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Preface: The 50th Anniversary of the Apollo Program 

and the Particles and Fields Subsatellites

Our nation is currently celebrating the 50th

anniversary of the Apollo Program, and the 

Apollo 11 Moon landing. But a lesser known 

event associated with the Apollo Program is the 

deployment of small spacecraft during the 

Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 missions as the 

command module left lunar orbit. The Particles 

and Fields Subsatellite series, built by TRW,

was designed to study the plasma, particle, and 

magnetic field environment of the Moon as well 

as to map the lunar gravity field. These units 

were the first small spacecraft released into 

space from a containerized deployment system.

The Apollo 15 and Apollo 16 “subsatellites”

were nearly identical, weighing 78.5 pounds 

and powered by six solar panels providing 24 watts of power with 11 silver-cadmium 

rechargeable batteries for nightside passes. The on-orbit average power produced was 

14 watts. The spacecraft were 31 inches long with a 14-inch hexagonal-shaped diameter 

and communicated with a maximum data rate of 128 bits per second (a 49-kbit magnetic 

core memory stored data for later transmission). Each spacecraft was deployed from a 

spring-loaded dispenser/container 

that resembled a mailbox and 

imparted velocity at four feet per 

second while also spinning-up the 

satellite to 140 rpm. Once released,

the spacecraft was spin-stabilized at a 

rate of roughly 12 rpm after the booms 

were deployed. The instruments 

consisted of a flux-gate 

magnetometer, charged particle 

detectors, and an S-band transponder. 

These three instruments were 

designed to measure the strength and 

direction of the interplanetary and 

terrestrial magnetic field, to detect 

variations in the lunar gravity field, and 

to measure proton and electric flux 

from the solar wind.

The Apollo 15 subsatellite, once 

released from the Command and 

Apollo 15 Astronauts David Scott, Alfred 

Worden, and James Irwin with the Particles and 

Fields Subsatellite deployed on August 4, 1971.

Apollo subsatellite showing solar panels, instruments, 

deployment guide rails, and stowed deployable booms. 
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Service Module (CSM), orbited the Moon and flew into both interplanetary space and 

various parts of the Earth’s magnetosphere. The mission operated for six months prior to 

an electronics failure that led to the end of orbital operations. All of the subsatellite mission 

objectives were nonetheless achieved, and the observations supported Explorer 35’s 

finding that the Moon acts as a physical barrier to the solar wind creating a “hole” in the 

flow of charged particles. It is assumed that the orbit decayed and that the Apollo 15 

subsatellite crashed into the moon, but the impact site is not currently known.

The Apollo 16 subsatellite

was released by the CSM into

a low lunar orbit and 

inclination, four hours prior to 

the trans-Earth injection burn,

due to problems that occurred 

with the CSM main engine. 

Gravitational perturbations 

altered the orbit of the 

subsatellite causing it to crash 

into the lunar surface just 34 

days into the mission, much 

earlier than planned. 

Nevertheless, 424 orbits 

around the Moon were 

completed and the satellite 

was successful in returning 

valuable low-altitude data as 

a result of the deployment.

The spirit of innovation and scientific discovery exemplified by the accomplishments of 

the Apollo Subsatellites 50 years ago is prevalent today within the small spacecraft 

community. Even then, as we reached for the Moon within the Apollo Program, it was 

understood that small spacecraft could provide an opportunity to fly multiple instruments 

on a containerized platform deployed from a host spacecraft to expand our knowledge of 

the cis-Lunar environment. Today, advances in space technology, platforms, 

instrumentation, and launch capability have inspired academia, industry, and government 

organizations to pursue new ambitious missions with such small spacecraft. Celebrating 

the Apollo subsatellites is a relevant reminder that the future potential for discovery with 

modern small spacecraft is as bright today as it was during the early days of human and 

robotic space exploration.

