Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC) Sources Sought

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA/Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC)) is hereby soliciting information from potential sources for the Commercial Low Earth Orbit (LEO) Destination Contract (CLDC).

As NASA plans for the retirement of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of the decade, the ability of private industry to take on the task of providing routine utilization of LEO and maintaining a continuous U.S. presence in space is of vital importance to both NASA and U.S. goals.

In a multiphase strategy, JSC’s Commercial LEO Development Program (CLDP) is helping spur the development of new LEO space destinations and supporting systems from private industry. See link here for additional information: https://www.nasa.gov/leo-economy/low-earth-orbit-economy/.  These systems may include end-to-end services such as the in-orbit destination, visiting vehicles, and supporting launch vehicles and ground systems.

NASA awarded Phase 1 Space Act Agreements to promote early design maturation of safe, reliable, and cost-effective commercial orbital platforms and capabilities. The Commercial Destinations Free Flyer (CDFF) agreements are held by Blue Origin and Starlab Space. The Collaborations to Commercial Space Capabilities (CCSC-2) agreements are held by Northrop Grumman, Blue Origin, Sierra Space, SpaceX, Special Aerospace Service (SAS), Think Orbital, and Vast Space. Additional Commercial LEO Destination (CLD) development efforts are being performed under the agency’s Commercial Destination ISS (CDISS) contract, which was awarded to Axiom Space.

NASA is currently developing Phase 2 requirements for CLD capabilities that would be able to support NASA astronauts, international astronauts, and other spaceflight participants safely in LEO on a commercially-owned and operated space station. For Phase 2, NASA intends to issue the CLDP requirements on a separate Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) part 15 Firm-Fixed Price solicitation to procure these end-to-end services.

NASA plans to release a draft Request for Proposal (RFP) in the summer of 2025 under NAICS code 336414, Guided Missile and Space Vehicle Manufacturing (size standard of 1500 employees). NASA anticipates issuing the solicitation as a full and open competition available to any capable offeror. Participation in CLD Phase 1 is not a pre-requisite to compete in Phase 2.

In accordance with the 2020 National Space Policy, which aims “to promote a robust domestic commercial space industry and strengthen U.S. leadership as the country of choice for conducting commercial space activities,” NASA plans to purchase CLD services from a United States provider.

Additional technical and strategic information along with a preliminary schedule can be found in the CLDC Acquisition Website: https://www.nasa.gov/johnson/jsc-procurement/cldc/.

Please note, the documents/links on the CLDC Acquisition Website listed above are for information and planning purposes to allow industry the opportunity to comment and to promote competition.

This Request for Information (RFI)/Sources Sought notice is composed of three distinct parts (see Attachment_1_Sources Sought_RFI_OCI Questions.pdf):

1. 
   

   Market Research;

   
   


2. 
   

   Scope of Work; and

   
   


3. 
   

   Organizational Conflict of Interest

   
   

THIS IS NOT A REQUEST FOR PROPOSALS. NO PROPOSALS ARE TO BE SUBMITTED IN RESPONSE TO THIS NOTICE.