Rocketplane Kistler
B-310741 · gao · 2008-01-28
Summary
In Rocketplane Kistler, GAO denied a protest challenging NASA's use of a funded Space Act Agreement—issued under its 'other transactions' authority—rather than a procurement contract, for the COTS commercial orbital transportation development-and-demonstration effort. GAO held that Space Act Agreements are not procurement contracts, and that NASA could properly use one here because the announcement's principal purpose was to stimulate a commercial space-transportation market (a public purpose authorized by law), not to acquire goods or services for the agency's direct benefit. The decision is a foundational statement that GAO will review a timely protest that an agency is improperly using an OT instrument to avoid procurement rules, but will not otherwise disturb a proper choice to use an OT.