Revising NASA Regulations That NASA Just Ignores
NASA Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Revision to Regulations Governing Crew Members
“The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) is proposing to amend its regulations that govern International Space Station crewmembers, mementos aboard Orion and Space Launch System (SLS) missions, the authority of the NASA Commander, and removes the Agency’s policy on space flight participation and other policies that were relevant to the Space Shuttle. The revisions to this rule are part of NASA’s retrospective plan under Executive Order (E.O.) 13563 completed in August 2011.”
14 CFR Part 1214 – SPACE FLIGHT
Keith’s note: Gee, the Space Shuttle was retired in 2011 – and the retirement date was known for several years before that. SLS/Orion has been under development even longer. Yet it took NASA 4 years or more to simply remove “space shuttle” relevant verbiage from these regulations and add SLS/Orion wording? Why did this simple task take so long? And what was the impact of leaving the verbiage in these regulations for 4 years after the Shuttle stopped flying? Nothing, it would seem. So … the regulations were flawed/out of date for 4 years and no one cared? One has to wonder if these regulations really mean much of anything if it takes so long to change them and everyone ignores the parts they want to ignore.
I wonder how long it will take NASA to revise these regulations so as to allow the whole #JourneyToMars thing to happen so that astronauts can bring their favorite college t-shirts to Mars.
Someone probably just got funds for a doc cleanup. No money before, no doc cleanup. I’ve found the rhyme or reason to these kind of admin things with documents is often just some bizarre reasoning that makes sense in it’s own bizarro world.
Back in the late 90’s I saw a request to change a Shuttle requirements document, a section on engine life. The justification was based on a cost/benefit analysis that the requirement was never going to be met, requiring a waiver processing every flight since 1981, and that changing the document permanently would be a one-time expense that would pay back after avoiding X number of future waivers.
For this people get paid.
OTOH, it’s not like Orion is flying anytime soon; there’s hardly a rush.