SGT faces challenges to its $1.1B NASA win

SGT's win of a potential $1.1 billion NASA contract for mission support is being challenged by another competitor who thinks the wrong decision was made.

Stinger Ghaffairan Technologies may have to hold off celebrating its $1.1 billion NASA contract.

The win was the biggest dollar-wise for the company and was a win over two larger incumbents in Leidos and Raytheon. They held the predecessor contracts to NASA’s Mission Systems Operations Contract.

But now another competitor Engility, through its TASC unit, has filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office and claims that NASA made the wrong decision.

The protest effectively freezes SGT’s ability to move forward with the contract, which had a start date of Oct. 1

MSOC covers technical and administrative service areas such as IT, cybersecurity, ground system communication networks, hardware, software and facility management. The contract also supports programs such as the International Space Station, Orion, Space Launch System and the Commercial Crew Program.

TASC filed its protest July 24 and a decision from GAO isn’t expected until Nov. 1.

That’s a month after NASA expected to transition to the SGT contract. Unless there is some sort of corrective action or a withdrawal of the protest, NASA will likely need to extend the contracts with Leidos and Raytheon.

And if GAO rules in favor of Engility, the transition to a new contract will take even longer.