NASA recently published NPR 8715.6E, Orbital Debris Mitigation. This NPR defines the roles, responsibilities and procedural requirements concerning the implementation and review of orbital debris mitigation measures by NASA and NASA-sponsored missions.

The prior revision of the NPR was due to expire and needed various updates to make the document current. In particular, the update clarifies debris mitigation responsibilities and requirements for spaceflight activities that do not fall under NASA’s authority, including those involving commercial spaceflight services.

The update further removes responsibilities and requirements related to conjunction assessment and collision avoidance, which are now a part of NPR 8079.1, NASA Spacecraft Conjunction Analysis and Collision Avoidance for Space Environment Protection. Finally, the update seeks to reduce the administrative of the Headquarters-level review and concurrences of project documentation.

Summary of Revisions

The revised NPR places greater focus on the understanding of debris mitigation responsibilities for all NASA-sponsored spaceflight activities during their formulation. To this end, the document applies to all programs and projects responsible for systems and services intended to reach orbit, although requirements vary depending on whether a program or project is responsible for a spacecraft, launch vehicle, hardware contribution, or the acquisition of commercial spaceflight services.

The NPR seeks to ensure that in all cases, spaceflight activities with NASA involvement implement a responsible debris mitigation standard and are independently reviewed. When missions are conducted under NASA’s authority, the NPR continues to levy NASA Standard 8719.14 as the accepted debris mitigation standard.

The NPR allows for partial exemptions from reporting requirements for classes of spacecraft known to be compliant based on design and operational parameters. At this time, no such classes have been defined, but the rule is envisioned to reduce the analysis and reporting requirements for small spacecraft with certain orbital parameters.

New language was developed to describe NASA’s responsibilities in cases when missions are conducted under the authority of an entity other than NASA, including when NASA acquires commercial space services. In such cases, NASA generally defers to the oversight responsibilities of such entities, although NASA programs and projects should still document the specific responsibilities and support relevant standards and reviews as appropriate.

The update adjusts the review process for missions conducted under NASA’s authority, requiring the final pre-launch review to be completed by ORR (Operational Readiness Review) rather than SMSR (Safety and Mission Success Review), and expressly delegate review responsibilities to the Orbital Debris Program Office to avoid routing through Headquarters unless waivers are required. The new NPR reduces the frequency of review of End-Of-Mission Plans.

The revised NPR 8715.6B standard is available in the NODIS library.