Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Kennedy Space Center (KSC) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for an Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle. The NASA KSC is seeking capability statements from all interested parties, including all socioeconomic categories of Small Businesses and Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU)/Minority Institutions (MI), and members of the underserved communities as defined by Executive Order 13985, Advancing Racial Equity And Support For Underserved Communities Through The Federal Government, for the purposes of determining the appropriate level of competition and/or small business subcontracting goals for the Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle (CTV). The Government reserves the right to consider a Small, 8(a), Women-owned (WOSB), Service-Disabled Veteran (SD-VOSB), Economically Disadvantaged Women-owned Small Business (EDWOSB), or HUBZone business set-aside based on responses received. The mission of the NASA KSC Exploration Ground Systems (LX) is to Build. Launch. Recover. NASA KSC LX is seeking to augment its mission with an Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle (CTV) system for transporting the NASA Artemis Astronauts from the suiting-up facility in the Neil Armstrong Operations and Check-out Building (O&C) to the Launch Pad on launch day at NASA KSC. The CTV shall visually embody Artemis to the public; and safely and securely transport the Astronauts and support personnel. The required delivery date of the Artemis CTV system shall be no later than June 2023. NASA-KSC will consider the following options: Non-commercial option: designed and manufactured vehicle Commercial option: commercially available vehicle which can be modified to meet the requirements Repair/refurbishment option: Refurbishment of the Government-owned 1983 custom Airstream transport vehicle: The Government-owned Airstream is shown here: https://youtu.be/seikec3c7KE The Artemis CTV shall meet the following requirements: In accordance with the Executive Order on Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks, the Artemis CTV shall be a zero-emission vehicle, including battery-electric, plug-in hybrid electric, or fuel cell electric. Be designed and manufactured in accordance with the current National Highway Transportation Safety Administration Standards. NASA KSC will provide exterior markings/artwork to indicate the CTV is the Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle and such markings/artwork will be approved by key NASA KSC stakeholders prior to fabrication and installation. Personnel Capacity. The Artemis CTV shall be a single-vehicle capable of carrying and seating a minimum of 8 passengers as follows: 1 Driver 4 Fully suited Flight Crew Members 1 Suit Technician 1 Flight Operations Director (FOD) 1 Protective Services Agent Equipment Capacity. The Artemis CTV shall provide for the following equipment storage adjacent to Flight Crew Member seating and be readily accessible: 4 Equipment bags (Helmets, etc.), each approximately 20” x 20” x 20” totaling 8000 cubic inches 4 Ice-based cooling units (CU) @ approximately 28” x 16” x 22” 1 Equipment bag (31x12x16 inches) for the Suit Technician 1 Pad Transfer Bag: 1 Large duffle size approximately 31” x 12” x16” inches 2 cubic feet per passenger for misc. storage Human Factors. The Artemis CTV shall meet the following usability (human factors) requirements: Sufficiently large doors (approximately 24 to 36 inches wide) and provisions for all passengers and fully suited crew members to easily ingress, sit in & egress the CTV Have a primary ingress/egress door into the vehicle as well as a secondary exit for emergency egress Cooling & heating capacity for passengers and equipment shall be sized appropriately for the size of the vehicle and natural environments in which it will be used. Natural environments include year-round, central FL temperature, and weather conditions. The vehicle will be used on paved KSC roads to/from the launch pad The Artemis CTV shall be configured to provide: Sufficient personnel and equipment capacity in the main cabin of the vehicle as previously specified in the above sections of this document. Passenger seat at the front or rear of the vehicle for one Protective Services Agent (Included with total personnel count) The CTV shall provide 12VDC female power connectors per ANSI/SAE J563 size A, one located at each of the four (4) astronaut seating positions. The connector and associated wiring shall be rated to 10A minimum. No solicitation exists; therefore, do not request a copy of the solicitation. If a solicitation is released, it will be synopsized on SAM.gov. Interested firms are responsible for monitoring the website for the release of any solicitation or synopsis. All communication regarding this Sources Sought shall be in writing and emailed to the Contracting Officer, Anthony Islas at [email protected] . Questions and Answers (Q&A): All questions shall be in writing and emailed to the Contracting Officer, Anthony Islas at [email protected]. The Government will receive questions until October 8, 2021. Questions received after this date may not be answered. The Government intends to combine all questions and post answers as an amendment to this Sources Sought no later than October 15, 2021. Questions sent to anyone other than the Contracting Officer shall not be answered. Site Visit: A site visit is scheduled from 7:00 am to 9:00 am EST, on Wednesday, October 13, 2021. The site visit will be held at the Kennedy Space Center, Visitor Complex, Space Commerce Way, Merritt Island, FL 32953. Attendees shall contact the Contracting Officer, Anthony Islas at [email protected] no later than Monday, October 11, 2021, with a list of attendees. All site visit attendees shall be required to follow the current health and safety measures found here: https://www.kennedyspacecenter.com/info/coronavirus. Response Instructions: All responses to this Sources Sought shall be submitted electronically via email. Electronic submissions shall be in Adobe PDF format and shall not exceed 10 MB. Interested firms having the required capabilities necessary to meet the above requirement described herein should submit a Capability Statement. The Capability Statement shall be restricted to no more than two (2) PDF pages, in font Times New Roman, and no smaller than size 10 font. The Capability Statement shall succinctly address the following four (4) items and demonstrate the contractor’s ability to perform all aspects of the effort: The Capability Statement shall also include which option the vendor is interested in and capable of meeting: Non-commercial, Commercial, and/or Repair/Refurbishment. The capabilities statement shall include the vendor’s name, address, vendor point of contact name, phone, email, CAGE Code, DUNS, and business size; and The contractor’s ability to manage the type(s) and magnitude of the requirement; and The contractor’s technical ability, or potential approach to achieving technical ability; and The contractor’s capacity, or potential approach to achieving the requirement. For the purposes of this Capability Statement, capacity shall refer to matters such as the magnitude of the requirement, the amount of equipment or facilities involved, and the size of the staff. The Government is requesting Rough Orders of Magnitude (ROM) be included. The Government shall treat such contractor's input as "market research" type information for the program office's subject matter experts to use. Ideal ROMs will include estimated hours; duration, in months, to complete the requirement; and total estimated costs. Interested firms are also invited to provide a “Portfolio” containing previous, completed projects, similar to the requirement, in addition to their capability statement. The “Portfolio” shall not contain any concepts considered proprietary in nature. The Portfolio shall be restricted to no more than five (5) PDF pages, font Times New Roman, and no smaller than size 10 font. Again, electronic submissions shall not exceed 10 MB. Interested vendors shall confirm if their option to fulfill the Government’s requirement is considered to be a commercial or commercial-type product. All responses shall be submitted electronically via email to Anthony Islas, Contracting Officer, at [email protected] no later than 4:00 pm EST on Monday, October 25, 2021. Please reference “ Artemis Crew Transportation Vehicle ” in the subject line for all responses. This synopsis is for information and planning purposes only and is not to be construed as a commitment by the Government nor will the Government pay for information received from this Sources Sought. Respondents will not be notified of the results of the evaluation. Respondents deemed fully qualified will be considered in any resultant solicitation for the requirement.