NASA Releases RFP For Microgravity Services

NASA GRC Solicitation: Microgravity Aircraft Services – RFP Release

“NASA/GRC plans to issue has issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for the following Commercial item/services: Operation of an aircraft in support of microgravity research. Contractor will be required to manage and operate their own aircraft which performs microgravity flights that meet NASA performance requirements while carrying NASA operated experiments.”

Making Commercialization More Difficult – Instead of Easier – at NASA, earlier post

Editor’s note: The more I read the documents associated with this draft solicitation, the more convinced I am that the NASA civil servants who wrote this procurement are going out of their way to make it hard – if not impossible for a private contractor to meet these requirements. In so doing they serve to safeguard NASA’s current monopoly. It is no secret that the folks at JSC see the operation of their reduced gravity airplane as a God-given right (or at least one handed down by George Abbey) – one they will not easily give up.