1. Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
Operability
Program Management Challenge
February 2010
Carol Scott
Constellation Space Transportation
Planning Office (CSTP)
1 Used with Permission

2. Operability for Constellation System
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Constellation Program has made progress toward operability during
the early design phase of life cycle
 Constellation Space Transportation Planning office developed
Constellation Operability Advocacy Assessment.
 Current State
 Operability – Definition
 Current Approaches
 New Operability Efforts
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3. Scope - Operability
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 To have successful, safe, and cost effective mission execution:
 “Performance” must be balanced with “Operability” in the
system engineering design process
 Therefore design engineers must consider:
 How one part of the design solution effects the safe processing
and operations of the system and the other portions of the total
system engineering solution
 How a design decision must be incorporated into the
hardware/software through the stages of the lifecycle
 How trades are made between technical design, design
cost/schedule considerations, and operations cost/schedule
considerations
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4. Design Solution Example: Upper Stage Helium Bottle
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Performance vs. Operability
 I can gain performance by placing helium bottles inside cryogenic hydrogen tank,
taking advantage of cold hydrogen, leading to smaller helium bottle.
 How one part of the design solution effects the safe processing and operations of
the system and the other portions of the total system engineering solution
 Design Solution for helium bottle location for Upper Stage
 Can the Upper Stage hydrogen cryogenic system operate sufficiently with helium bottles in
Upper Stage, leaks?
 What are production issues, ground processing issues, special flight operation procedures?
 Added complexity to maintaining ullage pressure during flight?
 How a design decision must be incorporated into the hardware/software through
the stages of the lifecycle
 Design solution evolution from PDR/CDR/ Production Operations and Sustaining
 How trades are made between technical design, design cost/schedule
considerations, and operations cost/schedule considerations
 Helium bottle location in hydrogen tank vs. tank major structure
 Structural loads for tank position
 Design cost and schedule for each option
 Operations sustaining cost and schedule for production, ground and flight
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5. Current State
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Operability – no common agency/program definition
 Initial design trade studies focus on performance first.
 Operability becomes a focus after vehicle performance
requirements are established
 Operability consequences of utilizing heritage hardware and
infrastructure
 Heritage facilities bring fixed constants affecting operability
 Clean sheet will usually have fewer facilities
 Heritage facilities have fixed capacities, may be more than CxP
needs
 Heritage facilities must concurrently accommodate CSTP
production & operations and CxP modifications for lunar phase
 Estimated Constellation production, sustaining and operations
(Phase D&E of life cycle) costs are too high
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6. Operability – Definition
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Operability is the summation the system characteristics (Producibility, Reliability, Interoperability,
Sustainability, Maintainability) to ensure safe flight while minimizing fixed and variable costs during
the Production, Operating and Sustaining Phases (Phase D & E) of the life cycle.
 Producibility is the ease and economy with which a
completed design can be fabricated, manufactured or coded
into hardware/software products. (SP-6105 Dec 2007)
 Reliability is robustness of system to be fault tolerant during
Producibility Op its operating parameters and environment to safely achieve the
Reliability erab mission
Interoperability ilit (SP-6105 Dec 2007)
y
Sustainability  Interoperability is the ease of exchanging data between
Maintainability design and operations tools for reduced human error and
complexity of the integration tasks (SP-6105 Dec 2007)
P + R SummationM = O
+I+S+
 Sustainability is upholding and supporting the configuration
of the system through the operating life cycle.
 Maintainability is the inherent characteristics of a design that
contribute to the ease and economy to assemble, integrate,
retain or restore the hardware/software to specified conditions
safely and accurately (SP-6105 Dec 2007)
OPhase D&E = OProduction + OGround + OFlight + OManagement Systems
6 SP-6105: NASA System Engineering Handbook Dec 2007

7. Current Approaches
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
CxP Operability Evolution
 Constellation Architecture Requirements Document (CARD): high level
operability requirements
 Constellation Operability Optimization List
 Numerous examples for operability derived between Ground Operations and
Flight Design projects
 Ares Operability Assessment Team Established
 Dozens of operability changes incorporated between Ares and Ground
Operations projects during PDR cycle collaboration
 Software and data architecture emphasizes moving from document management
to data management
 Cx program operations engineer position added to help identify key operations
engineering activities throughout 2007 to present
 Orion’s PDR included operability as emphasis area
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8. Operability Successes
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Ares I/ Ground Ops
 Adoption of mono-propellant systems for RoCS, ReCS and FS TVC
 Commonality of commodity reduces processing hazards/loading timelines/maintenance cost
 ReCS service panel relocation to OML for access ease
 RoCS service panel relocation to I/S door area eliminates access arm
 Interstage door relocation aligns for ReCS service panel and eliminates 2 separate
access arms
 Orion Production
 Developed segmented Crew Module (CM) concept
 Saves four months of AI&P schedule in the O&C
 Top half the CM is welded after outfitting (Previous to this design the only access was via
the hatch)
 Implement cable harness wire identification
 Ground Ops
 VAB Platforms
 New platforms selected over modified Shuttle allowing for optimal access
 Separate VAB platform levels, not ganged platform assemblies, allow for individual
platform operations reducing operational constraints between task
 Platform inserts at vehicle interfaces providing flexibility for future vehicle changes
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9. New Operability Efforts
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Agency establishes CSTPO:
 Production, Operations, and Sustaining counterpart to the Constellation Program’s DDT&E role.
 Cx Associate Program Manager for Operations and Sustaining
Constellation Program Constellation Space
Transportation Program
LEO
Lunar
Mars
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10. New Operability Efforts
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 CSTP Organization
 Establishing interfaces between CxP and CSTP (ESMD and SOMD)
 Interfacing with CxP boards and panels
 Embedding into design centers’ processes
 Evaluating cost drivers during the next two PPBE cycles
 Evaluate mechanisms for funding operability opportunities
 CSTP Technical Authority Support
 Engineering
 Co-located 24 Flight Program System Engineers (FPSE) w/ designers
 Evaluating operability opportunities during design (PDR-CDR)
 Safety & Mission Assurance
 Defining flight hardware safety organization structure and interfaces with
JSC and MSFC S&MA
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11. Summary
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 Define Operability for Constellation phase D & E
 Address operability of production, ground operations, flight operations, management
systems and lessons for the next Architecture Cycle (Lunar)
To have successful, safe, and cost effective mission execution;
“Performance” must be balanced with “Operability”
in the System Engineering Design Process
Performance + Operability = Mission Success
Producibility Op
Reliability erab
Maintainability ilit
y
Interoperability
Sustainability
Optimization
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12. Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
Constellation Space Transportation Planning Office
 NASA has established CSTP in late 2008 to be the Operations and Sustaining counterpart
to the Constellation DDT&E Program
 CSTP is embedded into the CxP processes to prepare the Constellation Ares I/ Orion block
I for the Operations and Sustaining phase of the life cycle.
 Includes Production, Ground Processing, Flight Ops and Recovery
 Charter:
 Lay the groundwork for the Constellation Space Transportation Program
 Work within the agency governance structure
 Establish in program/project activities and processes the
 Engineering Technical Authority
 Safety Technical Authority
 Health and Medical Technical Authority
 Work with the Cx program and projects to establish collaborative relationships
 Work closely with the Mission Operations Directorate at JSC
 Flight rule development, planning, ascent, on orbit, and reentry/landing support
 Constellation Space Transportation Program
 Charter:
 Manage the production, sustaining engineering, launch preparations, on-orbit and
recovery of the Ares I/Orion vehicle configuration that will transport crew safely
to/from the ISS