Fleet and Industrial Supply Center, Norfolk Washington Detachment 901 M.Street, S.E. Bldg. 200 4th Flr., Washington Navy Yard, Washington, DC 203

B -- FAME ASTROMETRIC SATELLITE PROJECT SOL N00600-99-R-1610 DUE 053099 POC Janet Freeman 202-762-1439, Contract Specialist, Contracting Officer Debra Glass 202-433-3500 The Fleet and Industrial Supply Center Norfolk (Detachment)Washington intends to award a sole-source purchase order to Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (60 Garden Street, Cambridge, MA 02138-1596), on behalf of the U.S. Naval Observatory (USNO). The purchase order will be for The FAME Astrometic Satellite Project. This is a follow on order for additional services. The original order was awarded in 1998 to Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory (SAO). Award will be made to SAO because The SAO is the only organization that has investigated and published results for achieving microarcsecond accuracy astrometry. The technical competence to investigate such accuracies is only at SAO. The FAME Project has been designed to operate with solar radiation pressure to drive the precession of the rotational axis according to the observational plan for sweeping the entire sky. This concept was developed at SAO. Additionally a critical part of the concept study and design development is the investigation of the error budget for the FAME observations, SAO is the only organization capable of developing values of the error budget based on the models and simulations that they have developed for the microarsecond astrometry. NOTE: This is not a request for competitive quotes; however, interested parties may identify their interest and capability to respond to the Navy prior to noon, 7 June 1999. Please direct all interest or questions to Janet Freeman (202) 762-1439 (Buyer)or Debra Glass (Contracting Officer) at 202 433-3500.***** Posted 05/06/99 (W-SN328687). (0126)

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