Amy Baker, Planetary Protection project manager for the SETI Institute, is set to retire at the end of June 2024. In recognition of her contributions to the Office of Planetary Protection and NASA’s mission, the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance would like to honor her achievements and acknowledge her important work in support of the agency.

When conducting missions, balancing performance, risk, cost and schedule is a constant challenge.

A recently released report from an expert review panel formed under the Aircraft Certification, Safety, and Accountability Act (ACSAA) of 2020, Section 103 determined that there is much work to be done to improve the safety culture at Boeing.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Ground-Based Pressure Systems Working Group recently completed an update to the agencywide SATERN training course SMA-HQ-WBT-229, Flexible Hose Operations Safety. 

NASA recently published NPR 8715.6E, Orbital Debris Mitigation. This NPR defines the roles, responsibilities and procedural requirements concerning the implementation and review of orbital debris mitigation measures by NASA and NASA-sponsored missions.

NASA adopted AS9100, Quality Management Systems – Requirements for Aviation, Space, and Defense Organizations into its quality policy in 2005 and has continued its use in the quality policy baseline through its last D revision that occurred in 2016. 

The April 2024 issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News is now available.

The EEE Parts Bulletin for March 2024 provides an overview of the new NASA Parts Engineering Program in collaboration with The University of Maryland, Auburn University, the University of Central Florida and numerous NASA centers. 

A recently published paper details knowledge gaps for crewed missions to Mars and methods for closing these gaps from a Planetary Protection (PP) standpoint. Multiple authors contributed to the paper, titled “Planetary Protection Knowledge Gap Closure Enabling Crewed Missions to Mars,” including Dr. J. Andy Spry, Senior Scientist at the SETI Institute and PP consultant at NASA Headquarters.

Manuel “Manny” Cordero, Information Technology security specialist for NASA’s Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) Program and advisor for the agency’s Enterprise Protection Program (EPP), recently received a “Yes, If” coin for proactively increasing awareness about software security risks to protect NASA missions.