Multi-disciplinary physics-of-failure testing and simulations conducted on Printed Circuit Boards at Goddard Space Flight Center recently resulted in an industry standard update, which will lead to cost savings not only for NASA but for the electronics industry in general.

The August 2017 edition of the Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. The issue includes articles on the discovery of the earliest Delta rocket body fragmentation, space debris sensor updates, benefits of a high Low-Earth Orbit in-situ measurement mission, NASA requirements for debris assessment software reentry risk analysis and conference reports.

Earlier this year, the Meteoroid Environment Office (MEO) presented three papers at the 7th European Conference on Space Debris in Germany, sharing findings and updates related to comparison studies on the damage caused by meteoroids versus Orbital Debris, meteor shower forecasting and NASA’s Meteoroid Engineering Model. 

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts program recently released a new standard to establish a consistent set of requirements for NASA EEE parts selection, management and control of space flight hardware and critical ground support equipment.

“What was that bright light in the sky last night?” is a popular question NASA hears from the public and media, and one that the Meteoroid Environment Office, along with its All Sky Fireball Network, does its best to answer, in detail.

The latest EEE Parts Bulletin is the second of two special editions on Electrostatic Discharge.

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.  

Typically, employees look to their leaders for guidance, but Goddard Space Flight Center’s Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Director Richard Barney wants his employees to know he’s looking at those around him for inspiration.

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.