DOW-UAP-D111: AAWSAP Solicitation and Original Order - Contract HHM402-08-C-0072 with BAASS and Its $10 Million Base Year (September 2008)

Source file: DOW-UAP-D111_AAWSAP-Solicitation-and-Original-Order-September-22-2008.pdf Originating agency: Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), Virginia Contracting Activity (issuing office code HHQ402, Bolling AFB, Washington, D.C.) Document type: Standard Form 1449, "Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Items", with a continuation schedule of line items and 54 pages of FAR and DFARS clauses Date: Solicitation issued 1 September 2008; offers due 10 September 2008; award and effective date 22 September 2008 (the released copy reflects later changes through 2010) Classification: No classification marking appears on the released pages; publicly released in 2026 Page count: 59 VIRIN: 260918-D-D0360-1100 PURSUE Release: 6

Summary

This 59-page file is the contract instrument that turned the DIA's July 2008 Statement of Objectives (DOW-UAP-D110) into a priced agreement with a contractor. On a Standard Form 1449, contract HHM402-08-C-0072, awarded on 22 September 2008 under solicitation HHM402-08-R-0211, names Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies (BAASS), of 4640 S. Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, as contractor and incorporates by reference its proposal dated 3 September 2008. The Contracting Officer's Representative (COR) is AAP Person 1.

Only the first five pages are specific to AAWSAP. They price a firm-fixed-price base year at exactly $10,000,000, split into six line items from monthly status reports to other direct costs, and an option year at $11,948,810, for a total award amount of $21,948,810. The remaining 54 pages are standard federal and defense acquisition clauses, of which only one, a "Rights in Data--Special Works" clause, bears directly on the research.

The copy is not a clean 2008 snapshot: its form edition is dated 2012, and its option-year figures and dates are identical to those set by modifications of February and September 2010 (D113 and D116).

Research Article

The award at a glance

The first page is a Standard Form 1449, "Solicitation/Contract/Order for Commercial Items", the government's combined form for soliciting and awarding commercial-item contracts. Its blocks record the essentials (page 1):

• Contract number HHM402-08-C-0072, awarded and effective 22 September 2008, and signed by the Contracting Officer on the same date.
• Solicitation number HHM402-08-R-0211, issued 1 September 2008, with offers due 10 September 2008 at 2:00 PM ET; requisition number 679/0001Z/08.
• Issuing office: Virginia Contracting Activity, ATTN: AE-2, Bolling AFB, Bldg. 6000, Washington DC 20340-5100 (code HHQ402); the contract is administered by the same activity (ATTN: DIAC, AE-2; code ZD50).
• The acquisition box is marked "unrestricted" rather than set aside for small business; the industry code is NAICS 541990.
• Contractor: "BIGELOW AEROSPACE ADVANCED SPACE STUDIES, LLC", 4640 S Eastern Ave, Las Vegas, Nevada, with CAGE code 54JU7 and DUNS number 827037768.
• Payment office: NSA Finance and Accounting Office, Ft. George G. Meade, Maryland.
• Total award amount: $21,948,810.00.

The schedule on page 3 adds the two statements that tie the award to the program: "COR: AAP Person 1" and "Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, Inc (BAASS) proposal dated 9/3/2008 is incorporated by reference." It also states "Contract Type: Firm Fixed Price", as paragraph 13 of the Statement of Objectives required.

The dates describe a fast procurement: the solicitation went out on 1 September, the BAASS proposal is dated two days later, offers were due on the 10th, and the award followed on the 22nd, three weeks after the solicitation and about nine weeks after the Statement of Objectives of 18 July. The form does not say whether other offers were received. The contractor is styled "LLC" on the form and "Inc" in the schedule; the official description uses "Inc.". The contractor's signature blocks (30a to 30c) are blank in this copy.

From twelve areas to six line items

The continuation schedule (pages 3-5) is where the Statement of Objectives becomes money. The base year, headed "Base Year: 22 September 2008 - 29 September 2009", has six contract line items (CLINs), each priced as one "lot", with a period of performance of 09/22/2008 to 09/21/2009 and funding under accounting line ACRN AA:

The mapping to D110 is one-to-one. "Tasks 3.a.1 - 3.a.12" are the twelve technical areas of paragraph 3(a) of the Statement of Objectives, from lift to "other peripheral areas"; CLINs 0001 to 0004 correspond to deliverables 11(a) to 11(d), with "Comprehensive" added to the name of the integrated threat assessment. The quantity of 12 means twelve monthly reports in one case and one plan or report per technical area in the others. The resumes required under 11(e) are not priced separately.

Under a firm-fixed-price contract these line items are payment vehicles. The schedule does not show how the prices were built, so the fact that the management plans carry the largest sum ($3.6 million) and the research reports $2.1 million may reflect how payments were scheduled rather than how effort was spent; the document does not explain it. The base year adds up to exactly $10,000,000.

The option year as it appears in this copy

Page 4 continues under the heading "Option Year: 22 September 2009 - 21 September 2010", funded under a second accounting line, ACRN AB, with a different appropriation string (beginning 9700100 instead of 9780100). The six deliverable categories reappear as CLINs 1001 to 1006, followed by three more (pages 4-5):

Every option line item carries a period of performance of 09/22/2009 to 12/21/2010. Base year plus option year equals the $21,948,810 in block 26. Only one option year appears, although the Statement of Objectives anticipated four.