References:

[1] Apollo 15 Press Kit

[2] National Space Science Data Center

[3] NASA SP-289 Apollo 15 Preliminary Science Report

Artist’s rendering of the subsatellite, post deployment, from the exposed 

scientific instrument module bay showing the open deployment door.
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Introduction

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), Space Technology Mission Directorate 

(STMD), and Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate (HEOMD) are 

actively engaged in the development of small spacecraft missions, capabilities, and space 

access to enable innovative science and exploration activities. NASA recognizes the 

potential of small spacecraft (from CubeSats to ESPA-class satellites) to enhance and 

enable Agency objectives. Indeed, NASA has supported small spacecraft mission 

development for more than a decade as small spacecraft capabilities have rapidly 

advanced with tangible results. There is a need, however, to improve coordination among 

the individual Mission Directorates (MDs) to place more emphasis on an overarching 

integrated strategy to advance overall Agency objectives. This document lays out a NASA 

Small Spacecraft Strategic Plan that supports the NASA 2018 Strategic Plan’s four 

strategic goals of Discover, Explore, Develop, and Enable, while promoting a balanced 

portfolio of science, technology, and exploration missions. The strategies herein are also 

influenced by the National Academies of Science’s Achieving Science with CubeSats

report recommendations and add guidance to those recommendations to account for the 

future capability growth in launch systems and ESPA-class spacecraft.

Small Spacecraft Strategic Plan Priorities

The NASA Small Spacecraft Coordination Group (SSCG) has reviewed the Agency’s 

strategic goals and determined that small spacecraft are responsive to all strategic 

objectives (except area 3.2: Transform Aviation Through Revolutionary Technology 

Research, Development, and Transfer). As a result, four cross-cutting themes have been 

identified: High Priority Innovative Science, Support to Human Exploration,

Disruptive Technology Innovation, and Regular Access to Space. This plan outlines 

the strategies to advance these themes, along with an integrated implementation

approach to achieve them. There will be other areas where the individual MDs have 

strategic goals where an integrated approach is not required; such instances are not 

explicitly identified here. This document only presents strategies to be pursued jointly by 

the MDs.

SMD, STMD, and HEOMD have cooperated for many years on developing a role for 

small spacecraft within the Agency. The purpose of this document is to formalize the 

overarching integrated strategy and implementation approach.

 High Priority Science Human Exploration Disruptive Technology Access to Space
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Theme 1

High Priority Innovative Science

The MDs have identified three areas of strategic integration that support high priority 

innovative science: The first emphasizes mission portfolio balance among small, medium, 

and large missions for effective science return. The second, leveraging commercial 

industry for ground and flight system services, enabling multipoint spacecraft 

measurements and new mission architectures, broadening the design trade space 

between small satellite and traditional spacecraft systems. The third, developing products 

to educate the scientific community about capabilities supporting alternative science 

measurement techniques to achieve the National Academy of Science Decadal Survey

recommendations, as well as opportunities offered by the Moon-to-Mars exploration 

initiative.

Strategy 1.1: Adopt small spacecraft as part of a balanced program of exploration, 

incorporating new technology, mission formulation, and launch capabilities to enable 

unique scientific observations.

Strategy 1.2: Actively partner on capabilities and services that enable multipoint 

measurements from distributed spacecraft systems.

Strategy 1.3: Educate the wider scientific community about mission formulation, 

technology, and launch service capabilities to enable decadal survey−class science 

and exploration initiatives.

SMD’s principal goal for small spacecraft is to enable new science measurements that 

are not attainable using traditional approaches. An additional goal for all MDs is to enable

rapid and more affordable missions that utilize the latest available proven technologies.

All of these objectives release the creativity of the diverse scientific and engineering 

community, leading to greater science return. The strategies identified below align with

the SMD 2019 Science Plan cross-cutting foci of Exploration and Scientific Discovery, 

Innovation, Interconnectivity and Partnerships, and Inspiration.

STRATEGY 1.1

Adopt small spacecraft as part of a balanced program of 

exploration, incorporating new technology, mission 

formulation, and launch capabilities to enable unique 

scientific observations.

