SAIC fights for lost $107M NASA data center contract

Colsa Corp. has taken an incumbent contract away from Science Applications International Corp. and SAIC doesn't like that one bit.

SAIC has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office objecting to NASA’s decision late last month to award Colsa a $107.4 million contract to Colsa to support the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi.

The contract covers a variety of services including data center operations and management. Several federal agencies use the tier three data center under a shared services model. The contract also covers facility operations, maintenance, engineering and support related to the data center.

SAIC has been the incumbent since at least 2013, when it won a task order under the GSA Alliant 1 contract.

NASA is an important customer for SAIC. In 2016, the company won a $485 million contract to operate the NASA Enterprise Applications Competency Center at the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. That contract also was administered by the NASA Shared Service Center at Stennis.

In June 2017, SAIC won a $620 million contract to provide engineering support services to the Goddard Space Flight Center.

Colsa, headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., also is a long-time NASA contractor. Colsa has supported the agency for more than 15 years.

SAIC filed its protest on Aug. 1 and a decision from GAO is due Nov. 9.