COOPERATIVE FABRICATION OF THE NEAR SPACECRAFT

Cooperative fabrication was a key factor in building the Near Earth As teroid Rendezvous (NEAR) spacecraft within the cost and schedule const raints dictated by the NASA Discovery Program. Because many of the tra ditional barriers between the engineering and the fabrication teams we re avoided on NEAR, APL reaped the benefits of cooperative planning, d esign for ease of fabrication and assembly, and team problem solving. The result was a unified and high-spirited team focused on accomplishi ng the task. That teamwork, in combination with many of the enabling t echnologies within the fabrication organization, allowed APL to meet N EAR's cost, schedule, reliability, and performance goals.