NASA recently updated NASA-STD-8719.14, Process for Limiting Orbital Debris. This update follows the February 2017 revision of the governing policy document NPR 8715.6, NASA Procedural Requirements for Limiting Orbital Debris and Evaluating the Meteoroid and Orbital Debris Environments.

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.

At the recommendation of the NASA Metrology and Calibration (MetCal) Program, the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance cancelled NPD 8730.1, Metrology and Calibration and transferred the content to a new NASA standard, NASA-STD-8739.12, Metrology and Calibration, which went into effect Jan. 23, 2018. NPD 8730.5, NASA Quality Assurance Program Policy will carry the remaining MetCal policy language that was not transferred to NASA-STD-8739.12.

The NASA Range Flight Safety Program updated NPR 8715.5, Range Flight Safety Program and released the newly created NASA-STD-8719.25, Range Flight Safety Requirements, which went into effect on Feb .2 and Feb. 5, respectively. The creation of the standard and subsequent changes to the NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) support an agency effort to ensure NPRs focus on policy and process, while standards contain technical requirements.

Updates to Chapters 4, 5 and 8 of NPR 8715.3, NASA General Safety Program Requirements went into effect on Aug. 1, 2017. These updates, part of Revision D, met the NASA requirement that ensures policies are updated at least every five years; however, a complete update to the policy is still in the works.

Changes to NPR 8000.4B, Agency Risk Management Procedural Requirements, went into effect on Dec. 6, 2017, thereby replacing NID 8000-108 and NPR 8000.4A.

NPR 8705.2, Human Rating Requirements for Space Systems was updated to reflect current agency policies. Revision C included changes to improve accountability throughout the Human-Rating certification process, clarification of the scope of human-systems integration analyses, clarifications regarding the failure tolerance requirement and more explicit involvement of the crew safety representatives.

The NASA Pressure Vessels and Systems Working Group developed updates to NASA-STD-8719.17, Requirements for Ground-Based Pressure Vessels and Pressurized Systems (PVS). With thousands of ground-based pressure systems across the agency storing substantial amounts of energy, it’s essential requirements for their safe and reliable operation remain current. 

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.