In 2014, the Electrostatic Discharge Association updated its primary Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) control standard: American National Standards Institute/ESD S20.20. The changes affect how NASA defines the minimum requirements for ESD controls applied when the agency and its suppliers process and handle mission hardware that is sensitive to damaging ESD events.

NASA recently proposed new legislation to address the growing problem of counterfeit parts in the aerospace industry supply chain. The legislation is part of the NASA 2014 Authorization Bill, which passed the House on June 9 and is awaiting approval by the Senate before moving to the president to be signed into law. If passed, NASA will implement changes required by the law through modifications to the NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation Supplement (NASA FAR Supplement or NFS).

NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) has deployed a new requirements accessibility platform to replace the Safety and Mission Assurance Requirements Tracking System. This completes the first step in an effort to improve management and accessibility of OSMA requirements.

Recent changes to NPR 8715.7, Expendable Launch Vehicle (ELV) Payload Safety Program, reflect new program standards and improve the overall ELV payload safety review and approval process.

A recent revision to NPR 8735.2B brings NASA’s government contract quality assurance requirements up to date, makes them easier to understand and potentially saves the agency money.

A cross-agency team revised NASA-STD-8719.13C, bringing the standard for safety-critical software up to date with best practices in software safety design, analysis and development.

Two working groups collaborated to update NASA-STD-8739.9 with the help of one of the nation’s leading software inspection experts.