- The final RFP for HBG support services is reserved for small businesses
- Proposals are due Dec. 4, with NASA expected to make an award in April 2027
- The contract allows both cost-plus and fixed-price task orders
NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has opened competition for a small business contract to sustain scientific research across several Earth science laboratories in Greenbelt, Maryland.
The agency posted the final request for proposals for the Hydrosphere, Biosphere and Geophysics, or HBG, Support Services II contract on SAM.gov on Wednesday. Offers are due Dec. 4.
What Will the HBG Support Services II Contract Cover?
The selected contractor will support Goddard’s Earth Sciences Division in developing and applying spaceborne, airborne, in situ and laboratory-based observations to address societal challenges. Research areas include water resources, terrestrial and marine ecosystems, sea level change, the cryosphere, Earth’s gravity and magnetic fields, the solid Earth and the terrestrial reference frame.
Work spans the cryospheric, hydrological and biospheric sciences, as well as ocean ecology, geodesy and geophysics laboratories. It also covers science and computing efforts at the Terrestrial Information Systems Laboratory. Work will take place at Goddard, at contractor facilities and at sites named in individual task orders.
How Has the Contract Structure Changed?
When NASA released a draft RFP in April 2025, it planned a cost-plus-fixed-fee indefinite-delivery/indefinite-quantity contract. After additional acquisition planning and a review of its needs, the agency revised that approach. The final solicitation calls for a hybrid IDIQ vehicle allowing both cost-plus-fixed-fee and firm-fixed-price task orders over a five-year ordering period.
The competition is reserved for small businesses under North American Industry Classification System code 541715, which carries a 1,000-employee size standard.
In January 2020, NASA awarded Science Systems and Applications a potential five-year, $425 million contract for HBG scientific research support.
What Is the Timeline for Award?
NASA expects to make an award in April 2027. A 30-day phase-in, handled under a separate procurement vehicle, would begin in May 2027 ahead of a June 2027 effective date.
Prospective bidders have 14 calendar days from the solicitation’s release to submit written questions to Contracting Officer Cassandra Moore. Proposals must be delivered through NASA’s Enterprise File Sharing and Sync Box platform. Offerors should ask their past performance references to send questionnaires straight to the contracting officer before the deadline.
Marlo Maddox, acting deputy director of Goddard’s Sciences and Exploration Directorate, will serve as source selection authority.
