The April 2020 issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News is now available. This issue includes the articles, "Three Recent Breakup Events," "The New NASA Orbital Debris Engineering Model 3.1," and "Composite Material Char Rate and Strength Retention Study at University of Texas at Austin," among other pieces.

The NASA Software Assurance Research Program is sponsoring five research projects aimed to benefit Software Assurance processes across the agency. The research program is aligned to support goals to improve how NASA performs Software Assurance activities.

The U.K.’s National Measurement Institute — National Physics Lab (NPL) — recently made its full suite of e-Learning training courses available for free through June 30, 2020. According to the NPL website, this was in acknowledgement that “Operating remotely and working from home has become a new reality for many and employers, employees and students alike are all looking for ways to adapt.”

The International Aerospace Quality Group (IAQG) — the industry standards organization that manages coordination and publication of AS9100, Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation, Space and Defense Organizations  — recently released guidance and relief for its normal certification policies and timing requirements. The IAQG made the announcement due to travel restrictions and work stoppages among AS9100-certified suppliers due to COVID-19.

The NASA Human Factors Task Force received the 2019 Agency Honor Awards Group Achievement Award for its outstanding leadership in improving the use of Human Factors processes and techniques to ensure the agency continues to carry out its mission safely.

NASA recognized the NASA Safety Culture Working Group’s (SCWG) outstanding contributions to the agency’s mission by presenting its members with the 2019 Agency Honor Awards Group Achievement Award.

The Office of Safety and Mission’s (OSMA) Explosives and Pyrotechnics Safety program recently released new online SATERN training, “Basic Explosive Safety Refresher,” to the agency.

When it comes to Reliability and Maintainability (R&M), the public and private sectors’ objectives appear to be aligned. The 2020 theme for the annual R&M Symposium (RAMS) —  a conference focused on the latest technical practices and procedures presented through technical papers and tutorials — was, “R&M in a Model-Based Systems Engineering Environment.”

Learn the latest details on the release of the Orbital Debris Engineering Model, ORDEM 3.1, in this article from Orbital Debris Quarterly News, Volume 24, Issue 1, February 2020.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) recently released “A Meteoroid Handbook for Aerospace Engineers and Managers” (NASA/TM-2019-220142) to help educate programs across the agency about the environments their spacecraft could encounter during their missions and, in turn, help programs protect their spacecraft from potentially damaging threats.