Relatively Quiet Year as Agency Continues Building Foundation of Lunar, Mars Flights

NASA's Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel released its year in review, "examining the agency’s safety performance, accomplishments, and challenges over the past year."

All in all, there wasn't a whole lot of real banner news in the report, as expected for an agency that is trying to ready itself for bigger and better programs in their early stages of preparation. The report does include some new advances made in "operations, decision-making, program and personnel management, and the tasks that remain." Even then, the news isn't large, notable headliner items like a completed EVA suit for Artemis, or a successful Starship test, but it does mention the establishment of a "Moon to Mars Program Office" and the NASA 2040 initiative, so it's not all bland.

“This report reflects the panel’s strong emphasis on strategic-level aspects of NASA leadership, risk management, and safety culture – a primary focus over the past two years – while also giving attention to the tactical level of technical execution. We believe that the principles and processes the agency employs to evaluate and make decisions, manage programs, and communicate to its workforce have a direct and consequential impact on safety and mission assurance,” said Dr. Patricia Sanders, ASAP chair. “We also highlight some steps that the Congress can take to assist NASA in safely accomplishing its challenging mission.”

FMI: www.nasa.gov