scope:

Purpose

NASA policy for establishing standards to protect the health and safety of crew, and for providing health and medical programs for crewmembers during all phases of space flight, is authorized by NPD 1000.3, The NASA Organization, and NPD 8900.5, NASA Health and Medical Policy for Human Space Exploration. NPD 8900.1, Medical Operations Responsibilities in Support of Human Space Flight Programs and NPD 8900.3, Astronaut Medical and Dental Observation Study and Care Program, authorize the specific provision of health and medical programs for crewmembers. NASA's policy is to establish standards for providing a healthy and safe environment for crewmembers, and to provide health and medical programs for crewmembers during all phases of space flight. Standards are established to optimize crew health and performance, thus contributing to overall mission success, and to prevent negative long-term health consequences due to space flight. In this document, the Office of the Chief Health and Medical Officer establishes NASA's space flight Crew Health standards for the pre-flight, in-flight, and post-flight phases of human space flight.

Human system standards are established to guide and focus the development of the crew health requirements as a means of protecting space-faring crews. The standards presented in this document, NASA Space Flight Human System Standards, Volume I: Crew Health, are intended to complement the overall set of human standards for space flight, which also includes NASA Space Flight Human Systems Standards, Volume II: Habitability and Environmental Health; NASA Medical Standard for Crewmembers; and current medical standards of clinical practice. Combined, these standards provide Agency technical requirements for an appropriate environment for human habitation, certification of human participants, the necessary level of medical care, and risk-mitigation strategies against the deleterious effects of space flight. The standards described in this document include levels of care, permissible exposure limits, fitness-for-duty criteria, and permissible outcome limits as a means of defining successful operating criteria for the human system. These standards help ensure mission completion, limit morbidity, and reduce the risk of mortality during space flight missions. See Appendix A for an overview document map.

All standards are based on the best available scientific and clinical evidence, as well as operational experience from Apollo, Skylab, Shuttle, Shuttle/MIR (United Soviet Socialists Republic (USSR) Space Station), and International Space Station (ISS) missions. Standards are periodically and regularly reviewed, especially as the concept of operations and mission parameters for a program become defined, and may be updated as new evidence emerges.

A Crew Health Concept of Operations document is developed by the Space Medicine Division at the Johnson Space Center (JSC) for each space flight program and coordinated with the appropriate Program Manager for concurrence. See Appendix B for an example Crew Health Concept of Operations outline.

Following the development of the Crew Health Concept of Operations, a Medical Operations Requirements Document (MORD) is developed by the JSC Space Medicine Division for each program. The MORD details the medical requirements for the program, and is consistent with the overall medical concept outlined in the Crew Health Concept document. See Appendix C for an example outline of a MORD.

Applicability

These standards apply to all NASA human space flight programs and are not developed for any specific program. However, while some of the existing programs, such as the Space Shuttle and ISS Programs, meet the intent and purpose of these standards currently, these standards may have implications for longer duration missions and missions with architectures and objectives outside of low Earth orbit (LEO). Although the standards are applicable to the in-flight phase of all space missions, it is anticipated that they are most relevant during long-duration lunar outpost and Mars exploration missions, since the combined ill effects of exposure to the space environment is of most concern in those mission scenarios. The standards and technical requirements specified in this volume shall

a. Apply to all space exploration programs and activities involving crewmembers.

b. Apply to internationally provided space systems as documented in distinct separate agreements such as joint or multilateral agreements.

c. Be made applicable to contractors only through contract clauses, specifications, or statements of work in conformance with the NASA Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) supplement and not as direct instructions to contractors.

d. Supersede any conflicting crew health requirements imposed by other NASA standards.

This standard may be cited in contract, program, and other Agency documents as a technical requirement. Mandatory requirements are indicated by the word "shall," statement of fact and descriptive material by "is," and permission by "may" or "can." Tailoring of, deviation from, or waivers to this standard for application to a specific program or project shall be approved by the NASA Chief Health and Medical Officer.