What would your project team do if your NASA-owned flight hardware suffered mishap-level damage during transport? Would someone be prepared to assume the duties of an incident commander or NASA Interim Response Team (IRT) lead?
That’s exactly what happened when one of Goddard Space Flight Center’s four Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) spacecraft was almost damaged in a close call. After an internal fire that threatened the spacecraft was extinguished, the project safety manager who was traveling with the spacecraft secured the flight hardware, took photos, recorded witness statements and impounded data. Proper safety training and quick-acting personnel can mean the difference between a delay in a testing schedule or the total destruction of flight hardware. In this case, there was minimal impact to the schedule and no flight hardware damage.