NASA Awards Rapid IV Contracts for Spacecraft Systems and Services

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NASA has awarded contracts to five aerospace firms for the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV spacecraft and related services. Each contractor has one or more core spacecraft offerings available under their contract.

Under these multiple-award, indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contracts, spacecraft and related services will be purchased via government placed firm-fixed price delivery orders. These multi-agency contracts may support any NASA center and other federal agencies.

The Rapid IV contracts have a combined potential maximum value of $6 billion.

The contractors selected for award of Rapid IV contracts are:

• Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp., Boulder, Colorado
• Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, Texas
• Space Systems/Loral LLC  (Maxar), Palo Alto, California
• Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, Irvine, California
• Orbital Sciences Corporation (a wholly owned subsidiary of Northrop Grumman Space Systems Inc.), Dulles, Virginia

The Rapid IV contracts serve as a fast and flexible means for the government to acquire spacecraft and related components, equipment, and services in support of NASA missions and/or other federal government agencies. The spacecraft designs, related items, and services may be tailored, as needed, to meet the unique needs of each mission.

The Rapid IV contract includes an “On Ramp” feature, which allows for the original solicitation to be periodically re-opened in order to give new vendors the opportunity to propose flight proven spacecraft designs. On Ramps also give vendors already awarded a Rapid IV contract the opportunity to propose additional flight-proven spacecraft designs and/or update their existing catalog designs.