Rapid Spacecraft Development Office
Introducing RSDO
The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) is responsible for the management of a dynamic and versatile program directing the definition, competition, and acquisition of multiple Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts.
These contracts offer NASA and any other United States Government Agency extremely fast procurement of spacecraft and payload space for future missions. The RSDO staff will guide you through the process of meeting your mission objectives with our contracts.
Rapid IV Spacecraft Catalog
The Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) Catalog has a total to 14 vendors and 29 spacecraft. This gives US government customers excellent access to spacecraft for space flight missions.
Browse the Rapid IV CatalogA Legacy of NASA Missions
SWFO-1
The Space Weather Follow-On L1 mission will orbit the Sun at the L1 Lagrange gravity equilibrium point, about 1 million miles from Earth. With its unobstructed view of the sun, it will make measurements of the solar wind thermal plasma and magnetic field with a variety of instruments.
JPSS-1,2,3,4
The Joint Polar Satellite System (JPSS) series provides operational continuity of satellite-based observations of atmospheric, terrestrial and oceanic conditions for both weather forecasting and long-term climate and environmental data records.
Landsat 8, 9
The Landsat satellites provides data continuity for the 40+ year record of the earth’s changing surface, land use, and the impacts of man and nature globally, gathered by the Landsat series of spacecraft since the early 1970’s.
ICESat 1,2
STATUS: Launch Successful
The Ice, Cloud, and Land Elevation Satellite missions allow scientists to measure the elevation of ice sheets, glaciers, sea ice and more - all in unprecedented detail.
Suomi-NPP
The Suomi National Polar-Orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System Preparatory Project provides atmospheric and sea surface temperatures, humidity sounding, land and ocean biological productivity, and cloud and aerosol properties.
Fermi (Glast)
The Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope (formally Glast) has the ability to detect gamma rays in a range of energies from thousands to hundreds of billions of times more energetic than the light visible to the human eye.
Swift
Swift is an agile spacecraft designed to investigate one of the universe's most elusive phenomena: gamma-ray bursts. Gamma-ray bursts are high energy explosions that occur nearly once a day from random locations across the sky.
QuikScat
The SeaWinds instrument on the QuikSCAT satellite is a specialized microwave radar that measures near-surface wind speed and direction under all weather and cloud conditions over Earth's oceans.
RSDO Mission Statement
The Rapid Spacecraft Development Office (RSDO) is responsible for the management and direction of a dynamic and versatile program directing the definition, competition, and acquisition of multiple fixed-price Indefinite Delivery/Indefinite Quantity (IDIQ) contracts. These contracts offer NASA and other Federal Government Agencies fast and flexible procurement of spacecraft and spacecraft components for future missions. The RSDO staff will guide you through the process of meeting your mission objectives with our contracts.
The philosophy of RSDO is to encourage missions to define the Payload/Instrument(s) to the maximum extent prior to the selection of the spacecraft. The relatively short acquisition time (6 to 8 months) allows more time for instrument development and requirements maturation. Since mission "requirements creep" is based on requirements uncertainty, and is often a reason for cost growth, the RSDO approach allows for mitigation of the cost risk. By utilizing previously developed spacecraft (with modifications), the RSDO approach allows for mitigation of technical risk and allows concentration of technical assets on the areas of the mission unique modifications. All vendors must meet rigorous acceptance criteria in order to be awarded core contract and a place in the RSDO Catalog.
The RSDO acquisition process for spacecraft procurements (draft solicitation release to delivery order award) is nominally 6 to 8 months. A typical, traditional spacecraft acquisition takes two years or longer. Furthermore, since Rapid spacecraft require less development, the delivery order period of performance averages 24-36 months and culminates in delivery in orbit after checkout and acceptance.
The RSDO can competitively award a spacecraft bus from among the Rapid Spacecraft Acquisition IV (Rapid IV) vendors within 6 to 8 months. Standard services in the Rapid IV contract include: spacecraft build and test, integration and test of the payload(s), delivery to the launch site, support of launch site operations, support of early orbit operations, and on-orbit checkout and acceptance. Standard terms of the contract can be modified on individual delivery orders under some circumstances, please check with the RSDO. The RSDO can assist a customer with Requests for Information (RFI) to conduct non-binding market surveys and Requests for Offer (RFO) for spacecraft studies or spacecraft procurements. Price estimates are only available from the Rapid IV vendors via RFIs or study RFOs. For non-NASA customers, the RSDO charges a small fee for spacecraft delivery orders, to recover the cost of our support.
Providing Fast Procurement of Spacecraft
- Serving the Spacefaring Federal Agencies and Their Affiliates
- IDIQ Contracts - A Catalog of Spacecraft Buses
- Core Bus Design Modifications to Meet Customer's Mission-Unique Requirements
- Flexible Contract Terms and Conditions to Support Customer Requirements
- Accommodation Assessment and Requirements Definition Studies
- Competitively Awarded Fixed Price Delivery Orders in 6 to 8 month
- Delivery order Management Transferred to Customer's Federal Government Contracting Office
Rapid IV Request for Proposals
The principle purpose of the Rapid IV Request for Proposals (RFP) is to provide a rapid and flexible means for the Government to acquire spacecraft and related components, equipment and contract, Rapid IV contractors offer spacecraft and related services to be purchased via Government placed Delivery Orders. The spacecraft designs, related items and services may be tailored, as needed, to meet the unique needs of each mission.
Inherited items for Vendors
The spacecraft industry, driven by the new LEO communications constellations, is producing more of the same spacecraft than in the past. The manufacturing, test and verification methods have evolved using the trend data from actual performance on-orbit. At Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), we recognize these developments and that most past requirements are intended to create an environment for the best chance of success for one-off spacecraft builds. Consequently, GSFC’s policy has been revised to take advantage of the on-orbit successes of commercial spacecraft. This new policy is called Inherited Items Policy. [View the Inherited Items Process]