scope:

Purpose

NASA is committed to building world-class, state-of-the-art facilities that are safe, cost efficient, and environmentally friendly. NASA facilities should evoke a sense of permanence; be aesthetically pleasant, highly functional, robust, resilient, and sustainable; promote a conducive work environment; and enhance personal productivity to enable NASA to accomplish its mission.

The purpose of this NASA Technical Standard is to communicate Agency top-level design requirements and to provide a standard to serve as a singular source for all Agency-level planning, design, and construction requirements in compliance with NASA Procedural Requirements (NPR) 8800.15, Real Estate Management Program, including NID 8800.115, NASA Interim Directive: Real Estate Management Program Adding Decommission of Facilities. These top-level requirements include:

a. Applicable codes;

b. Industry standards;

c. Federal laws and regulations; and

d. NASA Policy Directives (NPD), NPR, guides, and standards.

This NASA Technical Standard is intended to cover essentially all construction design activities undertaken by NASA, encompassing all tasks that involve new construction, repair, alteration, upgrade, and renovation or demolition of buildings, structures, utilities, or building subsystems (e.g., fire protection and security). These include, but are not limited to, the following:

a. Buildings used for offices or laboratory research;

b. Specialized structures such as wind tunnels, arc jets, test stands, hangars, and launch pads;

c. Utility systems, including electrical, communications, water, sewer, storm drains, natural gas, high-pressure water distribution, steam, and compressed air systems;

d. Fire protection systems, including fire suppression systems and life safety alarm subsystems; and

e. Security access systems and Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS), closed-circuit television (CCTV) systems, data systems, and physical security systems, including security fences, physical security barriers, all doors, and other systems that impact the physical security of NASA assets.

It is imperative that each facility be designed so that all components comprise an integrated solution, operations and maintenance of the facility are streamlined, energy use is minimized, and the use of other criteria is maximized.

This NASA Technical Standard complements Center best practices and design standards. It does not prohibit use of management methods and systems currently used by the Centers and those not specifically described in this NASA Technical Standard.

Applicability

This NASA Technical Standard is applicable primarily to Architects-Engineers (A-E). It, however, neither relieves the A-E of their responsibility to identify and determine other requirements not found in this NASA Technical Standard, nor supersedes specific project, NASA Center, and Authority Having Jurisdiction (AHJ) conditions. NASA facility planning, design, construction, maintenance, renewal, demolition, and cost-effective facility stewardship throughout a facility's life cycle (design, construction, maintenance, renewal, and demolition) require an integrated and collaborative facility design approach in which all NASA stakeholders (planners, facility engineers, designers, contractors, tenants, users, and operations and maintenance personnel) actively participate early and continuously in the planning process.

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.