NASA to update schedule for coming IT acquisitions

NASA plans to release a new schedule by mid-October for opening up competition on a series of large information technology services contracts, the agency said today. Together the contracts are estimated to be worth more than $4 billion.

NASA’s agency-wide Information Technology Infrastructure Integration Program (I3P) acquisition includes five projects to consolidate the agency's IT and data services. The agency had said that some request for proposals (RFPs) could be out as early as Sept. 22, but revised that timeline after NASA named Linda Cureton to be the agency’s new chief information officer earlier this month.

“In order to ensure that she has adequate time to review final requests for proposals (RFPs) for the I3P contracts, NASA is not planning to issue the RFPs until additional reviews are conducted by NASA executive management,” NASA said in a notice dated Sept. 22. However, NASA said today it planned “to communicate by mid- October a notional release schedule” for the final RFPs.

The total estimated value for the five contracts, based on NASA’s draft RFPs, is $4.28 billion, according to Input Inc., a market research firm. The services contracts will consolidate current NASA contracts such as the Outsourcing Desktop Initiative for NASA and Unified NASA Information Technology Services. The contract awards are expected to be made during May and June 2010.