The Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP), an advisory committee that reports to NASA and Congress, issued its 2022 annual report Tuesday, Feb. 7, 2023, examining the agencys safety performance, accomplishments, and challenges over the past year.
The report highlights 2022 activities and observations on NASAs:
- Strategic Vision and Guiding Principles
- Agency Governance
- Program Management
Throughout 2022, the ASAP engaged in a series of discussions to further explore the strategic recommendations made in 2021, while placing emphasis on the agencys ongoing program work. As a result, the ASAPs latest report includes information on the advances NASA made in its operations, decision-making, program and personnel management, and the tasks that still remain.
The panel believes how NASA manages human space flight programs and other vital agency priorities will have a significant impact on mission outcomes, said Dr. Patricia Sanders, ASAP chair. We believe that NASAs vision for the future, and a clear definition of how it will evaluate and make risk decisions, are extremely important factors in managing human space flight safety. This report focuses on the three formal recommendations made in 2021 and provides a look at where we have observed major progress and highlights the challenges that remain.
The report spotlights progress toward the top three recommendations offered in 2021, which addressed steps the ASAP recommended to effectively manage integrated risks while developing and executing exploration campaigns. The steps include developing a strategic vision, managing the workforce for the evolving space exploration environment, and managing Artemis as an integrated program. The third recommendation is the ASAPs proposal for governance cohesion across the agency to unify the workforce while achieving agency goals.
The 2022 report provides details on the concrete actions the agency should take to fulfill the 2021 recommendations. As for agency governance, the commentary focuses on transparency while modeling responsibility and accountability for safety and risk management.
The report is based on the panel's 2022 fact-finding and quarterly public meetings; insight visits and meetings; direct observations of NASA operations and decision-making processes; discussions with NASA management, employees, and contractors; and the panel members' own experiences.
Congress established the panel in 1968 to provide advice and make recommendations to the NASA administrator on safety matters after the 1967 Apollo 1 fire claimed the lives of three American astronauts.
