Why isn NASA more flexible about receiving late proposals?
Regardless of the reason for its being late, submission of a proposal after the deadline inherently allows that proposer additional time to prepare his/her submission, which in principle gives the proposal a competitive advantage over those submitted on time. Even if this were not the case, in practice the accommodation of late proposals creates logistical problems since, within only a few working days after their due date, all proposals must be screened for compliance and completeness, logged in, and stored, and within five days NASA’s support contractor is required to provide a complete log of all proposals, including the names of all proposal personnel, to the responsible Program Officer to use for finalizing plans for the peer review. Interrupting this process for even a few late proposals can impact the review/selection schedule. As for a proposal being late because of unforeseen circumstances beyond the PI’s control, it is untenable for NASA to judge the merits for each case to d