The ability of small spacecraft to advance and achieve 

NASA science objectives is highly dependent on the 

capability of the scientific and engineering community to 

identify creative and innovative ways for small spacecraft 

to enable new measument approaches. To satisfy 

measurement requirements, mission design and 

development must be coordinated starting from early concept formulation through the 
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adoption of relevant, new, proven technologies for launch, operations, and science data 

return and analysis. The community has shown that publication-quality science can be 

achieved from the CubeSat platform (and that new hardware and software payload 

technologies can be matured and flight-proven). While CubeSats will continue to have a 

role, ambitions to achieve long-term, sustainable, continuous, science measurements 

have led NASA to augment its small spacecraft science mission planning to include larger 

ESPA-Class platforms that can achieve more complex science.

Under this strategy, NASA should place greater focus on development of scientific 

exploration opportunities where new technology, advanced launch capabilities, and 

innovative measurement concepts can resolve high-priority science questions through 

the relevant and appropriate use of small spacecraft. This strategy must be executed, 

however, using approaches that establish and preserve programmatic balance among all 

mission classes, from small to large. This will require examination of various mission 

architectures to weigh science return, development time, cost, and other key metrics 

against each other to effectively produce the best science.

Despite current successes, integrating smaller missions into a balanced portfolio of flight 

systems will require substantial improvements in flight system reliability. The capability 

and the reliability of the SmallSat spacecraft bus must match that of the science 

instruments. Technology programs that target spacecraft bus reliability, while continuing 

investments in miniaturized instrument development, are needed to fully realize the 

unique disruptive capabilities of small spacecraft. In concert with the rideshare 

community, NASA should develop and improve the standards, accommodation, and 

logistics for launch service capabilities to enable more flexible rideshare opportunities.

This effort can include strategic partnerships with industry to leverage commercial

advances, which will emphasize risk reduction and increase the diversity and rate at 

which new science can be produced.

STRATEGY 1.2

Actively partner on capabilities and services that enable multipoint measurements and 

distributed spacecraft missions.

Constellations that produce multipoint 

measurements are an emerging capability 

enabled by small spacecraft. Industry and 

other U.S. Government agencies are

aggressively pursuing and developing large 

constellations of CubeSats and ESPA-class 

spacecraft for Earth observation, space 

situational awareness, and 

communications infrastructure. Academia, 

government, and industry are also actively 

engaged in both terrestrial applications of 

distributed small spacecraft missions and their potential scientific applications beyond 

Earth. In addition to large constellations for multipoint measurement of time variant 

phenomena, smaller more tightly controlled formations of small spacecraft may be well 
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suited as platforms in areas such as Very-Long-Baseline Interferometry, synthetic 

aperture synthesis, and other precision collective measurements. These approaches, 

once proven, will offer new and more affordable mission architectures than traditional 

single spacecraft approaches. For missions beyond Earth, autonomous or semiautonomous small spacecraft can provide off-axis observations in support of a larger 

spacecraft or allow a mission to visit multiple related targets. The science community has 

identified numerous new observations that can be enabled via strategic partnerships, as 

reflected in the National Academies report, Achieving Science with CubeSats: Thinking 

Inside the Box; as well as the Keck Institute for Space Studies report, SmallSats: A 

Revolution in Space Science; in addition to other publications and NASA-sponsored 

mission studies.

For missions in Earth orbit, NASA should work with industry and other U.S. Government

agencies that are actively fielding or developing constellations. This collaborative effort 

should include spacecraft and ground system infrastructure capabilities where the MDs 

can partner to leverage industry advances to enable NASA missions. Other U.S. 

Government entities are also interested in distributed spacecraft mission capabilities,

autonomous collaboration between space systems, and the ability for such spacecraft to 

operate without Earth-centric aids or ground based systems. NASA should work with 

those agencies and their commercial partners to enable distributed missions to operate 

near Earth, in cis-Lunar space, and beyond Earth, while collaborating with academia on 

new mission scientific objectives and applications.

