This chapter is divided into three sections. The first discusses Mission Control Center (MCC) design and operations. This covers the need for and purpose of the MCC and then details structure, operations, design considerations, and mitigation of external events. The second section, on hazardous commands identification and control, explores identification of hazardous commands and then, implementation, including two-step commanding and error prevention, giving the International Space Station life support system as an example. The final section, on flight rules, covers the history of flight rules and their application, use and purpose in space flight, including their documentation and production process.

This chapter provides an understanding of quantitative risk assessment as it is applied in the operational phase of complex aerospace missions. It addresses the application of a quantitative risk model that has already been built and reviewed for a project or program that is in the operations phase. Several aerospace examples are discussed, but the focus of the chapter is the use of risk modeling in the operational phase of the International Space Station (ISS) program. Examples are presented to highlight the application and flexibility of risk assessments or trade studies in the operations phase. Operational risk trades account for nearly all of the risk analysis performed for the ISS program.

This chapter covers all aspects of spaceport design for safety. This includes the choice of launch site, and explores the approach taken when choosing a location for the French Guiana Space Centre. Once the choice of geographical location has been made, the principles for the deployment these facilities in this location must be defined - the master plan. The chapter then looks at ground safety and the regulations concerned, and goes on to discuss the flight risk control within a launch site perimeter during a launch operation. Safety design for a spaceport includes limiting exposure of personnel in hazard zones. The location and design of buildings and roadways, and safety distances all need to be considered. Lightning protection systems are discussed in detail. Launch pad escape systems are essential for human spaceflight and the development of these systems is covered. The final section covers environmental protection.

Hazards to aircraft are a particular concern for the design of safe space vehicle operations. A valid risk mitigation strategy requires accurately computed risks, and the first section of this chapter discusses this. This is followed by a section on aircraft vulnerability modeling. A straightforward approach for managing aircraft risk, which is often sufficient for low-use airspace, is then discussed. Potential methods for reducing the impact on airspace, which may be useful in the absence of a real-time system, are then explored. Real-time management is covered in the subsequent section, and gives a potential architecture based on the used for management of the US National Air Space for Space Shuttle Orbiter re-entries after the Columbia accident.

This chapter is in two sections. The first section describes the typical hazards that may be encountered when processing payloads on the ground. Also described are some of the more common controls for these hazards. Many of these controls are based on hard requirements but they are also based on specific lessons learned. The second section covers gases storage and handling safety. First, for purposes of background, an overview of energy considerations of stored gases is given. The subsection that follows describes the hazards and corresponding causes associated with compressed gases. The remaining three subsections contain the operational controls that should be followed to minimize these risks.

The safety of any space system requires a deliberate and interdisciplinary integration of the flight hardware design with the design of its operations throughout the entire lifecycle of the system. This chapter introduces the subsequent chapters that more thoroughly address safety issues associated with the operations of space vehicles, from the design of the infrastructure on ground, through launch, on-orbit, and re-entry operations. This chapter begins with a discussion of safety and risk management at the conceptual level, including several fundamental goals and definitions. The balance of the chapter describes several seminal events and lays the foundation for a graduate level education in space operations safety.

Chapter 5 extends the launch safety analysis to toxic and distant focusing overpressure hazards. A major section of this chapter is devoted to each of these hazards. Rocket motor propellants and their combustion products may pose toxic hazards in the extended launch vicinity. Moreover, accidental explosions on or near a launch pad may, with adverse atmospheric conditions, cause explosive shock waves to break windows at distant population centers potentially threatening their occupants. Currently, liquid propellants may be hazardous; however, their combustion products are not. Solid propellants, by contrast, do not directly pose a toxic hazard; their combustion products are, however, frequently hazardous. The chapter introduces the reader to each of the hazards, characterizing the source term, factors governing the propagation of the hazards to people, and guidelines for evaluating the severity of the hazardous conditions that may exist at population centers. Comprehensive modeling of these two hazards is complex. Consequently, for each hazard one or more screening methodologies is presented to allow scoping studies to be performed to assess if there is a need for more comprehensive modeling. Each section then presents a comprehensive discussion of the analysis of the threat and the risk posed by the two hazards so that the reader understands how the complete analyses must be performed.

Because of the inherent high sensor resolution satellite laser ranging (SLR) has been developed into a widely used range measurement technology, today more than 30 observing stations all across the world are routinely tracking a large variety of satellites in order to determine their orbits with high resolution. Recently this concept was also adopted for high-precision time transfer activities, such as the T2L2 experiment on Jason 2 and the European Laser Time Transfer (ELT) for the International Space Station. With complex targets such as the ISS one has to comply with stringent laser eye safety requirements in order to ensure the health of the astronauts. At the same time laser safety for air traffic has to be secured.

This chapter deals with some key topics of orbital safety. It starts with an overview of the issue of space traffic control and space situational awareness, and then proceeds to address conjunction analyses and collision avoidance maneuvers (CAM), including for the International Space Station. Another kind of collision risk discussed is the jettison of discarded hardware. The chapter then covers rendezvous and docking/berthing operations. Collision safety risks, their causes and consequences, and the measures for protection are discussed in detail. The chapter also covers the issues of space vehicles charging and contamination hazards, including the shock hazard for astronauts involved in extravehicular activities. Finally, the chapter presents end-of life mitigation measures and techniques for space debris removal, such as space tugs, drag devices and electrodynamic propulsion.

From the beginning of humankind’s use of space, human-made objects have re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere and experienced the severe aerodynamic heating and loads characteristic of high-speed atmospheric re-entry. Some of these reentries have generated fragments that survived to impact the Earth’s surface and be hazardous to people and damaging to property. This chapter addresses the safety of both broad types of space hardware re-entries: either controlled so impact is targeted in a specific area, or uncontrolled, where re-entry can occur anywhere within the latitude band defined by the orbital inclination of the reentering object. The overall objective of this chapter is to help prepare safety engineers to answer the ultimate questions involved in the design of safety re-entry operations.