The Vision for Space Exploration

Old Lessons Apply in the New

World

C. Herbert Shivers, PhD, PE, CSPDeputy DirectorSafety and Mission Assurance DirectorateNASA/Marshall Space Flight Center

Presented to the Conference on Quality in the Space and Defense Industries 2007

Cape Canaveral, FloridaMarch, 2007

Part One - Panel Introduction – Apollo Lessons

NASA Evolved from Saturn to Shuttle to Ares

Safe Exploration is Still the Goal

Dr. Eberhard Rees– Dr. Rees succeeded Dr. Von

Braun as Director of Marshall Space Flight Center (March 1, 1970 - Jan. 19, 1973 )

– Dr. Rees spoke to The World Management Congress in Munich in 1972

– Dr. Rees spoke words that are as true today as they were then

– We do well to remember

Planning

To Assure effective program execution:

“A superior planning effort without diligent planning – especially systems planning – right from the start, any project is doomed sooner or later to run into most serious difficulties.”

Dr. Eberhard Rees

Significance of Planning

“We had great difficulties in finding technical experts who understood the value of planning. For the military, strategic planning is a matter of course. The same is true for any commercial undertaking where to neglect planning is to court bankruptcy. Why it is so hard to introduce proper planning into project and system management of projects of a more scientific nature is perplexing to me.”

Dr. Eberhard Rees

Cost of Quality

“The program management permits faulty components to enter the system – due to lack of quality control and testing – the components would only be detected in overall checkouts. And finally, unrealistically short time schedules endanger the quality of the product and cost control, whereas long, drawn-out time plans increase total project cost.”

Dr. Eberhard Rees

The Trade:

Risk Balance

There has to be an optimum balance among technical performance, time schedule and cost. In the Apollo Program, this balance was deliberately shifted toward technical performance and time schedule.

“There has to be an optimum balance among technical performance, time schedule and cost. In the Apollo Program, this balance was deliberately shifted toward technical performance and time schedule.”

Dr. Eberhard Rees

Vigilance

– “If eternal vigilance is the price of liberty, then chronic unease is the price of safety.” Professor James Reason (2005, p 37)

– One might just as well say, “quality”

SSE and Quality EngineeringPre-design

System Safety, “Are the requirements inclusive, correct and being correctly implemented?”

• System focused perspective

Quality, “Are the requirements inclusive, correct and being correctly implemented?”

• System focused perspective

SSE and Quality Engineering

Post-designSystem Safety, “Was the specification correct and what happens if the system meets or doesn’t meet the specification?”

• All failures don’t create hazards, all hazards aren’t failure based, analyze interactions instead of single components

Quality, “Does the system as built meet its specification?”

• Component failure focused

Accident Causation

– The focus of accident causation has broadened over the years:

– Hardware and software failures (1950’s to present)–Unsafe acts, errors and violations (1970’s to present)–System and cultural issues (1980’s to present)

(James Reason, 2006)

Quality and System Safety both are instrumental in the prevention process