NASA re-designated the NASA Assurance Technology Center Wednesday as the NASA Safety Center.
The change was made after an extensive review of the agency’s safety and mission assurance programs and to better support the Vision for Space Exploration. The center will focus on supporting the development of personnel, processes and tools needed for the safe and successful achievement of NASA’s strategic goals.
Residing at the Ohio Aerospace Institute near NASA’s Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, the new safety center will assume and augment the duties previously accomplished by its predecessor. The new facility will support and strengthen the wide range of NASA safety and mission assurance efforts including system safety; reliability and maintainability; quality engineering and assurances; software assurance and risk management.
Alan Phillips, director of the Safety and Mission Assurance Office at NASA’s Langley Research Center, Hampton, Va., was selected to lead the new center. Philips brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to the position, having worked in NASA’s safety and mission assurance environment for 19 years.
The center will complement the NASA Engineering and Safety Center based at Langley. Both centers will support safety but have separate and independent supervisory chains to ensure consideration of various points of view about technically complex issues. The Cleveland center will report to the Office of Safety and Mission Assurance at NASA Headquarters, Washington. For information about NASA and agency programs, visit:
