Quality and reliability: APL's key to mission success

APL's Space Department has a long history of producing reliable spaceflight systems. Key to the success of these systems are the methods employed to e nsure robust, failure-tolerant designs, to ensure a final product that fait hfully embodies those designs, and to physically verify that launch and env ironmental stresses will indeed be well tolerated. These basic methods and practices have served well throughout the constantly changing scientific, e ngineering, and budgetary challenges of the first 40 years of the space age . The Space Department has demonstrated particular competence in addressing the country's need for small exploratory missions that extend the envelope of technology.