Space-system reliability: a historical perspective

The NASA Strategic Plan is the backbone of its new strategic management system, an important aspect of which is risk management. Coincident with a decreasing NASA budget is the new working environment that demands a better, faster, cheaper way to conduct business. In such an environment where risk is considered a knowledge-based resource, mission assurance is important in understanding risk. Through the years, much of mission assurance has been aimed at increasing independent systems engineering and further refining basic design approaches. Now the time has come to direct NASA's attention to managing the risks that come from system interactions during a mission. To understand such risks, all engineering techniques are important. Mission-assurance engineers are entering the era of interaction in which engineering and system engineering must work closely to achieve better performance on time and within cost. A structured risk-management approach is critical to a successful project-this is nothing new. A risk policy must be integral to the program as part of a concurrent engineering process, and risk and risk drivers must be monitored throughout. Risk can also be managed as a resource: the new way of managing better, faster, cheaper programs encompasses upfront, knowledge-based risk assessment. The safety and mission assurance community can provide valuable support as risk management consultants.