NASA joined the European Space Agency (ESA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for the sixth Trilateral Safety and Mission Assurance Conference (TRISMAC) May 17-20, 2021. The trio met virtually to focus on the theme, “Safety and Mission Assurance in Diversifying Space,” which included technical presentations by experts in their fields from government, academia and industry on innovative tools, technologies and methodologies to assure safety and mission success.

NASA updated NPR 8715.3, NASA General Safety Program Requirements on April 13 from Revision D With Change 2 to Revision D With Change 3. This update reflects recent changes to and ensures consistency with NPR 8715.1, NASA Safety and Health Programs. 

NASA’s Ingenuity Mars Helicopter made headlines in April after successfully completing the first powered controlled flight by an aircraft on a planet besides Earth. Ingenuity’s tremendous success demonstrates the continuing evolution of NASA’s Risk Management processes for infusing commercial technologies into space missions. While rightly described as a “high-risk, high-reward” technology demonstration, Ingenuity is completely based on well-reasoned and disciplined engineering analysis and methodical risk identification and mitigation schemes.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance Layered Pressure Vessel Risk Mitigation project team designed software to simplify and improve calculations required by the ASTM E1921, Standard Test Method for Determination of Reference Temperature, T0, for Ferritic Steels in the Transition Range.

The June 2021 Issue of Orbital Debris Quarterly News (ODQN) is now available. This issue provides updates since February 2021, including two on-orbit breakups, a historical review of the Goldstone Orbital Debris Radar, and a tribute to former NASA Chief Scientist Nick Johnson, who recently passed away.

Though they may not know her by name, NASA employees are familiar with the programs, initiatives and products created by Dr. Tracy Dillinger. She manages two key programs for the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance: Safety Culture and Human Factors. She also served as the chair of the agency Safety Culture Working Group and agency Human Factors Task Force, is responsible for the NASA Safety Culture Survey, Safety Culture courses, NASA Human Factor Analysis and Classification training, the NASA Annual Human Factors report, and NASA Organizational Safety Assessments.

The latest issue of the EEE Parts Bulletin covers news from the Electrical, Electronic and Electromechanical (EEE) Parts discipline from October 2020 through May 2021. 

NASA named Dr. J. Nick Benardini as the agency Planetary Protection Officer within the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, effective June 7.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Workmanship Standards program recently updated NASA-STD-8739.6, Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards to

• Align with changes in industry standards
• Expand Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) control requirements
• Clarify training requirements
• Reflect changes in other NASA Policy Directives and NASA Procedural Requirements

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) made significant updates to NPR 8705.4A, Risk Classification for NASA Payloads, effective April 29. 2021. OSMA updated the policy to reflect changes in risk acceptance and Technical Authority concurrence policies, to formalize and shorten the timeline for the risk classification process, to provide clearer and earlier documentation of the Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) implementation approach, and (most importantly) better align stakeholder and implementer expectations.