scope:

APPLICABILITY

a. This NPD is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers. This language applies to Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a Federally Funded Research and Development Center, other contractors, grant recipients, or parties to agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in the appropriate contracts, grants, or agreements.

b. This policy applies to all NASA-owned or NASA-sponsored non-crewed payloads/missions designed for launch into Earth orbit and beyond and/or for other Government-sponsored payloads for which NASA is responsible for launch service acquisition and management.

c. NASA launches, identified through the Flight Planning Board (FPB) process as able to tolerate higher-risk launch services as defined in NPD 8610.7, may utilize a modified technical oversight approach.

d. Application of this approach to launches purchased under spacecraft contracts for on-orbit services or other innovative contractual arrangements will be reviewed by the Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) and sponsoring Mission Directorate, on a case-by-case basis and approved through the FPB process well in advance of contract action.

e. This policy is not applicable to suborbital launches or payloads launched on the Space Launch System.

f. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term "shall." The terms: "may" or "can" denote discretionary privilege or permission, "should" denotes a good practice and is recommended, but not required, "will" denotes expected outcome, and "are/is" denotes descriptive material.

g. In this directive, all document citations are assumed to be the latest version unless otherwise noted.