National Aeronautics and 

Space Administration

Mary W. Jackson NASA Headquarters

Washington, DC 20546-0001

May 11, 2021

Reply to Attn of: Office of the Chief Information Officer

FROM: Agency Chief Information Officer 

TO: Distribution

SUBJECT: Complete Transition to Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6)

In accordance with the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Memorandum 21-07 (M21-07), all new NASA information systems must be Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) 

enabled (turned on for production use) at the time of deployment. Migrating to an IPv6-only 

environment will allow NASA to align itself with the Federal government's strategic intent to 

deliver its information services, operate its networks, and access the services of others using 

only IPv6 capabilities.

Agencies must comply with this requirement by the start of Fiscal Year (FY) 2023. NASA 

intends to phase out the use of IPv4 for all current NASA systems as soon as practical and to 

meet the milestones laid out by M-21-07. The phase out includes ensuring at least 80% of IPenabled assets on NASA networks are operating in IPv6-only environments by the end of FY 

2025.

This memorandum designates the IPv6 Transition Manager, Barbara Schleckser, as the lead of 

NASA’s IPv6 Integrated Project Team (IPT) to coordinate these transition actions. The IPv6 

IPT is responsible for developing and overseeing the overall IPv6 transition plan. The 

transition plan will include strategies, acquisitions, processes, status, and milestones for the 

transition. In support of the mandate, system owners shall ensure system documentation 

details plans for transitioning to IPv6 and that these plans align with the Agency’s overall 

IPv6 Implementation Plan. This requirement applies to all new and existing systems.

The IPv6 Transition IPT is charged with meeting the following requirements:

1. Designate an agency wide IPv6 IPT (including acquisition, policy, and technical 

members), or other governance structure, within 45 days of issuance of this 

memorandum (this requirement was completed on 1/4/2021)1;

1 The IPT will govern and enforce IPv6 efforts. Contact Barbara Schleckser regarding team 

membership or other inquiries.
2. Issue and make available on the agency's publicly accessible website, an agencywide0010 IPv6 policy NLT 5/18/2021;

3. Identify opportunities for IPv6 pilots. Complete at least one pilot of an IPv6-only 

operational system by the end of FY 2021 and report the results of the pilot toOMB 

upon request by OMB;

4. Develop an IPv6 implementation plan by the end of FY 2021and update the 

Information Resources Management (IRM) Strategic Plan;

5. Work with external partners to identify all systems that interface with networked 

Federal information systems and develop plans to migrate all such network interfaces 

to the use of IPv6; and

6. Complete the upgrade of public and external facing servers and services (e.g., web, 

email, DNS, and ISP services) and internal client applications that communicate with 

public Internet services and supporting enterprise networks to operationally use native 

IPv6.

Jeffrey M. Seaton

Agency Chief Information Officer

Reference:

a. OMB M-21-07, Completing the Transition to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)

b. NAII – Completing the Transition to Internet Protocol Version 6 (IPv6)