Incumbent KBR successfully challenged the award to Ascend Aerospace & Technology, prompting the agency to review its evaluation and best-value determination. Just weeks before NASA’s new prime contractor was set to begin work on the $1.8 billion COSMOS contract, the agency has backtracked on that decision in the face of a challenge from the disappointed incumbent.
COSMOS is the acronym for the Contract for Organizing Spaceflight Mission Operations and Systems that supports command and control systems for space vehicles involved in programs such as Orion, Space Launch System, International Space Station, Commercial Crew Program and Artemis.
KBR Wyle is the incumbent on the predecessor contract known as the Mission Systems Operations Contract. Stinger Ghaffarian Technologies won the contract in 2017, and KBR subsequently inherited it through its acquisition of SGT the following year.
But when the recompete came along, NASA went with Ascend Aerospace & Technology, a joint venture formed in 2013 by Amentum and Aerodyne to pursue large NASA contracts. Ascend was set to begin work on the contract on Dec. 1.
KBR filed its protest on Sept. 9 challenging the evaluation of its proposal and the agency’s best-value determination. On Nov. 19, the Government Accountability Office dismissed the protest, after NASA said it would take corrective action to address KBR’s concerns. The agency intends to review its evaluations and make a new best-value determination.
This is a large contract for KBR, which has received nearly $1 billion in task orders since work began in early 2018, according to GovTribe data.
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