NASA Notification of New Policy for Science Mission Directorate Class-D Missions
Class-D missions are a crucial part of the
National Aeronautics Space Administration (NASA) Science Mission
Directorate (SMD) mission portfolio, even though they are typically at
lower cost than other missions and at low national priority. They
provide an ideal platform for technological and architecture innovation
and are a training ground for a diverse set of
scientists and engineers. Class-D missions are also well-suited for
novel partnership models between NASA and the commercial sector. These
missions are thus a critical part of the SMD mission portfolio, but only
if their management processes are aligned with
their overall goals. For that reason, SMD has pursued a streamlined
process for implementing Class-D missions that recognizes their unique
and important role in SMD’s mission portfolio.
As
a result of this work, SMD is issuing a new policy documenting the
principles and approach that will guide the implementation of Class-D
missions
under $150M lifecycle cost, not including launch vehicles, going
forward. This new approach is a tailoring/streamlining of how SMD
executes space flight projects per NPR 8705.4, Risk Classification for
NASA Payloads (Updated w/change 3); NPR 7120.5, NASA Space
Flight Program and Project Management Requirements w/Changes 1-15; and
the SMD Management Handbook. This policy is effective January 1, 2018 for all applicable projects that have not reached Key Decision Point-C (KDP-C) as of that date.
The full text of the new policy is available: https://soma.larc.
SMD will be hosting a discussion of the new policy during a town
hall meeting scheduled for Thursday, December 14 at 6:15pm CST at the 2017 American Geophysical Union Fall Meeting in New Orleans, LA.
SMD will also host a discussion for interested industry representatives at 1:00pm EST on January 3, 2018 at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC. Further
information about this meeting will appear on the SOMA web page.
A web feature on this topic has also been released at https://www.nasa.gov/
