How To Compete For Nasa Contracts

Various studies and NASA experience have found that business concerns can provide a vital and significant impetus to technological innovation, not only in the fields of space and aeronautics, but also in national technological growth. NASA personnel are determined to foster the development of small business capabilities in technical areas that will support future projects and establish a small business base for the development and production of flight hardware for future missions. The solicitation process for Federal contracts has grown quite complex over the years. Where possible, we continue to try to simplify and streamline procedures for obtaining and performing these contracts. This booklet is designed to help understand NASA solicitations, find the information needed in deciding whether to respond, and improve chances for success. The first section of this booklet will answer general questions concerning the various types of NASA solicitations. Your specific questions on how to prepare bids will be answered in the second section, which is followed by a third section on the unique features of construction contracting. A fourth section describes how to submit technical and cost proposals for the negotiated procurement process. Some tips or suggestions, called DO's and DONT's, are placed at the end of the second, third, and fourth sections. Then, in the fifth section, ways to seek business as a subcontractor are identified. Unspecified Center ...

Contents: (1) Introduction; (2) Background; (3) Contracts Not Subject to CICA; (4) Contracts Subject to CICA; Full and Open Competition Defined; Competitive Procedures Resulting in Full and Open Competition; ¿Full and Open Competition After Exclusion of Sources¿; Circumstances Permitting Other Than Full and Open Competition; Justifications and Approvals; ¿Special Simplified Procedures for Small Purchases¿; Other Competition Requirements; (5) Competition Requirements for Task and Delivery Order Contracts; (6) Legislation in the 111th Congress: Legislation Enacted in the 111th Congress; Legislation Proposed in the 111th Congress; (7) Recent Executive Branch Policies. Charts and tables.

In 2007, NASA released a request for proposals for the development of the avionics unit—the brains—of a new launch vehicle intended to return humans to the moon for the first time in forty years, before proceeding on to Mars. This is the story of Ball Aerospace’s pursuit of this opportunity, while competing against four other major aerospace company teams, with almost $1 billion of new work at stake. After forty-plus years with NASA, the author, having joined Ball Aerospace in Boulder, Colorado, in 2004, took thirty-five top-notch Birkenstock-wearing engineers to Huntsville, Alabama, to establish a new Ball Aerospace office and lead the pursuit of the ARES I Instrument Unit Avionics contract. Being less than a tenth the size of its competitors, Ball Aerospace was a certifiable underdog. Once there, the Ball Aerospace team worked toward a common goal: pursuing and winning the contract by seeking to overcome the entrenched aerospace contractors who had dominated NASA’s human space flight program for decades. Explore the inner workings of a real-life industry pursuit and see how a major government agency, NASA, behaves and conducts itself with its contractor base—sometimes in ways you would not expect.