STRATEGY 1.3

Educate the wider scientific community about mission formulation, technology and launch 

service capabilities to enable decadal survey−class science and exploration initiatives.

The capabilities demonstrated by small 

spacecraft—and their future potential—are 

still largely unknown to the broad science 

community. NASA should place specific 

emphasis on communicating the 

capabilities these systems can realistically 

support. This information will help 

investigators understand the benefits and 

tradeoffs among mission implementation 

approaches to achieve decadal survey and 

science-oriented exploration mission 

priorities. Missions such as the Cyclone 

Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) have shown how bold new approaches 

can lead to new measurement capabilities, establishing a path forward for others to follow.

NASA should broaden existing opportunities for new investigators to engage with 

experienced principal investigators through focused community meetings, on-line 

resources, and other methods to grow a diverse community of current and future scientific 

leaders through the use of small spacecraft.
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Theme 2

Support to Human Exploration

Sustainable human activity in deep space requires exploration capabilities that can be 

fielded faster and at lower cost. Small spacecraft afford an increasingly capable platform 

to precede and accompany human explorers to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations 

to scout terrain, characterize the environment, identify risks, and prospect for resources. 

Distributed systems of small spacecraft can responsively provide cost-effective 

communications, monitoring, and inspection of infrastructure for human exploration 

missions and cis-lunar commercial activity. Small spacecraft provide a rapid, affordable, 

and risk-tolerant way to address Strategic Knowledge Gaps (SKGs)1 and test 

technologies that will permit sustainable human presence and exploration beyond Earth.

Given the scope of human exploration activities supporting NASA’s Moon and Mars 

objectives, the MDs determined that leveraging industry developments will be essential 

to small spacecraft mission success.

Strategy 2.1: Actively partner with industry on capabilities and services for affordable 

small spacecraft missions to the Moon and Mars to support human exploration.

Strategy 2.2: Ensure that scientific and exploration activities in cis-lunar space 

involving humans and small spacecraft are coordinated, mutually beneficial, and 

complementary.

Guided by the need to address SKGs related to the larger human exploration goal, 

HEOMD will assess a variety of exploration objectives that could be addressed by 

sending small spacecraft beyond low Earth orbit (LEO) as both standalone precursor 

missions and technology demonstrations, or to support larger exploration missions. 

STRATEGY 2.1

Actively partner with industry on 

capabilities and services for affordable

small spacecraft missions to the Moon 

and Mars to support human exploration.

NASA’s larger human exploration goal 

provides an overall strategic focus for a 

broad range of activities with the ultimate 

purpose of extending human presence 

into the solar system, from LEO to cislunar space, Mars, and beyond. 

Objectives of interest at this time include understanding the lunar resource potential and 

the lunar environment and its effects on human life, as described in the set of lunar SKGs. 

 1 https://www.nasa.gov/exploration/library/skg.html
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Additionally, both NASA and industry are interested in using small spacecraft as a 

platform to provide rapid and affordable communications relays, navigational aids, and 

other support services for missions in cis-lunar space and to the lunar surface. To address 

NASA objectives as cost-effectively as possible, NASA should continue to partner with 

industry and leverage commercial advances and economic interests in cis-lunar space 

when planning development of reliable flight systems to enable NASA’s exploration 

objectives.

STRATEGY 2.2

Ensure that scientific and exploration activities in cis-lunar space involving humans and 

small spacecraft are coordinated, mutually beneficial, and complementary.

