Protest delays $50M NYMA award

NASA's Langley Research Center was slapped with a second protest on a one-year $50 million services contract awarded to NYMA Inc. Greenbelt Md.

Work under Langley's Systems Analysis and Engineering Research Support (SAERS) contract has been delayed until the protest filed Oct. 11 with the General Accounting Office is resolved. In the interim current contractor Lockheed Martin Corp. will provide Langley's space and aeronautics operations with needed support.

This was the second time Langley awarded the contract to NYMA and the second protest by competitor Aviate LLC. Aviate a partnership of Vigyan Inc. and AS&M Inc. first protested with the Small Business Administration questioning NYMA's status as a small disadvantaged business. The SBA upheld Aviate's protest on June 27.

NASA officials then allowed NYMA to restructure its proposal to qualify for the small-business set-aside said Paralee White a partner with the law firm Cohen & White Washington D.C. NASA awarded SAERS to NYMA the second time on Oct. 2 after which Aviate protested to GAO.

Contract work under SAERS was scheduled to begin Nov. 1 but has been delayed pending a ruling in the second protest.

Representatives from NYMA did not return phone calls by press time.

The SAERS program is a new requirement that was broken away from the Aerospace Research Technology contract held by Lockheed Martin. The one-year base contract includes four one-year options and six one-month options.