The agency’s Quality Leadership Forum (QLF) met Sept. 13-15, 2022, at NASA Headquarters to focus on issues of particular interest and significance that are faced by NASA Quality Engineering and Assurance practitioners assigned to aeronautics and space flight program and project teams. The focus was on processes executed internally by NASA. 

The Metrology and Calibration (MetCal) Working Group (MCWG) held its annual Technical Interchange Meeting (TIM) April 25-28, 2022, at NASA Wallops Flight Facility. Agency MetCal representatives, calibration laboratory managers, metrologists and other experts from associated fields across all of NASA’s 10 field centers, and two component centers, met in-person and virtually at this hybrid event to discuss technical challenges, best practices and improvements related to the agency’s MetCal program. 

Changes to AS9101, Requirements for Conducting Audits of Aviation, Space, and Defense Quality Management Systems and to AS9104-1, Requirements for the Certification of Aviation, Space and Defense Quality Management System Certification Programs are introducing two new processes to the certification cycle for AS9100, Quality Systems – Aerospace – Model for Quality Assurance in Design, Development, Production, Installation and Servicing:  the Organization Certification Analysis Process and the Performance Based Surveillance/Recertification Process. The AS9104 series of standards describe the nature and governance of the Industry Controlled Other Party scheme used to execute and manage accreditation of certification bodies (i.e., registrars), auditors, training programs and certification of organizations to AS9100. 

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

Recent updates to NPR 8735.2, Hardware Quality Assurance Program Requirements for Programs and Projects consolidate Office of Safety and Mission Assurance policy into a hierarchy, make life cycle Quality Assurance more obvious without increasing prescription, and present approaches and solutions for a set of mission assurance objectives. 

NASA uses the Programmable Josephson Voltage Standard (PJVS) to ensure the agency’s calibrations include the most accurate voltage measurement with the lowest measurement uncertainty possible. 

Langley Research Center is actively using state-of-the-art Nondestructive Evaluation (NDE) modeling and simulation tools to accelerate the adoption of advanced materials and ensure the safety of aging infrastructure.

The Nadcap Management Council and the Performance Review Institute updated their response to the COVID-19 pandemic to include Risk Assessment Surveys and Virtual Verification Audits. This update follows Nadcap’s initial response in the spring of 2020.

In light of the logistical and safety constraints put upon NASA’s suppliers and training facilities due to COVID-19, NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance released its second memo, which endorses, with caveats, the extension of training credential validity periods for the majority of operators and inspectors employed by organizations who seek to comply with NASA Workmanship Standards for the assembly and Quality Assurance of NASA hardware. This extension is only applicable to individuals whose training credentials would have expired on or after Feb. 15, 2020. 

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) simultaneously renumbered and published an update to NASA-STD-6008, NASA Fastener Procurement, Receiving Inspection, and Storage Practices for Spaceflight. The new document, NASA-STD-8739.14, NASA Fastener Procurement, Receiving Inspection, and Storage Practices for NASA Mission Hardware, is now available for download at standards.nasa.gov. This is the first substantive technical change to the document since its stewardship transferred from the NASA Office of Chief Engineer to OSMA in 2008. The number change aligns with OSMA’s assigned number series for technical standards.