A conformed copy, not a 2008 snapshot

The file is titled "Solicitation and Original Order", but several features show that this copy was produced after the contract had been modified:

1. The footer on pages 1 and 2 reads "STANDARD FORM 1449 (REV. 2/2012)", an edition of the form dated more than three years after the award.
2. The option-year amounts are identical to those set by modification P00002 of 2 February 2010 (DOW-UAP-D113), where CLINs 1007, 1008 and 1009 are marked "(New Line Item)". Modification P00001 of September 2009 (DOW-UAP-D112) had priced the same option year at $25,000,000.
3. The option-year periods of performance end on 12/21/2010, the date set by modification P00005 of 28 September 2010 (DOW-UAP-D116).
4. The two UNUSED line items explain that they "must remain part of the contract to insure proper accounting information is aligned to revised CLINS", wording that presupposes an earlier revision.
5. The headings do not match the line items: the base-year heading runs to "29 September 2009" while its CLINs end on 09/21/2009, and the option-year heading ends on "21 September 2010" while its CLINs run to 12/21/2010.

The award date, the parties, the contract number and the base year are consistent with a September 2008 award, but the option-year section describes the contract as it stood after the 2010 modifications. This copy therefore cannot show how the option year was priced when the contract was signed, and the $21,948,810 "total award amount" should be read as the cumulative figure that D113 records as "the total obligated amount for this contract", not as the value awarded in 2008.

Fifty-four pages of standard clauses

Pages 6 and 7 are a table of contents for the clauses that fill pages 8 to 59. The opening set implements statutes applicable to commercial-item acquisitions (DFARS 252.212-7001, FAR 52.212-4 by reference, and 52.212-5), followed by payment, prompt-payment, disputes and inspection clauses (pages 8-12).

Section B, which in a standard contract carries the prices, holds a single clause here, and it is the one with real bearing on the research: FAR 52.227-17, "Rights in Data--Special Works (DEC 2007)" (page 13). It gives the government "Unlimited rights in all data delivered under this contract, and in all data first produced in the performance of this contract", bars the contractor from asserting copyright in such data without the Contracting Officer's permission, and forbids it to "use, release, reproduce, distribute, or publish any data first produced in the performance of this contract" without written permission. In practical terms, the reports produced under the contract were the government's to control.

Section E (page 14) contains a packaging clause and Section F (pages 15-16) freight terms. Section I (pages 17-59) lists 64 clauses, I.1 to I.64, many written for the supply of goods: radio frequency identification tags, Buy American rules for construction materials, warranties of supplies and commercial bills of lading. It also includes the Ordering, Definite Quantity, Requirements and Indefinite Quantity clauses (52.216-18 to 52.216-22) with their blanks left empty ("Such orders may be issued from through", page 34), and a Notice of Total Small Business Set-Aside, although block 10 marks the acquisition as unrestricted. This looks like a standard clause package rather than one tailored to a research study; the file does not explain the choice.

Equally notable is what the clause list lacks. There is no statement of work or Section C, no special contract requirements (Section H), no DD-254 security classification specification, although the Statement of Objectives required one, and no key-personnel clause. Nor do the option clauses FAR 52.217-8 and 52.217-9 or the availability-of-funds clause 52.232-18 appear in the released list, although the later modifications invoke them (D112 and D116).

What is redacted, and what the file does not contain

The redactions are few and all on page 1: the name of the person to call for solicitation information and the name of the Contracting Officer, both withheld under "(b)(3):10 USC 424, (b)(6)" (the statute protecting DIA personnel identities and the FOIA privacy exemption), and the contractor's taxpayer identification number, withheld under "(b)(3):26 U.S.C. §§ 6103, 6105", the confidentiality provisions of the Internal Revenue Code. The COR on page 3 appears as "AAP Person 1", the label D110 attaches to the COR and Government Project Leader.

The BAASS proposal of 3 September 2008 is incorporated only by reference and is not in the file. The file contains no technical content beyond the line-item titles, names none of the twelve areas in words, and makes no mention of UFOs, UAP or unidentified phenomena.

Significance

This is the document in which the contractor first appears and in which AAWSAP acquires its administrative identity: contract HHM402-08-C-0072, awarded to Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies on 22 September 2008, firm fixed price, with AAP Person 1 as COR. It shows precisely how the DIA's twelve technical areas and four deliverable types were turned into priced line items, and it fixes the base year at exactly $10 million.

It must also be read with care. The released copy is a later, conformed version whose option-year figures come from 2010. The story of the option year, exercised in September 2009 subject to the availability of funds at a price of $25 million, funded at $11.9 million in February 2010 and extended to December 2010, has to be read in the modifications, DOW-UAP-D112 to D116. Together with D110, the file answers the most basic factual questions about the program's contract (who, when, on what terms and for how much) while saying nothing about the substance of the research.

Key People

Locations

Key Concepts

Notable Quotes

"Bigelow Aerospace Advanced Space Studies, Inc (BAASS) proposal dated 9/3/2008 is incorporated by reference." -- page 3

"Base Year: 22 September 2008 - 29 September 2009" -- page 3

"Project Management Plan for Tasks 3.a.1 - 3.a.12" -- page 3

"Option Year: 22 September 2009 - 21 September 2010" -- page 4

"UNUSED - This line item is unused but must remain part of the contract to insure proper accounting information is aligned to revised CLINS. Original 0001 from PR" -- page 5

"(i) Unlimited rights in all data delivered under this contract, and in all data first produced in the performance of this contract, except as provided in paragraph (c) of this clause." -- page 13

"The Contractor shall not assert or authorize others to assert any claim to copyright subsisting in any data first produced in the performance of this contract without prior written permission of the Contracting Officer." -- page 13

"Except as otherwise specifically provided for in this contract, the Contractor shall not use, release, reproduce, distribute, or publish any data first produced in the performance of this contract, nor authorize others to do so, without written permission of the Contracting Officer." -- page 13