scope:

APPLICABILITY

a. This directive is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers. This Directive applies to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC)) and other contractors only to the extent specified or referenced in applicable contracts.

b. 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.

c. In this directive, "NASA directives" refers to both Agency-level and Center-level directives.

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

e. This directive is applicable to NASA directives developed or revised after the effective date of this NASA Policy Directive (NPD).