ROLE OF CRITERIA IN DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT OF SPACE SYSTEMS

Requirements and standards are used in two ways that are highly interr elated. First, they serve as the framework for managing technical and project aspects of a spacecraft or space vehicle. Second, they provide formal control or direction (legal) to the development, verification, and operations of these systems. There exist in addition many good pr actices and lessons-learned guideline documents that can guide the des ign. These, however, are not contractually binding. The legal requirem ents usually consist of the basic performance requirements for the sys tem and the design requirements that provide verifiable requirements s uch as structural safety factors, stability margins, process control, materials selection, etc. As the project develops, additional requirem ents are derived peculiar to the system under development. These are l abeled derived requirements and are fundamental to program success. Th e assurance of low-cost, reliable space systems occurs when a proper b alance exists between the formal and the informal and uses the proper development of derived requirements to anchor the informal. This paper will deal with this balance, the guidelines for the management approa ch, and the development of the criteria consistent with the basic phil osophy developed. Total Quality Management (TQM) will be the guiding s tar used.