Lunar activities in support of human exploration will utilize small spacecraft to directly 

support the closure of strategic knowledge gaps related to human exploration. These 

efforts also create a unique opportunity to pursue multiple science and technology 

maturation objectives on the lunar surface and in cis-Lunar space. Scientific and robotic 

exploration activities including surface exploration of lunar caves, analogous studies in 

planetary science, astrophysical observatories from the lunar surface and from radio quiet 

zones, development and test of communication relay systems, to name a few, can be 

performed in conjunction with missions supporting human exploration. One must ensure, 

however, that such activities are coordinated in such a way that no mission objectives are 

compromised. NASA should fully take advantage of this renewed and accelerated 

opportunity in returning to the Moon to also seek and engage in appropriate science and 

technology opportunities that can be performed in collaboration with human exploration 

objectives. Furthermore, science and technology activities that employ small spacecraft 

in this environment would pave the way for related work at other more distant exploration 

targets and destinations.
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Theme 3

Disruptive Technology Innovation

The MDs have identified three areas of strategic integration that support disruptive 

technology innovation. The first involves collaborating directly with industry on risk 

reduction when innovative technologies are proposed for small spacecraft flight systems.

The second, working directly with industry and academia on innovations that address 

specific NASA needs. The third, ensuring a culture of innovation and agility throughout 

the Agency by employing small spacecraft to enable NASA objectives.

Strategy 3.1: Collaborate on emerging commercial small spacecraft and systems to 

reduce risk on NASA missions.

Strategy 3.2: Partner with industry and academia to aggressively adapt innovative

emerging technology capabilities to meet NASA’s unique small spacecraft needs.

Strategy 3.3: Foster innovation, agile development practices, and embrace higher 

risk throughout the Agency through small spacecraft missions and flight 

demonstrations.

STMD’s overarching goals for its engagement in the small spacecraft ecosystem are to 

enable rapid and more affordable exploration missions while facilitating the expansion of 

space commerce. All the MDs seek to leverage the risk-tolerant posture afforded by the 

faster timelines and lower costs of small spacecraft missions. Small spacecraft will enable 

MDs to incorporate technologies earlier and iterate through failures to create new 

capacities or recreate existing capabilities at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems.

STRATEGY 3.1

Collaborate on emerging commercial small spacecraft and systems to reduce risk on 

NASA missions.

At the end of 2018, NASA missions represented approximately 3% of the over 1,200 small 

spacecraft under 200kg launched. The overall market share for small spacecraft scientific 

missions worldwide is not anticipated to exceed 10% in the future. To implement truly 

affordable missions, NASA should embrace industry standardization and batch 

production. NASA needs to be an early adopter or fast follower for most small spacecraft 

technologies and make use of standardized spacecraft and spacecraft parts developed 

for commercial applications in place of mission-specific solutions where possible. The 

MDs should collaborate to identify emerging commercial capabilities that can enhance or 

enable NASA missions and exercise use of these capabilities in relevant environments to 

reduce the risk of incorporating them into future missions. 
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STRATEGY 3.2

Partner with industry and academia to aggressively adapt innovative emerging 

technology capabilities to meet NASA’s unique small spacecraft needs.

When NASA established its initial small 

spacecraft technology development and 

demonstration activities, broad investment 

was needed in compact and low-cost 

propulsion, power, communications, attitude 

determination and control, and other common 

spacecraft subsystems. While the small

spacecraft community and industry have 

evolved since then, many advances are still 

needed. In the current environment, NASA 

can afford to focus on key areas for 

investment, rather than attempting to make 

advancements across the full spectrum of 

technology gaps. There is clear and growing 

investment by the public and private sector in small spacecraft. This environment affords 

NASA the ability to target specific gaps that market forces will not otherwise fill. Achieving 

NASA strategic goals in novel and more affordable ways will require pushing technology 

boundaries beyond the capabilities currently sought by commercial and other U.S. 

Government agency applications. NASA is unique within the current market as some of 

its missions require expanding the capabilities of small spacecraft into challenging deep 

space environments. NASA should also recognize the growing role played by commercial 

entities outside of the aerospace realm—especially the consumer electronics market—in 

the advancement and proliferation of small spacecraft. These industries are heavily 

investing in compact electronics, battery technologies, materials technologies, sensors,

and other components. NASA should take advantage of innovations developed by these

industries and opportunistically adapt them for space applications. To support this, NASA 

should also develop innovative procurement mechanisms to support rapid and aggressive 

adoption of emerging technology.

