NASA/George C. Marshall Space Flight Center, Procurement Office, Marshall Space Flight Center, AL 35812

A -- VEHICLE DEFINITION STUDY FOR A LIQUID FLY BACK BOOSTER (LFBB) POC Jane E. Maples, Contracting Officer, Phone (205) 544-0344, Fax (205) 544-9080, Email jane.maples@msfc.nasa.gov -- Amy B. Williams, Contracting Officer, Phone (205) 544-8620, Fax (205) 544-9080, Email amy.williams@msfc.nasa.gov WEB: Marshall Space Flight Center Procurement Home Page, http://procure.msfc.nasa.gov/home.html. NASA/MSFC plans to issue a Request for Offer (RFO) to solicit proposals that offer new and innovative solutions for development of a liquid fueled, fully-reusable Space Transportation System (STS) fly back booster as part of an ongoing effort to upgrade the STS fleet while providing additional safety, improved reliability, improving operability, enhanced performance, and reduced cost. Specifically, NASA's overall intent is to develop a liquid flyback booster (LFBB) to increase STS launch and flight margins and flexibility. This upcoming solicitation is part of a new LFBB definition study initiated within the Agency in December, 1996. The definition study team is lead by Marshall Space Flight Center and is scheduled to report findings and recommendations to NASA management by the fall of 1997. The purpose of this study is to assess the overall feasibility of developing a LFBB vehicle and integrating it into the STS fleet with minimum impact to current hardware and resources. The Shuttle vehicle integration assessment and associated definition of system level LFBB requirements is being handled through the current Shuttle integration contractor, separately from this procurement. This LFBB vehicle definition RFO will outline general requirements and request delivery of: (1) definition of a vehicle concept including a recommendation for baseline and alternate engines; (2) a conceptual plan for vehicle design, development, test and evaluation (DDT&E) and production including schedule and costs; (3) definition of ground and flight operations; (4) generation of life cycle cost analyses and cost sensitivity; and (5) a definition of a business plan for development, introduction and growth. It is anticipated that multiple awards will be made not to exceed approximately $1M. The planned contract type is firm-fixed price with an estimated period of performance of 7.5 months. The RFO will contain a more detailed description and will be released in approximately 15 days after posting this synopsis on the NASA Acquisition Internet Service (NAIS) and the CBDnet. This procurement is being conducted under the NASA MidRange Pilot Test Program approved by the Office of Federal Procurement Policy. See Numbered Note 26. All responsible sources may submit an offer which shall be considered by the agency. The anticipated release date of the RFO is on or about 2/21/97, with an anticipated offer due date of on or about 3/21/97. An ombudsman has been appointed -- See Note "B". The solicitation and any documents related to this procurement will be available over the Internet. These documents will be in ASCII or RTF format and will reside on a World-Wide Web (WWW) server, which may be accessed using a WWW browser application. The WWW address, or URL, of the NASA/MSFC Business Opportunities home page is http://procurement.nasa.gov/EPS/MSFC/class.html. Prospective offerors shall notify this office of their intent to submit an offer. It is the offeror's responsibility to monitor this site for the release of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Potential offerors will be responsible for downloading their own copy of the solicitation and amendments (if any). Hard copies may be obtained from the identified point of contact; however, the closing date for the hard copy received shall be the same as the solicitation, inclusive of any amendments, released on the Internet. Any referenced numbered notes can be viewed at the following URL: http://genesis.gsfc.nasa.gov/nnotes.htm. (0037)

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