scope:

Purpose

The purpose of this directive is to assure mission success. This directive defines NASA roles and responsibilities for assuring safety and mission success of NASA missions, and describes processes and evidence necessary to provide that assurance. NASA roles, responsibilities, and processes for protecting the public, workforce, and non-mission assets from NASA activities are defined in NPR 8715.1, NASA Safety and Health Programs.

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 is applicable to NASA missions and NASA controlled activities in support of NASA missions.

c. In this directive, all mandatory actions (i.e., requirements) are denoted by statements containing the term "shall." The term "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.

d. In this directive, the word "project" refers to a unit of work performed in programs, projects, and activities. Management of a work unit is referred to as "project management," which includes managing programs, projects, and activities.

e. 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 Technical Authority.