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WASHINGTON – NASA will give companies a better choice in the type of contract used to produce a vehicle for the International Space Station.
In what sales presentation Posted Dec. 5, NASA announced that it will allow companies the choice of using a fixed price or a price with the strengthening of contract structure for the design and production of the US Deorbit Vehicle (USDV).
When NASA issued the first request for proposals (RFP) for the vehicle in September, the agency presented a choice. They can order the vehicle to be built using a cost-plus contract and then deliver it under a fixed-price contract, a method called the “hybrid”. Alternatively, they may undertake development and production under fixed price contracts.
The revamped approach now adds an opportunity to undertake both development and production under value-added contracts. NASA, in the sales presentation and what blog postThe reason for the change was not disclosed.
NASA has also revised the application submission deadline. The agency originally asked for applications to be submitted Nov. 17, with one award expected in April 2024. NASA later extended the request for December 14. With this change, NASA has pushed back the deadline to February 12, with a reward expected at the end of May or the beginning of June.
The USDV will be used to manage the final stages of the ISS’s end-of-life recovery. NASA requested $180 million for the vehicle in its fiscal year 2024 budget in January, with officials saying at the time they estimated the vehicle’s total cost to be close to $ 1 billion.
The revised RFP includes both “required” and “required” dates for the USDV. The required date to deliver the vehicle is August 1, 2028, for the launch four months later, while the required date is May 1, 2029, also for the launch four months later. Applications that do not meet the required submission date “will be considered non-responsive and rejected.”
That delivery schedule will support the retirement of the ISS in 2030, the retirement date currently planned for the station by NASA and its Western partners. Russia, so far, has only put the ISS to work in 2028. The RFP, however, includes pricing options for keeping the USDV on the ground in in a “Home” until 2035.