NASA's Constellation Program has made the most progress in a generation towards building an integrated human-rated spacecraft and launch vehicle. During that development, it became clear that NASA's human-rating requirements lacked the specificity necessary to defend a program plan, particularly human-rating test flight plans, from severe budget challenges. This paper addresses the progress Constellation achieved, problems encountered in clarifying and defending a human-rating certification plan, and discusses key considerations for those who find themselves in similar straits with future human-rated spacecraft and vehicles. We assert, and support with space flight data, that NASA's current human-rating requirements do not adequately address "unknown-unknowns", or the unexpected things the hardware can reveal to the designer during test.


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    Title :

    First Crewed Flight: Rationale, Considerations and Challenges from the Constellation Experience



    Publication date :

    2011-10-01


    Type of media :

    Report


    Type of material :

    No indication


    Language :

    English