scope:

APPLICABILITY

This standard is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers. This document applies to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a Federally-Funded Research and Development Center), other contractors, recipients of grants, cooperative agreements, or other agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in the applicable contracts, grants, or agreements.

This document is applicable to unmanned orbital and unmanned deep space payloads that fly onboard launch vehicles (including aircraft-assisted launch vehicles such as Pegasus XL) and are managed by NASA, whether developed by NASA or any contractor or independent agency in a joint venture with NASA.

This document contains requirements that apply to each payload and its design, fabrication, testing, vehicle integration, launch processing, launch through payload separation, and planned recovery; payload-provided upper stages flown; interface hardware that is flown as part of a payload; and ground support equipment used to support payload-related operations. This document does not address in-flight spacecraft operational safety. The mission success and any scientific objectives of the payload are the responsibility of the Payload Project Office and are beyond the scope of this document.

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