I. INTRODUCTION. In the past, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) has relied on the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to acquire spacecraft and instruments for NOAA’s Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite System (GOES), while NOAA has acquired the ground and data routing systems. NOAA seeks industry input on the concept of an acquisition involving a single prime contractor for an end-to-end fully integrated space and ground system for the future GOES-R program, rather than NOAA awarding multiple contracts for ground and data routing systems and NASA awarding multiple contracts for space and instrument systems. The goal of such an acquisition strategy would be to simplify the Government’s interface with industry by choosing, through competitive means, a single prime contractor responsible for defining, designing, developing, producing, deploying, maintaining, and testing the total end-to-end GOES-R system and sustaining its operations for the life of the system. This single prime contractor would interface with the Government and would manage all program subcontractors for the life of the program. This new contracting approach for GOES-R is only being considered; the Government is investigating other NOAA- or NASA-managed alternatives for the contracting approach.II. BACKGROUND. The mission of the GOES-R series satellites will be to provide continuous, near real-time meteorological, oceanographic, solar, and space environment data that supports NOAA’s five strategic mission goals; namely, (1) protecting, restoring, and managing the use of coastal and ocean resources through ecosystem-based management; (2) understanding climate variability and change to enhance society's ability to plan and respond; (3) serving society's needs for weather and water information; (4) supporting the Nation's commerce with information for safe, efficient, and environmentally sound transportation; and (5) providing critical support to NOAA’s mission. The GOES-R satellite series is planned for launch in the 2012 timeframe and is the follow-on to the GOES N-P series to meet new requirements validated through a rigorous screening and verification process. It presents an opportunity to explore new instruments, satellite design, and system architectures utilizing improved communication and instrument technologies. GOES-R represents an increase in the number of products (151 vs 43), increased spatial resolutions (0.5 km visible and 4 km IR soundings) and improved refresh rates (5 min vs 24 min for full hemispheric coverage). GOES-R improvements in environmental sensing instruments include an Advanced Baseline Imager (ABI) with 16 channels, a Hyperspectral Environmental Suite (HES) with approximately 1500 channels capable of providing soundings and imagery to include costal waters, an improved Solar Imaging Suite (SIS); an improved Space Environment In-Situ Suite (SEISS), and a new GOES Lightning Mapper (GLM). NOAA is also investigating other possible operational instruments, such as a hyperspectral imager, solar irradiance sensor, coronagraph, and microwave imager/sounder. III. HISTORY. In October 2003, NOAA funded a series of End-to-End architecture studies to determine the optimal GOES-R architecture. These studies defined alternative system architectures that would meet performance requirements ultimately resulting in a Government Reference Architecture (GRA). The GRA is used as the Government’s notional system baseline for cost estimation, budget formulation, and performance assessment relative to user requirements. The Government will introduce the GRA as a reference point, but will expect industry to propose innovative and best-value solutions to best meet the Government’s requirements, not necessarily to build the GRA. The Government does not intend to use the GRA as a factor in any source selection decision. The Government also initiated early instrument designs, risk reduction and trade studies, concentrating on critical instruments. NASA conducted competitive procurements resulting in multiple industry awards. These instrument development activities were started prior to the rest of the system in order to mitigate technical risk, facilitate interface definition, and enable refinement of NOAA performance requirements. IV. PROPOSED APPROACH. The Government anticipates two future acquisition phases; namely, a Program Definition and Risk Reduction (PDRR) phase with multiple contracts awarded and a subsequent down-select to an Acquisition and Operations (A&O) phase with one contract awarded. During the PDRR phase, each contractor will simultaneously and separately optimize system architectures (balancing performance and cost), prepare to assume responsibility for completion of instrument development programs, and demonstrate ability to meet end-to-end system performance requirements through reviews with Government program managers. In the A&O phase, the single prime contractor will be responsible for all aspects of design, development, integration, acceptance and testing, deployment, and operations of the total system, including space, ground, and launch segments. The Government will require that the contractor assume responsibility under its prime contract for instruments currently being developed, as the Government will likely close out those instrument contracts and the contractor will assume responsibility for completion of these efforts. For PDRR, the solicitation (RFP) might be issued in March 2005 with contract awards in September 2005; for the A&O phase, the down-select RFP might be issued in time to support a June 2007 contract award. V. THE GOVERNMENT’S NEED. NOAA solicits input from industry on a single prime contractor approach for the GOES-R system acquisition. Any party interested in assisting the Government as it makes its decision on this acquisition strategy is invited to prepare and submit a white paper with its thoughts, observations, cautions, or recommendations. A white paper must be brief, should not exceed four pages in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format, should be written from the perspective of helping Government program managers make a decision, and should be delivered to John Inman at john.inman noaa.gov by 5PM on Wednesday, December 8, 2004. NOAA intends to hold an industry day to announce the GOES-R acquisition strategy on Monday, December 13, 2004, at 1:00PM EST in the NOAA auditorium in Silver Spring, Maryland. Interested parties should email Mary M. Petruzzo (
[email protected]) not later than December 6, 2004, with their intent to attend and the names of individuals attending. The agenda and map to the NOAA auditorium will be posted on the NOAA GOES-R webpage at http://osd.goes.noaa.gov.