STRATEGY 3.3

Foster innovation, agile development practices, and embrace higher risk throughout the 

Agency through small spacecraft missions and flight demonstrations.

For effective technology development, NASA must embrace agile aerospace practices 

from industry. NASA can work with industry and academia to apply the “80/20 rule” to 

small spacecraft missions and target an 80% solution for a capability at 20% of the 

traditional cost. Like the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA can also use small 

spacecraft for missions that are largely driven by technical and non-technical constraints 

rather than mission requirements; the objective is to produce as much of the desired 

capability as possible within a fixed cost and time. By using lower cost small spacecraft 

in higher quantity, the MDs can help enable missions for exploration and discovery while 

supporting the development and retention of NASA workforce through a number of 

approaches. Small and agile teams can test commercial systems to facilitate NASA use. 
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NASA can partner with industry to modify commercial capabilities for NASA specific 

applications, and—when necessary—develop solutions to NASA-specific problems. 

NASA should accept 15% to 50% spacecraft failure rate, for technology-focused 

missions, at the portfolio level and plan the size, scope, and use of such small spacecraft 

missions accordingly. The MDs believe the path to higher reliability for small spacecraft 

is through mission- or portfolio-level redundancy. The success or failure of the overall 

mission extends beyond the success or failure of any one spacecraft or project. Costly 

efforts to eliminate uncertainty in technical risk jeopardize future opportunities for 

achieving the desired results. For technology demonstration missions, NASA should 

further accept that the majority of promising technologies will not always prove successful 

on the first attempt and a successful mission may be one that identifies a failure of the 

technology. Accordingly, NASA should structure demonstration mission opportunities to 

allow for iterative attempts.
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Theme 4

Regular Access to Space

The MDs have identified three areas of strategic integration that support regular access

to space. The first involves establishing a focal point for coordinating access-to-space 

opportunities in a cohesive manner, including providing clarity on launch vehicle 

capabilities and rideshare opportunity forecast for proposers to small spacecraft 

solicitations. The second, exploring new methods to increase the manifest options and 

expand potential destinations for small spacecraft, including those beyond LEO. The third 

is working directly with regulatory agencies to streamline and reduce the complexity of 

licensing that sometimes drives delivery issues affecting NASA partners.

Strategy 4.1: Coordinate access-to-space opportunities for NASA’s small spacecraft.

Strategy 4.2: Explore new methods to increase space access by providing flexibility 

in destinations, capability, and manifesting options, while preserving core capabilities.

Strategy 4.3: Identify and address regulatory roadblocks to streamline processes 

impacting space access for our NASA partners.

Capabilities that enable regular access to space are essential to the growth of small 

spacecraft missions; NASA continues to play a leading role via the CubeSat Launch 

Initiative (CSLI) and the direct manifest of other small payloads on a variety of launch 

vehicles. As NASA-sponsored payloads grow in complexity and diversity of destination,

the strategies above will help sustain our current efforts and facilitate the utilization of new 

capabilities within government and the commercial sector to support future missions.

As launch remains a high-risk element affecting mission success, HEOMD’s principal

objective will continue to be the successful launch of NASA’s primary missions. Therefore, 

HEOMD must work with payload-sponsoring MDs to assure all small spacecraft missions 

manifested as rideshare payloads understand and meet “do-no-harm” standards.

STRATEGY 4.1

Coordinate access-to-space opportunities for NASA’s small spacecraft.

