HS Mission Redacted Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition

NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

AMES RESEARCH CENTER

JUSTIFICATION FOR OTHER THAN FULL AND OPEN COMPETITION (JOFOC)

For NNH19ZDA013O/HelioSwarm Medium-Class Explorers Mission/80ARC026C0001 1. Revolutionary Federal Acquisition Regulation Overhaul (RFO) 6.104-1(a)(1) – Identification of the agency and the contracting activity, and specific identification of the document as a “Justification for other than full and open competition.”
This document is a justification for other than full and open competition prepared by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Ames Research Center (ARC). The procuring agency is NASA, and the contracting activity is ARC. This JOFOC is recorded in the ARC JOFOC/Justification for an Exception to Fair Opportunity (JEFO)/Limited Sources Justifications (LSJ) Log as JA-FY26-J03. 2. RFO 6.104-1(a)(2) – The nature and/or description of the action being approved: This justification provides the rationale for contracting by other than full and open competition to award a sole source contract with contract number 80ARC026C0001 to Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) for the execution of Phases C to F for the HelioSwarm (HS) Medium-Class Explorers (MIDEX) mission. HS is a transformative mission designed to explore the three-dimensional, dynamic mechanisms controlling the physics of plasma turbulence, a ubiquitous process occurring throughout the heliosphere and indeed the plasma universe at large. The HS mission is managed by NASA ARC, with the Principal Investigator (PI) at the University of New Hampshire (UNH). HS consists of heliophysics science instruments, provided by UNH, a Hub Spacecraft and a multiple Node Spacecraft provided by Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation (NGSC). The HS mission includes the design, production, test, integration, launch, commissioning and science operations of the mission. The current HS MIDEX contract is with UNH, is currently nearing the end of Phase B (Preliminary Design and Technology Completion), and includes scope for Phases C to F. Each phase is dependent upon successfully meeting criteria through key decision points. The contract was awarded via a selection made under the 2019 Heliophysics Explorers Program Medium-Class Explorer Announcement of Opportunity. The selection approved all phases and proposed team members without requiring further competition. Due to a number of factors including the importance of meeting critical mission schedules, it was determined that Phases C to F should be executed on a new contract with