The purpose of this amendment is to correct the e-mail organizational mailbox for submitting responses to this Source Sought notice.  The correct organizational mailbox address is stated in the body of this Description and has been corrected in the Contact Information block.

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United States Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) is seeking United States-incorporated/based non-Federal partners (“Collaborators”) in industry or academia to consider for entry into Cooperative Research and Development Agreements (CRADAs) as described in 15 USC 3710a to produce collaborative studies illustrating potential future capabilities for USTRANSCOM. 

These collaborative studies will examine and demonstrate technical methods, including vehicle and decelerator designs/capacities and business processes for use of emerging commercially-developed and operated methods of global cargo delivery from or through space.  Mission flight profiles may include direct terrestrial point-to-point sorties or may include an on-orbit indefinite holding phase as a space-based prepositioning capability.  Combinations of these capabilities may provide DoD an on-demand “downmass” delivery option independent of launch method, not constrained to any specific launch provider.

USTRANSCOM seeks partnerships with developers of integrated downmass delivery systems, not designers solely of subsystems or enabling technologies, to focus on mature systems made for delivery by a variety of rocket launch providers.  Subsystem designers may be involved through their existing partnerships with system integrators, but not directly with USTRANSCOM.

Those companies developing cargo “downmass” capabilities who are already in partnership under USTRANSCOM CRADAs do not need to respond to this notice.  Others who may have provided white papers to a prior USTRANSCOM industry call on this topic but not selected for initial partnerships may reference those white papers and attach them to an update.

Small businesses are encouraged to respond to this announcement.  Potential Collaborators may team with other qualified non-federal parties.

This is not a solicitation for a procurement contract, nor should this announcement be construed as implying any future solicitation by USTRANSCOM or any other government agency in this area.  The purpose of the research is to reveal the uses, limitations, constraints, and additional research and development requirements for industry capabilities as applied to global DoD logistics delivery.

Interested parties may respond with white papers by 28 February 2025 by 0000 (12:00 midnight, U.S. Central time) by unclassified e-mail to transcom.scott.tcj5j4.mbx.orta@mail.mil by submitting an UNCLASSIFIED written white paper in format described below.  Hardcopy submittal is not allowed.

USTRANSCOM plans a virtual 1-hour industry day 19 February 2025 at 1300 USA central DST time for organizations planning to submit white papers, to describe USTRANSCOM objectives for research and to field questions from participants.  Interested parties should send a request for the Teams link to transcom.scott.tcj5j4.mbx.orta@mail.mil by 17 February 2025 and include any questions for government to answer during the Industry Day (for all participants to hear). .

Potential topics for collaboration follow which may be tailored by each collaborator by discussion with USTRANSCOM.  Details of the actual exploration, resource commitments, schedules, research deliverables (technical findings), and work to be assigned to the Parties in the agreement will be determined by discussions after initial whitepaper selection.

Your proposal to enter into a CRADA should include a brief description of the following challenges you recommend addressing and the expected research outcomes for each.  It should also describe what Government data, access to facilities, or subject matter expertise should be added to the collaboration with your organization to make the research productive.

Information, processes and technologies you propose for teamed research may include, but are not limited to:

1. Description of downmass capabilities you are developing, including mass and volume capacities, environmental controls for cargo, and methods of containerizing and protecting cargo exposed to space environments.
2. Decelerator and cargo compartment designs and adaptability for transport by rocket; designs and methods of transitioning from spacedrop- to airdrop-suitable altitudes for minimizing damage on Earth touchdown.
3. Potential designs for customer-loaded containers which can be transported by traditional t