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    The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) assures the safety and enhances the success of all NASA activities. Take a look around our website to learn what's happening in NASA's Safety and Mission Assurance community, including updates on disciplines, programs, policies and personnel.

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What's Happening in the SMA Community?

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Reliability Assessment Using Physics-of-Failure Principles, Modeling and Simulation

May 22, 2017 Reliability and Maintainability, Science and Technology

One of the most important aspects of Reliability and Maintainability is understanding how things fail. Engineers can only make systems reliable if they understand what makes them unreliable.

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Safety Message: Oribtal Debris

May Issue of ODQN Now Available

May 11, 2017 MMOD, Publications

The May issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) includes articles on policy updates, personnel, project details and more. 

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Updates to NASA-STD-8739.6

April 27, 2017 Policies and Requirements, Quality

The NASA Workmanship Standards Program coordinated an administrative change to NASA-STD-8739.6A, Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards. The primary reason for the change is to formally adopt IPC/WHMA-A-620B-S, Space Applications Electronic Hardware Addendum to IPC/WHMA-A-620B as an equivalent, alternative standard to NASA-STD-8739.4, Workmanship Standard for Crimping, Interconnecting Cables, Harnesses, and Wiring.  

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Depiction of Orion

TEAMS: Alternatives to Enable Model-Based Mission Assurance

April 25, 2017 Reliability and Maintainability, Science and Technology

Johnson Space Center’s Reliability and Maintainability program is working on a new system that helps engineers and mission managers make better risk-informed decisions.

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NASA Safety Reporting

NASA Safety Reporting

Learn more about reporting safety concerns at NASA.
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Featured Safety Message


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Human Factors and Risk Management

May 01, 2017
Often, when stories of accidents appear in the news, speculation begins that the hapless operator “made a mistake.” With this assumption, many move on, satisfied the cause has been found — operator error.
A surprising number of industry and government safety programs focus on carrot-and-stick efforts to transform people into reliable performers.
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Office of Safety and Mission Assurance

What We Do

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) assures the safety and enhances the success of all NASA activities through the development, implementation and oversight of agency-wide safety, reliability, maintainability and quality assurance policies and procedures. OSMA includes the Mission Support Division, Safety and Assurance Requirements Division, and NASA Safety Center, as well as the Independent Verification and Validation Facility.

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Policy Status Updates

Recently Published

Policy Title Status  
NPR 8715.6B Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris Feb. 16, 2017 See NPR 8715.6B
NPR 8705.6C Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Audits, Reviews, and Assessments Jan. 9, 2017 See NPR 8705.6C
NPD 8730.5B Quality Assurance Program Policy Oct. 31, 2016 See NPD 8730.5B
» More Policy Updates

Currently in Review

Policy Title  
NASA-STD-8729.1 NASA Requirements for Ground-Based Pressure Vessels and Pressurized Systems (PVS) See NASA-STD-8729.1
NPR 8705.2 Human Rating Requirements for Space Systems See NPR 8705.2
NPR 8715.3 NASA General Safety Program Requirements (Chapters 4, 5 and 8 only) See NPR 8715.3
» More Policy Updates

Upcoming Reviews

Policy Title  
NPD 8700.1E NASA Policy for Safety and Mission Success See NPD 8700.1E
NPD 8720.1 NASA Reliability and Maintainability (R&M) Program Policy See NPD 8720.1
NPD 8730.1 Metrology and Calibration See NPD 8730.1
» More Policy Updates