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as a critical resource for enhancing coordination among teams, mitigating risks, and contributing to the Artemis campaign’s overall objectives. “The morning of the Artemis I launch was humbling for the team and me,” Bennett said as he reflected on the difficulties that plagued the Arte- mis I before its successful launch. “We witnessed NASA’s ability to quickly fix some of the issues that arose based on the data we were able to provide.” Although this wasn’t the first NASA mission DCMA professionals supported, it was the first meant to send humans farther than ever before. “DCMA’s support needed to change from accommodating low- orbit human spaceflight, which is typically 250 miles above the Earth, to deep space human spaceflight,” Bennett said. “Knowing the moon is approximately 239,000 miles away, these deep space missions would need to accommodate for long-term, off-world operations on the lunar surface.” DCMA Rapid Action Teamwork Bennett soon formed the NASA Rapid Action Team, or RAT, consist- ing of experts from various DCMA de- partments, including NASA Product Operations, the Enterprise Analytics and Modernization Directorate, and the Financial and Business Operations Directorate. DCMA Support to NASA RAT pri- marily focuses on aligning DCMA’s core capabilities with NASA’s mission to return American astronauts to the lunar surface and establish a continu- ous presence beyond near-Earth orbit. “The voice of the customer is inter- woven into the manual after the RAT, and NASA reviewed long-established procedures in relation to the new NASA mission requirements,” said Bennett. “The collaboration helped DCMA team members understand the increased challenges and require- ments of flying U.S. astronauts into deep space and return safely.”
NASA and DCMA have used their extensive experience working together on the shuttle program to improve communication, develop policies, tools and training, as the agencies collectively set sights on how to conduct surveillance on the newest NASA platforms for transporting our nation’s astronauts into space in the post- shuttle environment. Source: Photo courtesy of the DCMA Technical Directorate
In Fiscal Year 2024, DCMA achiev- ed several milestones, including the development of new policies, tools, and training programs to support deep-space human spaceflight. The updated DCMA Support to the NASA Manual was released in Febru- ary 2024, and a new memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Ebright and NASA Deputy Admin- istrator Pamela Melroy. “We also established an organi- zational structure focused on human spaceflight and space acquisition sup- porting off-world operations, etc.,” said Bennett. “DCMA NASA Product Organization, or NPO, is an organiza- tion within DCMA dedicated to space acquisition contract administration services [CAS]. DCMA also created innovative enterprise-level tools to provide CAS insight from raw mate- rials to off-world surface operations. NPO is a one-of-a-kind organization committed [to] leveraging innova- tive tools delivering current and real- time spaceflight hardware health and predictive information. This includes everything from raw materials, such as the fabrication of solid rocket fuel, to integrated deep spaceflight, which includes human-rating certification. DCMA oversaw development of several propulsion and deep space- flight vehicles that most recently inte- grated with the Space Launch System, or SLS, which Bennett attributes to the
earlier collaborative efforts of rewrit- ing the DoD and NASA MOUs as well as developing new industry best prac- tices and requirements. “The agency’s contract administra- tion service insights into DoD con- tractor’s productions and programs, as well as NASA productions, gave both NASA and the DoD a compre- hensive understanding of contractor capacity,” Bennett said. “They were also able to see the health of their processes and businesses through DCMA’s contract supervision of key components, which included both technical and business knowledge.” Predictive Analytic Advancement One significant advancement in this collaboration was deployment of predictive analysis tools that leverage contractor data and risk models to identify and validate critical processes across the supply chain. “This approach can lead to a re- duction of mandatory inspections and transition toward contractor ca- pabilities and predictive insight,” said Bennett. “The human spaceflight acquisition professionals aligned under NASA Product Operations will become seamless and instru- mental to the DCMA vision, NASA strategy and to mitigate spaceflight acquisition challenges.”
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