AF Safety leaders forge interagency, DOD space safety collaboration

  • Published
  • By Lt. Col. Beth Kelley Horine
  • Air Force Safety Center
In an effort to increase collaboration among space safety professionals across the whole-of-government, senior Air Force safety leaders recently visited the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Headquarters in Washington, D.C., and the Naval Safety Center in Norfolk, Va.

Maj. Gen. Kurt Neubauer, chief of Air Force safety and commander of the Air Force Safety Center, and Mark Glissman, director of the Air Force Space Safety Division, met with NASA Administrator Charles F. Bolden and other senior NASA officials to discuss Mishap Interagency Investigation Board (MIIB) requirements. The board, comprised of four flag officers across the Air Force, Navy, and senior officials from the Federal Aviation Administration, and the National Transportation Safety Board officials, conducts investigations of national emergency human space flight disasters, such as the Columbia Space Shuttle.

"Collaboration with our stakeholders across the nation on space safety is not only critical to the Department of Defense mission, but our commercial endeavors and exploration of space itself," Neubauer said.

Efforts to increase synergy among NASA and the DOD space safety enterprise include working through support requirements for the MIIB, as well as improving the whole-of-government understanding of each organization's processes. The general and Glissman also spoke with the NASA administrator on the Interagency Nuclear Safety Review Panel which is a presidentially directed program involving the launch of radioisotope materials into space. This panel consists of Glissman as the DOD lead and his equivalents from the Department of Energy, the Environmental Protection Agency, and NASA.  This panel evaluates launches of the above-said nature and provides the final analyses to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy for presidential launch approval.

Glissman then traveled to the Naval Safety Center to host a cross-service Space Safety and Cyber Workshop between Air Force and Naval safety leaders. Spring-boarding off the collaboration gained from the meeting with NASA, Glissman provided Air Force policies, programs, and space mishap investigative techniques regarding Air Force space safety to Naval Safety Center personnel. The Naval Safety Center in-turn provided their current procedures regarding their space operations and together developed possible courses of action for common efforts.

"My goal is to collaborate with all the military services to move forward with one voice and effort regarding space safety," Glissman said. "Developing multi-service standards is best for the DOD to enable full-spectrum combat-space-capabilities via mishap prevention. Developing a synergistic space safety enterprise with common standards of practice is vital to safe space operations, whether in the military, civil, or commercial arenas."
Space safety continues to grow as a vital industry among our space professionals and nations worldwide.  As a newly-defined mission set within Air Force safety circles, other military branches are now putting this discipline on their radars for possible development of similar space safety programs.

The workshop shared best practices and lessons learned from the stand-up of the Air Force space safety and cyber safety programs and will hopefully assist the Naval Safety Center as they explore potential stakeholder roles in those areas for the future. 

"Our joint space safety meetings here at the Naval Safety Center helped launch collaborative, inter-service dialogue on common goals, practices, and future plans," said Col. Glen Butler, the deputy commander of the Naval Safety Center. "Frankly, the Naval Safety Center today does not have much visibility into space or cyber safety responsibilities, but we are striving to think ahead, to look beyond the horizon, and to continue innovating to ensure we're effectively supporting our warfighters and overall combat readiness.  This discussion was very productive, and we're grateful Mr. Glissman came by to discuss these issues.  We look forward to continued collaborative efforts with the USAF and our other service partners."

Since space is our largest area of responsibility and a shared global domain, it requires not only inter-service collaboration but international advocacy and buy-in as well.

"Space safety development drives a need to coordinate across services, civil agencies, commercial and academic stakeholders, and the international space communities at large," Glissman said. "The meetings at NASA and the Naval Safety Center were a tremendous stride forward in developing our nascent space safety endeavor," he added.