NASA’s Planetary Protection program offers the course “Planetary Protection: Policies and Practices” one to two times a year, with the next offering being Oct. 30-Nov.1, 2018 at Kennedy Space Center. This course, which has been active for more than 15 years, covers what the requirements are for Planetary Protection for robotic missions, how to meet those requirements and lessons learned from past missions.

NASA-STD-8719.12A, Safety Standard for Explosives, Propellants, and Pyrotechnics went into effect May 23, 2018. Although Revision A does not include many changes to specific policy requirements, it was a major update in that a lot of content was removed and rearranged. 

The NASA Workmanship Standards Program has released a new course in SATERN as a part of the NSC STEP Training that provides an overview of NASA-STD 8739.6, Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards. The course, “8739.6 Self-Paced Workmanship Training,” is intended to inform and familiarize NASA employees with the NASA standard without replacing the need to read the content of the standard or participate in traditional Workmanship training.

The NASA Academy of Aerospace Quality (AAQ) was recently chosen to participate in the 2018 STEM [Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics] for All Video Showcase, funded by the National Science Foundation.

From May 14-21, more than 200 federally-funded projects will share short videos highlighting their work aimed at “Transforming the STEM Educational Landscape.” The videos will focus on broadening participation and access to high-quality STEM experiences, innovative practices that are transforming education, partnerships that advance education, and research that informs STEM learning and teaching.

NASA’s Range Flight Safety program recently released updates to two of its existing training courses: “Range Flight Safety Orientation - Web-Based” (SMA-AS-WBT-410) and “Flight Safety Systems” (SMA-AS-WBT-335). Both courses, found in SATERN, were updated to reflect recent policy changes within the program and also to shift away from videos of instructor-led courses that were hard to update as minor changes occurred within the discipline.

NASA and industry are working together to meet the safety, schedule and efficiency demands for current and future space flights, including those to and from the International Space Station.

You may be familiar with some of the well-known meteor showers like the Perseids or Leonids, but have you heard of the gamma Lyrids? If not, you’re not alone — this shower is new to NASA as well.

At the recommendation of the NASA Metrology and Calibration (MetCal) Program, the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance cancelled NPD 8730.1, Metrology and Calibration and transferred the content to a new NASA standard, NASA-STD-8739.12, Metrology and Calibration, which went into effect Jan. 23, 2018. NPD 8730.5, NASA Quality Assurance Program Policy will carry the remaining MetCal policy language that was not transferred to NASA-STD-8739.12.

The Safety Culture Working Group revised two Safety Culture SATERN courses that provide training for NASA employees and contractors.

Both courses, “Orientation to NASA Safety Culture” and “Safety Culture for Supervisors,” cover the definition of Safety Culture, the NASA Safety Culture five factors, and responsibilities of both the participants and supervisors for supporting the agency’s Safety Culture.

The February 2018 edition of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available and includes the article "Two Anomalous Events in GEO," republished here.

This issue also includes articles on space debris sensor launch updates, SEM analysis results from post-flight inspection of the PMA-2 cover, a review of the CubeSat study project and a photo feature documenting the Space Debris Sensor installation.