Updates to NASA-HDBK-8739.23, Complex Electronics Handbook for Assurance Professionals, went into effect on Feb. 2, 2016. These changes brought the assurance handbook into alignment with NASA-HDBK-4008, Programmable Logic Devices (PLD) Handbook. 

An updated and revised NASA Safety Reporting System (NSRS) course is now available on SATERN.

Not much is known about the Kappa Cygnid meteor shower, and NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office (MEO) is working to rectify that.

The United States Patent and Trademark Office granted NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program a patent for its Electric Field Quantitative Measurement System and Method. The patent covers both the Electric Field Imaging sensor and the methods developed by Edward Generazio, NDE program manager.

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program recently published a Technical Manual, NASA DOEPOD [Design of Experiments for Probability of Detection] NDE Capabilities Data Book.

NASA’s Meteoroid Environments Office recently released two Technical Manuals (TMs): NASA Meteoroid Engineering Model Release 2.0 (TM-2015-218214) and Lunar Impact Flash Locations (TM-2015-218213).

NASA-HDBK-8709.24, NASA Safety Culture Handbook is now available. The handbook, which was a collaborative effort from the Safety Culture Working Group, contains information on the NASA Safety Culture Program, the Safety Culture Model, the Safety Culture Survey process, and provides guidance on the development and implementation of Safety Culture at the center level.

The Tri-Agency Working Group — made up of NASA (specifically the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance), the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board — exists so that each organization can learn how the others handle mishaps within their organizations and how they could all work together on an investigation, should the need arise. At a meeting this September, the group expanded to become the Quad-Agency Working Group with the official addition of the U.S. Air Force.

As the agency looks at opportunities to use CubeSats in science and exploration missions, NASA’s Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) community is working to address some of the SMA challenges associated with these small spacecraft.

Dr. Jess Waller, material scientist at NASA’s White Sands Test Facility with Jacobs Technology Inc., received the 2015 Robert J. Painter Memorial Award for Meritorious Service from ASTM International and the Society for Standards Professionals for his significant contributions to standards over the last year. Waller, part of the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s (OSMA) Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) program, was chosen for this award out of ASTM’s approximately 32,000 members.