scope:

Purpose

This NASA Technical Standard establishes the fracture control requirements for National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) human-rated spaceflight hardware. In accordance with NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 8705.2B, Human-Rating Requirements for Space Systems, it is NASA's policy to produce human-rated space systems that have failure tolerance for catastrophic events or that potentially catastrophic hazards are controlled through a defined process in which approved standards and margins are implemented that account for the absence of failure tolerance.

Programs that are not human-rated may choose to impose these requirements on a mission or hardware to bolster the program or to serve as a stepping-stone for human rating.

Applicability

This NASA Technical Standard is applicable to human-rated spaceflight hardware.

This NASA Technical Standard is approved for use by NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers and Facilities, and applicable technical requirements may be cited in contract, program, and other Agency documents. It may also apply to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a Federally Funded Research and Development Center [FFRDC]), other contractors, recipients of grants and cooperative agreements, and parties to other agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in applicable contracts, grants, or agreements.

Verifiable requirement statements are designated by the acronym "FCR" (Fracture Control Requirements), numbered, and indicated by the word "shall" beginning in section 4. This NASA Technical Standard contains 26 requirements. Explanatory or guidance text is indicated in italics beginning in section 4. To facilitate requirements selection and verification by NASA programs and projects, a Requirements Compliance Matrix is provided in Appendix A.