DOC; Mountain Administrative Support Center; Acquisition Management Division; 325 Broadway MC3; Boulder, CO

66 -- SPHERICAL SUPERPRESSURE BALLOON VEHICLE SOL MGM000801008BJ POC BJ Roberts (303) 497-3799 or Fax (303)497-3163 E-MAIL: NOAA; MASC Acquisition Management, Joyce.J.Mills@noaa.gov. The U. S. Department of Commerce, NOAA plans to negotiate an on Sole Source basis with GSSL, Inc. for the following requirements: The Forecast Systems Laboratory of Boulder, Colorado, seeks to purchase a superpressure balloon vehicle for flights of one-year duration in the stratosphere; delivery date for the vehicle is by 15 December 1997. The balloon will float 220 lb (100 kg) at 65,000 ft with controlled excursions between 55,000 and 65,000 ft. The vehicle shall include (1) a spectra envelope, (2) bladders for helium and for air, (3) end fittings to attach bladders to the envelope, (4) inflation ports, (5) flight termination devices, (6) payload suspension system, (7) support system for solar panels, (8) parachute recovery system, and (9) an interface to payload. The payload is to be carried in a gondola that is closely coupled to the balloon vehicle in order to maintain vehicle stability. Payload recovery system must take a suspended weight of 220 lb (100 kg) and be designed to handle the anticipated shock loading during operation of the recovery system. Impact velocity of the payload should be less than 30 ft/s. We wish to continue with GSSL as the fabricator of the stratospheric balloon because we know from the previously purchased tropospheric balloon that (1) a spectra superpressure balloon performs to our specifications, (2) except for size, the stratospheric balloon is an identical design to the GSSL tropospheric balloons, and GSSL is a known vendor producing a known product, (3) GSSL is presently building an identical 60-ft balloon for the Earth Winds project using same specifications. This is a simplified acquisition purchase with a budget between $25,000 and $100,000. Award is based on both price and technical merit. No RFQ package will be made available. This notice expires 10/22/97. (0283)

Loren Data Corp. http://www.ld.com (SYN# 0221 19971016\66-0001.SOL)