey is purely voluntary. The Government assumes no financial responsibility for any costs incurred and the respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Please note that the Government may not respond to questions submitted and telephone inquiries will not be accepted or acknowledged.

If a solicitation is released it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring SAM.gov and the HHPC2 website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis.

HHPC2 Description:

It is anticipated that the HHPC2 will be a Single-Award, 100% Indefinite-Delivery Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) Cost-Plus Award Fee (CPAF) contract. Requirements will be issued as Cost-Reimbursable (CR), Level of Effort (LOE), and Firm-Fixed Price (FFP) task orders as determined appropriate throughout the life of the contract.

The Human Health and Performance Contract 2 (HHPC2) is the major support services contract for the Human Health and Performance Directorate (HHPD) and will be leveraged by other Johnson Space Center (JSC) Directorates and other NASA Centers. The HHPD’s vision is focused on humans living, working, and thriving in space on the Moon and on to Mars, and its mission is to lead the global spaceflight community in protecting astronaut health and enabling human mission performance. The major responsibilities of the HHPD are to ensure crew health, safety, and performance to provide occupational health services for the JSC and the White Sands Test Facility (WSTF); and to conduct research and develop technologies to help mitigate risks to the health, safety, and performance of future spaceflight crews.

The HHPC2 Draft Statement of Work (DSOW) and the current HHPC Statement of Work (SOW) are included as attachments to this RFI for interested parties to reference in addition to providing comments to the HHPC2 DSOW. Furthermore, Sample Task Orders for HHPC2 are anticipated to be posted on SAM.gov at a later date for interested parties to review.

The pertinent contract information for the current contract is as follows:

• Current Contractor: KBR Wyle Services, LLC


• Contract Number: NNJ15HK11B


• Estimated Contract Value: $1.9B


• Contract Expiration Date: October 31, 2025

Capability Statement:

Interested firms having the required capabilities necessary to meet the above requirement should indicate the ability to perform all aspects of the effort, and include the following information:

• Describe your company’s overall skills, experience, and capabilities to perform the work of the HHPC2 Draft DSOW. Please identify specific HHPC2 DSOW sections where your company could provide the stated capability by way of Attachment – HHPC2 Vendor Capability Matrix at the end of this announcement. If subcontracting or joint venture is anticipated to deliver technical capability, companies should address the anticipated administrative and management structure of such arrangements (if this information is known at this time). Also address what elements of work would be performed by the prime or joint venture and which elements would be performed by subcontractors.


• Company-Specific Information – responses must include the following:
  
  
  
  • Name and address of Company Point of Contact information (include DUNS number, address, phone, and email).
  
  
  • Size of business.
  
  
  • Average annual revenue for past three years.
  
  
  • Number of employees.
  
  
  • Whether the firm is a Large, SB, SDB, HUBZone, WOSB, VOSB, SDVOSB, HBCU/MI, and/or 8(a).
  
  
  • Number of years in business.
  
  
  • Affiliate information: parent company, joint venture partners, and potential teaming partners.
  
  
  • If you plan to propose as a prime or subcontractor.
  
  
  
  

In addition to the information requested above, interested parties may also provide optional comments on this potential acquisition regarding proposed contract type, incentive arrangements, evaluation criteria, or performance metrics. Specifically, interested parties are requested to address the following items:

1. If this contract is not set aside, how can NASA design/structure the contract to ensure that small business goals are met or exceeded?


2. What innovations might you propose in the performance of this contract or contract structure?

If the Government issues a Request for Proposal (RFP), the Government reserves the right to restrict the procurement to small business.

NASA Clause 1852.215-84 Ombudsman is applicable. The Center Ombudsman for this acquisition can be found at https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/Procurement-Ombuds-Comp-Advocate-Listing.pdf

Organizational Conflicts of Interest (OCI):

In addition to the information requested above, NASA is requesting information from industry regarding potential OCI arising from the HHPC2 acquisition. The nature of the work anticipated under HHPC2 may create the potential for OCI as currently described in FAR Subpart 9.5. Each interested party should review FAR Subpart 9.5 in light of NASA’s anticipation of OCI issues and carefully consider the extent to which an OCI may arise before making the decision to compete for HHPC2.