HEOMD enables access to space for small 

spacecraft by facilitating rideshare 

opportunities on NASA primary missions, other 

U.S. Government primary missions, and 

commercial missions, as well as dedicated 

small spacecraft launch opportunities when 

appropriate. Finding and matching up 

rideshare payloads with launch opportunities 

could be better managed and coordinated 

across the Agency by establishing an Agency 
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focal point to accomplish these activities. This entity could provide integrated compatibility 

assessments and priority recommendations to inform manifesting authorities such as the

Agency Flight Planning Board. 

Small spacecraft Mission-of-Opportunity solicitations sponsored by SMD are being issued 

to develop a pipeline of rideshare payloads that can support unique science observations 

and take advantage of excess ascent performance on SMD primary missions. However, 

rideshare-related documentation to support proposal development requires a central 

repository for public access and document maintenance. Processes related to evaluation 

of Mission-of-Opportunity proposals must be improved so that proposals are not unduly 

penalized for the uncertainty surrounding a launch opportunity.

STRATEGY 4.2

Explore new methods to increase space 

access by providing flexibility in 

destinations, capability, and manifesting 

options, while preserving core capabilities.

Frequent and flexible access to LEO has 

been a key driver in the rapid development 

of small spacecraft and proliferation of their 

application. Distributed spacecraft missions 

and expansion of small spacecraft beyond 

LEO will require new capabilities and 

processes that provide frequent and flexible 

access to those new architectures and destinations. The trend for NASA small spacecraft 

missions will be to support multiple observing systems within multiple orbital 

configurations in LEO, GEO, cis-lunar space, and eventually beyond the Earth-Moon 

system. The ability to responsibly and reliably deploy these systems will require direct 

efforts to promote a variety of launch capabilities and launch vehicle-to-spacecraft 

payload interfaces.

HEOMD provides access to space for the Agency—which includes access to the ISS, 

acquisition of commercial launch services for primary Agency missions, and access to 

cis-lunar space and beyond—via commercial and government systems including the 

Space Launch System. HEOMD also has mechanisms in place to manifest CubeSats on 

commercial launches and those procured by other U.S. Government entities. The Lunar 

Gateway, propulsive secondary payload adaptors or orbital maneuvering vehicles, and 

additional new commercial capabilities in development will add to existing capabilities in 

the near future. In addition, sometimes the smaller budgets typical of small spacecraft 

development result in manifest changes, requiring flexibility to take full advantage of 

valuable launch opportunities. NASA is also developing requirements and policies for 

rideshare payload delivery and integration that would enhance manifest flexibility.
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STRATEGY 4.3

Identify and address regulatory roadblocks to streamline processes impacting space 

access for our NASA partners

Numerous small spacecraft missions from industry and academia that are NASAsponsored, but not NASA-owned, have been negatively impacted by regulatory policies 

external to the Agency – adding risk to mission success. These include inconsistent 

interpretation or application of documented rules or guidelines and recommendations, 

including topics related to spectrum management and orbital debris mitigation. As the use 

of propulsion systems and pressure vessels becomes more ubiquitous, or as hazardous 

materials are introduced for spacecraft launched as rideshare payloads on dedicated 

small launch vehicles, it will be critical to understand the regulatory framework for such 

non-NASA missions. This will impact how NASA can work with the regulatory authorities,

or exercise NASA’s own processes and authorities, in support of contributions to NASA 

objectives through non-NASA missions.
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Acronym List

Acronym Definition

CSLI CubeSat Launch Initiative

CSM Command and Service Module

CYGNSS Cyclone Global Navigation Satellite System 

EELV Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle

ESPA EELV Secondary Payload Adapter

FPB Flight Planning Board

GEO Geostationary Earth Orbit

HEO/AES Human Exploration and Operations / Advanced Exploration Systems 

HEO/LSO Human Exploration and Operations / Launch Services Office

HEOMD Human Exploration and Operations Mission Directorate

ISRU In-Situ Resource Utilization

LEO Low Earth Orbit

MD Mission Directorate

SKG Strategic Knowledge Gaps

SMD Science Mission Directorate

SSCG Small Spacecraft Coordination Group

STMD Space Technology Mission Directorate