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The development of a satellite mission comes with many challenges even when everything develops as expected. Virtually always, however, the expected does not occur. Instrument sensitivities do not materialize as planned; pointing systems underperform; interactions among the payload, spacecraft, and the launch vehicle create vibration loads that threaten the integrity of the observatory; and looming […]

As the Space Shuttle Program comes to a close, Anne Caraccio, chemical engineer at Kennedy Space Center, shares her story about how she came to work in the space program and what it means to her as a young professional at NASA. She spoke to an audience of Apollo and Shuttle era engineers at the […]

Integrated coordination of tasks involving common hardware used by different teams minimizes the impact of configuration changes.

An issue with a button battery holder appears to be the cause of an unplanned reset of the Real-Time Clock on the International Space Station Urine Processing Assembly.

NASA has discovered wiring damage issues in every crewed vehicle system, but early indications suggest the new generation of vehicles appears to benefit from more simplified designs and lower technician traffic during integration.

The likelihood of success increases if the group responsible for implementing design verification methods chosen early in a program’s life cycle is allowed to contribute to the selection process.

Evaluation of costs associated with lightning strikes and other naturally occurring events should extend beyond facility repair to include impacts on science data, spacecraft commanding, and other mission-critical functions.

An investigation into the cause of intermittent electrical shorts on the Cassini space probe over a six-year period determined they were most likely due to the presence of tin whiskers. 

Redundancy and failure analysis should extend beyond end items and the subsystem under design and consider potential failure scenarios for all relevant interfacing subsystems.