Specifically, NASA anticipates that the effort under HHPC2 will include the following types of tasks, which could lead to potential OCI issues:

• Assessment of component and system designs, analysis, and models developed for NASA spaceflight including the following programs. This list is not all inclusive.
  
  
  
  • Artemis Campaign Development Division programs such as: Cross Program Integration, Gateway, Human Landing System, and xEVA and Human Surface Mobility (EHP).
  
  
  • Common Exploration Systems Development Orion Program.
  
  
  • Commercial Space Division programs: Commercial Crew, and Commercial LEO Development.
  
  
  • International Space Station (ISS) Program.
  
  
  • Human Research Program (HRP).
  
  
  
  


• Design, development, test, and evaluation including certification of hardware including flight hardware and software.


• Subject Matter Expert (SME) support to NASA programs and commercial providers.


• Assessment of new technology disclosures (e.g., “invention disclosures”) including, for example, new and novel hardware, software, and processes.


• Access to Government Sensitive Information such as pre-decisional information associated with on-going or future NASA projects that may result in future competitive procurements.


• Provide support to NASA for the development of NASA and/or vendor user requirements and user verification and acceptance testing for user applications, mission systems, training systems, and test facilities within the associated facilities that are developed and maintained by Contractors.


• Access to a Contractor, Grantee, and Space Act Agreement Participant’s proprietary information where said Contractor, Grantee, and Space Act Agreement Participant is not the HHPC2 Contractor.

These types of tasks could lead to the following categories of OCI issues depending on the composition of the team selected for the anticipated HHPC2:

• Unequal access to nonpublic information of the type that may provide the HHPC2 Contractor an unfair competitive advantage in a later competition for a government procurement contract.


• Potentially creating biased ground rules by providing technical assessments and advice to NASA personnel on specific technologies and methodologies that may affect NASA’s preparation of a specification of work, other contractual requirements, or NASA’s evaluation of proposals in a future competitive procurement.


• Potential impaired objectivity if the HHPC2 contractor or its subcontractors are assessing hardware or data developed by themselves or related companies or subcontractors.


• Potential impaired objectivity if the HHPC2 contractor or its subcontractors or related companies are responsible for assessing hardware or data under another JSC contract vehicle.

A link to NASA’s Guide on Organizational Conflicts of Interest is below:

https://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/procurement/regs/guides/OCI_Guide.pdf

Please reference this document for additional information about NASA’s policies with respect to OCI issues. Interested parties are requested to address the following questions:

1. What type(s) of OCI issues would your company or potential team identify, if any, should you choose to propose on HHPC2?


2. What strategies would you anticipate proposing to mitigate the OCI issues that you identified (if any)? Please provide strategy details, previous examples/experience with other contracts with NASA or other agencies, etc.


3. Are there any other types of potential OCI issues with the proposed HHPC2 that were not identified in this RFI?


4. Does your company foresee any OCI issues associated with HHPC2 that would cause you to decide not to propose on the potential HHPC2 RFP? If so, please explain.

NASA will review any responses received regarding potential OCI and each offeror’s proposed OCI mitigation strategy. NASA may respond to each company who submits an OCI mitigation strategy if needed. NASA’s response will simply be an attempt to examine circumstances which might lead to or eliminate an OCI and is not intended to serve as a confirmation that, in fact, all potential OCI issues have been identified, that an OCI will ultimately exist, or that an interested party is capable of successfully eliminating or mitigating an identified OCI. NASA’s response is also not intended to encourage or discourage any interested party from responding to an RFP issued for HHPC2 in the future. Furthermore, NASA’s response in no way alters or interprets FAR 9.5 as it applies to a final statement of work or a final proposal submission, should an interested party elect to submit a proposal to an RFP for HHPC2. Subsequent to the initial OCI submission and NASA’s response, the Government will not consider further information as it relates to this RFI. The Contractor will still be required to comply with the RFP OCI requirements and its submission will be considered in accordance with the RFP.

