Policy Bytes

On March 8, 2022, NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance, in collaboration with the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer, released NASA Interim Directive 8715.1, NASA Hazardous Chemical Storage Requirements to supplement NPR 8715.1B, NASA Safety and Health Programs.

The Office of Safety and Mission Assurance recently released NPR 8715.24, Planetary Protection Provisions for Robotic Extraterrestrial Missions in September 2021. 

In this webinar, Planetary Protection Officer Nick Benardini, Ph.D., and Deputy Planetary Protection Officer Elaine Seasly, D.Eng., will review the key roles and responsibilities for implementing Planetary Protection requirements and answer participants’ questions. They will also review updates to the Planetary Protection categorization and planning process.  

NPR 8715.24 replaced the now cancelled NPR 8020.12D, Planetary Protection Provisions for Robotic Extraterrestrial Missions. For a high-level overview of the changes and some of the rationale behind them, read “NPR 8715.25 Updates Agency’s Approach to Planetary Protection” prior to the webinar.

In February 2021, the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance’s Workmanship Standards program updated NASA-STD-8739.6 Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards.

In this webinar, Alvin Boutte, NASA Workmanship Standards delegated program manager, will review many of the changes in NASA-STD-8739.6B, such as relocation of training requirements from the appendix to the main document, along with changes to training policy and the addition of an Electrostatic Discharge (ESD) control section that provides additional guidance for NASA centers to better meet the requirements of ANSI/ESD S20.20 Quality Management Standard for Electrostatic Discharge.

He will also discuss updates to more recent revisions of industry voluntary consensus standards for both the IPC-J-STD-001 Requirements for Soldered Electrical and Electronic Assemblies and IPC/WHMA-A-620 Requirements and Acceptance for Cable and Wire Harness Assemblies.

Learn more about this updated policy before the webinar by reading "Updates to NASA-STD-8739.6 Reflect Ongoing Changes to Industry Standards and Expand ESD Control Applicability."

This video provides an orientation to NASA-STD-8739.6, Implementation Requirements for NASA Workmanship Standards, including a recap on applicability, order of precedence and training centers.