NASA Sole Sources Gateway Habitation Module to Northrop

NASA has quietly decided to give Northrop Grumman a contract to build a “minimal” habitation module for its lunar Gateway after concluding it was the only company that could meet NASA’s schedule.

The agency made the determination in a low-key “Justification for Other Than Full and Open Competition” document published late July 19 on a procurement website, linked a special notice issued May 30 that stated that NASA intended to use an existing Next Space Technologies for Exploration Partnerships 2 (NextSTEP-2) program to procure the habitation module.

Under NextSTEP-2 Appendix A, NASA made awards in August 2016 to study concepts for habitation modules to six companies: Bigelow Aerospace, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, NanoRacks, Orbital ATK (now Northrop Grumman Innovation Systems, or NGIS) and Sierra Nevada Corporation. For all but NanoRacks, that work involved the development of ground prototypes followed by testing, which took place earlier this year at either NASA centers or company facilities.

In the May 30 filing, NASA said that, in “the interest of schedule, economy and efficiency,” it would procure one or more habitation modules it requires for the Gateway as a follow-on to NextSTEP-2 Appendix A. It didn’t specify the process by which it would select the company or companies to build those modules, beyond the use of justifications for other than full and open competition. It did allow other companies to submit information about their capabilities by June 13, but according to the agency none did so.

In the July 19 justification, NASA said it concluded Northrop Grumman was the only company that could provide a “minimal habitation module” on the agency’s desired schedule. “NGIS was the only NextSTEP-2 contractor with a module design and the production and tooling resources capable of meeting the 2024 deadline,” the document stated.

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