scope:

The attached White Paper focuses on several of the Space Shuttle Program Lessons Learned related to design environments development. In general, through a coordinated effort between engineers at the NASA and the contractor, the engineering team did a credible job developing the design environments of the integrated Space Shuttle Vehicle (SSV). Nevertheless, there are a few examples where environments, most considered secondary in importance at the time, were found to be lacking in their definition, at which time additional focus was brought to bear to more fully understand their characterization. Though these environments are being termed as miscellaneous or secondary because they did not size the design of the primary structural members, in some cases they ended up having a significant effect on local structures and vehicle life. This white paper is written so that future launch vehicle program managers and engineers might have insight into the decision process used for those types of environments, and take steps to assure their proper and full consideration.