The four guiding principles in the U.S. Government Orbital Debris Mitigation Standard Practices, approved in 2001, are to limit the generation of mission-related debris, accidental explosions and collisions, and to conduct postmission disposal. Both the 2006 and 2010 U.S. National Space Policies directed U.S. government departments and agencies to implement the standard practices to limit the generation of new debris by their space missions. NPR 8715.6, NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris and Evaluating the Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Environments and NASA-STD-8719.14, Process for Limiting Orbital Debris represent the agency’s implementation of the standard practices.

Updates to American National Standards Institute (ANSI)/American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) S-080A, Space Systems—Metallic Pressure Vessels, Pressurized Structures, and Pressure Components and ANSI/AIAA S-081B, Space Systems—Composite Overwrapped Pressure Vessels went into effect March 2018. 

Recently, the Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) Payload Safety Program released a new course “Safety Guidance for Payloads” (SMA-HQ-WBT-104) to the agency in SATERN. The course focuses on ensuring a consistent level of safety for special-case ELV payloads, which are payloads that either 1) don’t use the Launch Services Program or 2) rideshare with a primary payload on an ELV. 

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.