Blueprint for an integrated vehicle health management system

Space flight programs face continuous and increasing pressures to reduce risks to safety of flight, accomplish mission success and reduce the cost of operations and maintenance. Space flight operations are complex and inherently high-risk. Large teams of experts are needed to perform all of the required activities, and several months of work are needed to prepare a vehicle and train the flight crew and operations teams for the mission. Multiple layers of oversight have been developed to assure that missions are completed safely and successfully. These extensive and complex processes drive up the cost of space flight and assure that only a few missions are flown per year. Many of the concepts needed for significant gains in efficiency of space flight operations have been demonstrated in isolation. Meeting the challenges to integrate vehicle health management across the enterprise will open doors to highly streamlined space flight operations and enhances the possibility of commercial viability of space flight.