NASA’s Office of Safety and Mission Assurance signed an agreement with the U.S. Navy Naval Sea Systems Command (NAVSEA) to participate in each other’s audits of institutional management programs and projects.

NASA’s Chief of Safety and Mission Assurance Bryan O’Connor and the Navy’s Executive Director for Undersea Warfare John James signed the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) Tuesday at NASA Headquarters in Washington.

“The goal here is to participate in and learn from their processes for verifying compliance with safety regulations, and vice-versa,” O’Connor said. “We’ve instituted a number of these exchanges over the last couple of years. We are each taking advantage of this opportunity to share expertise and lessons learned with another organization that deals with complex safety operations,” he added.

The MOA signed Tuesday is the latest in a series of exchanges between NASA’s Safety Office and the Navy. Under recent agreements, NASA personnel have observed a functional audit of a NAVSEA Submarine Safety program at a Navy shipyard. In turn, NAVSEA personnel participated in a successful Space Shuttle Return to Flight Safety and Mission Assurance audit at a NASA Space Operations field center. Additional personnel and information exchanges are planned this year.

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