Mission Assurance for Space Flight Experiments at the USAF Space and Missile Systems Center

Mission Assurance (MA) activities at the Space and Missile Systems Center (SMC) are generally oriented towards large, high-cost, national-interest acquisition programs. In contrast to these major acquisition programs, flight experiments pose a challenge to MA, as they typically have a higher risk profile, coupled with cost and schedule constraints. Flight experiments at SMC are conducted by either the Space Projects Division (XRF) of the Development Planning Directorate (XR) or the Space Development and Test Directorate (SD), while the MA process is governed by the Engineering Directorate (EN). Challenges to the MA process, in this context of executing flight experiments and technical demonstrations, includes redefining what constitutes mission success, and in turn utilizing MA to properly execute the flight experiment. This paper discusses some of these potential challenges, risk tradeoffs in schedule-driven versus event-driven systems engineering, and the tailoring of relevant standards. A comprehensive MA process, coupled with adherence to strict specifications and standards, assist in providing for mission success. Case studies are presented.