Rapid IV Contract for Spacecraft Systems Awarded by NASA
NASA has awarded contracts to Thales Alenia Space France of Cannes, France, and Thales Alenia Space Italia S.p.A. of Rome, Italy, under the On-Ramp feature of the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) contract. The work will be performed at the contractors’ facilities in Cannes and Rome.
Rapid IV is a multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract that allows the federal government to place firm-fixed price delivery orders for spacecraft and related services. These multi-agency contracts may support other NASA centers and other federal agencies. The Rapid IV contracts have a combined potential maximum value of $6 billion. This value includes all the delivery orders issued from the Rapid IV contract and is not the order value to any one vendor. These contracts offer NASA and any other United States Government Agency extremely fast procurement of spacecraft and payload space for future missions.
The On-Ramp feature used with these contracts allows for the original solicitation to be reopened periodically in order to give new vendors the opportunity to propose flight proven spacecraft designs. On-Ramps also give vendors who already have been awarded a Rapid IV contract the opportunity to propose additional flight-proven spacecraft designs and/or update their existing catalog designs.
The Rapid IV contracts serve as a rapid and flexible means for the U.S. government to acquire spacecraft and related components, equipment, and services in support of NASA missions and/or other federal agencies. The spacecraft designs, related items, and services may be tailored, as needed, to meet the unique needs of each mission.
The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) acquisition process for spacecraft procurements (draft solicitation release to delivery order award) is nominally 6 to 8 months. A typical, traditional spacecraft acquisition takes two years or longer. Furthermore, since Rapid spacecraft require less development, the delivery order period of performance averages 24-36 months and culminates in delivery in orbit after checkout and acceptance.
(Source: NASA news release)