The documents on the NASA procurement website are for information and planning purposes, to allow industry the opportunity to comment, and to promote competition only. NASA will not affirmatively release any information received in response to this RFI to the public but may use information received in developing the best approach for a contract strategy, and therefore such information may be recognizable to the interested party who submitted it.

Questions for Interested Parties:

Collaborations and Cost Savings

1. What is your strategy for accommodating and engaging other Government and non-Government parties, including commercial providers, to support new NASA projects and programs?


2. How would you determine which services (e.g., facilities, laboratories, offices, expertise) are provided on-site and those that could be housed off-site?


3. How do you organize your business so that NASA is not your only customer?


4. What is your strategy for bringing in external customers to use your non-Government facilities to offset Government costs?


5. What is your strategy for bringing in external customers to utilize excess capacity in Government facilities to offset Government costs?

Timely Hiring, Training, and Retention of Employees

1. What are your best practices for the timely hiring, training, certification, and retention of personnel?


2. What approaches do you currently have to retain high performing personnel?


3. What future skillsets do you see as critical to meeting NASA’s human health and performance requirements?


4. What Project Management skills, certifications, and best practices do you feel are required across the contract?


5. What is your strategy for providing specialized and/or temporary critical support?

Quality Assurance & Engineering Best Practices and Innovations

1. What best practices, efficiencies, and/or innovations would you implement to support and continually improve NASA JSC’s Quality Assurance & Engineering for projects and programs within cost and schedule constraints? Provide examples associated with hardware, software, and laboratories for what you see as key Quality Assurance & Engineering capabilities and skillsets for HHPC2, including beyond LEO.

Capabilities and Skillsets for Information Systems, Data Management, and Data Visualization

1. What do you consider to be critical capabilities and skillsets for information systems development and implementation, data management, and data visualization?


2. How do you as a company adapt to accommodate emerging and fast-evolving information systems and data management technologies?

Cost Estimates

1. What are your company’s best practices (e.g., your process overview and schedule) for providing initial rough order of magnitude (ROM) estimates for new projects or tasks, including those where urgent estimates are needed? On average, what is the percentage variance between your ROMs and Basis of Estimates (BOE) based on project size (e.g., $100K; $1M; $10M+)?


2. What innovative strategies, if any, would you implement for cost estimates?


3. What is your response time for a contract change request or task order revision?


4. How would you identify and infuse cost efficiencies and/or cost reduction strategies to minimize overall contract costs?


5. What best practices, efficiencies, and/or innovations would you implement to streamline contract management and administration?

Medical and Clinical Services Best Practices and Innovations

1. What best practices, efficiencies, and/or innovations would you implement to continually improve NASA’s medical and clinical services and products and reduce costs?


2. How do you envision JSC’s terrestrial (non-spaceflight) health and medical support of the NASA mission evolving over the next 10 years?

Emergency Management

1. How would you maintain services and products in the event of natural or human-caused disasters that impact employees and/or infrastructure?

General

1. What information was not provided in this RFI and Draft SOW that you would like to see?


2. What is the most important question that wasn’t asked in this RFI?

Submission Instructions:

Interested parties who consider themselves qualified to perform one or more elements of the Draft Statement of Work are invited to submit a response to this RFI/SSS by 4:00 p.m. CST on February 28, 2024. All responses and questions related to this RFI/SSS must be emailed to the Contracting Officer, Yaranet Marquez at yaranet.marquez-1@nasa.gov.

Interested parties having the required capabilities necessary to meet the above requirement described herein are encouraged to respond with the following information using no less than 12-point Arial font indicating the ability to perform one or more elements of the effort:

• Capability Statement


• Vendor Capability Matrix


• Comments to the Draft SOW (if any)


• OCI Responses


• Responses to Questions included in RFI

Attachments/Links