Accepting the risks of safety
2017-02-01
Like a parent’s steady hands behind their child as they learn to ride a bike, the Safety and Mission Assurance (S&MA) Directorate works to balance NASA’s Johnson Space Center as it pushes the limits of human spaceflight.
S&MA focuses on maintaining the quality, reliability, maintainability and safety of life for humans in space, employees on the ground and government equipment. This is done through developing and implementing quality-assurance policies and procedures across the center and agency.
While safety can sometimes be viewed as elongating processes, S&MA ensures that JSC remains balanced between maintaining safety and taking risks.
“S&MA is not there to prevent risk taking, but to make sure that the discussion is balanced,” said Bill McArthur, director of S&MA at JSC. “If we can achieve the best understanding of risk possible, then we can make good decisions.”
The constant struggle between safety and risk can be viewed as a cautious mindset working in harmony with an operational mentality. While the operational mentality always tries to drive progress forward, the cautious mindset makes sure that problems are viewed from every perspective.
“S&MA is a way of thinking about problem solving and decision making,” McArthur said. “The typical engineering way to think about problem solving is success oriented, meaning that you are always expecting something to work. Conversely, the S&MA approach to problem solving focuses on how could something fail.”
By understanding the ways in which designs can fail, S&MA is more likely to incorporate features that make success prominent across the center. This is done by increasing the reliability, maintainability and quality of products and procedures across all JSC directorates.
JSC S&MA has risk-assessment responsibility for every human spaceflight program at NASA. No one knows this better than McArthur who, in addition to being the director of S&MA, was an astronaut for space shuttle and International Space Station missions.
“Being in a spacesuit outside of the space station is not safe,” McArthur said. “But when you open the airlock and see the Earth spinning beneath you, you have already accepted that risk. You have to have confidence in the agency’s ability to manage high-risk events and trust that everyone who has helped you get to that point has done the best that they can.”
The unique understanding of acceptable risk and the consequences of failure developed in S&MA are important attributes to have in all areas of JSC. Working in the organization develops skills that remain with an employee as they travel throughout the center, bringing a unique perspective of safety to every organization.
As JSC continues to challenge the boundaries of human exploration, S&MA is paving the safest route to the stars—just as a parent guides their child’s bike on the safest pathway home.
“Every day you have to continually be searching for that increased level of reliability,” McArthur said. “Safety and Mission Assurance, as much as being a discipline, is a thought process.”
As we embark on key anniversaries in human spaceflight, we recognize and acknowledge JSC's Safety and Mission Assurance professionals, past and present, who have each played a critical role in enabling mission success for all NASA human exploration programs and projects. This picture captures many of those in S&MA, from both the contractor and civil servant community, including current employees and retirees. Image Credit: NASA
Spencer Lebel and Noah Michelsohn
NASA Johnson Space Center
S&MA focuses on maintaining the quality, reliability, maintainability and safety of life for humans in space, employees on the ground and government equipment. This is done through developing and implementing quality-assurance policies and procedures across the center and agency.
While safety can sometimes be viewed as elongating processes, S&MA ensures that JSC remains balanced between maintaining safety and taking risks.
“S&MA is not there to prevent risk taking, but to make sure that the discussion is balanced,” said Bill McArthur, director of S&MA at JSC. “If we can achieve the best understanding of risk possible, then we can make good decisions.”
The constant struggle between safety and risk can be viewed as a cautious mindset working in harmony with an operational mentality. While the operational mentality always tries to drive progress forward, the cautious mindset makes sure that problems are viewed from every perspective.
“S&MA is a way of thinking about problem solving and decision making,” McArthur said. “The typical engineering way to think about problem solving is success oriented, meaning that you are always expecting something to work. Conversely, the S&MA approach to problem solving focuses on how could something fail.”
By understanding the ways in which designs can fail, S&MA is more likely to incorporate features that make success prominent across the center. This is done by increasing the reliability, maintainability and quality of products and procedures across all JSC directorates.
JSC S&MA has risk-assessment responsibility for every human spaceflight program at NASA. No one knows this better than McArthur who, in addition to being the director of S&MA, was an astronaut for space shuttle and International Space Station missions.
“Being in a spacesuit outside of the space station is not safe,” McArthur said. “But when you open the airlock and see the Earth spinning beneath you, you have already accepted that risk. You have to have confidence in the agency’s ability to manage high-risk events and trust that everyone who has helped you get to that point has done the best that they can.”
The unique understanding of acceptable risk and the consequences of failure developed in S&MA are important attributes to have in all areas of JSC. Working in the organization develops skills that remain with an employee as they travel throughout the center, bringing a unique perspective of safety to every organization.
As JSC continues to challenge the boundaries of human exploration, S&MA is paving the safest route to the stars—just as a parent guides their child’s bike on the safest pathway home.
“Every day you have to continually be searching for that increased level of reliability,” McArthur said. “Safety and Mission Assurance, as much as being a discipline, is a thought process.”
As we embark on key anniversaries in human spaceflight, we recognize and acknowledge JSC's Safety and Mission Assurance professionals, past and present, who have each played a critical role in enabling mission success for all NASA human exploration programs and projects. This picture captures many of those in S&MA, from both the contractor and civil servant community, including current employees and retirees. Image Credit: NASA
Spencer Lebel and Noah Michelsohn
NASA Johnson Space Center
Bill McArthur, director of Safety and Mission Assurance at Johnson Space Center. Image Credit: NASA