scope:

Purpose

This directive defines (1) the criteria for Mission Directorates to define the risk tolerance classes for NASA missions and instruments, and (2) the corresponding Agency-level assurance expectations that drive design and analysis, test philosophy, and common assurance practices.

Applicability

a. This directive is applicable to NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers, including Component Facilities and Technical and Service Support Centers. This language 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.

b. This directive applies to NASA robotic programs and projects, including those flown on human vehicles, managed in accordance with NPR 7120.5, NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Requirements.

c. This directive does not apply to human vehicles, launch systems, and non-spaceflight aeronautical systems (e.g., airplanes). Application of this directive as a result of foreign collaborations to on-orbit services or non-NASA missions provided to NASA is at the discretion of the responsible NASA Mission Directorate.

d. This directive does not apply to projects managed under NPR 7120.8, NASA Research and Technology Program and Project Management Requirements, or projects otherwise not managed under NPR 7120.5, though these projects may choose to impose the objectives from Appendix D in their project-level documentation.

e. In this directive, 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.

f. In this directive, all document citations are assumed to be the latest version unless otherwise noted. Use of more recent versions of cited documents may be authorized by the responsible Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) Technical Authority (TA).

g. The requirements enumerated in this document are applicable to all new projects managed in accordance with NPR 7120.5 that are in Formulation Phase as of or after the effective date of this document (see NPR 7120.5 for project phase definitions).