Fracture Control

NASA Space Shuttle

Angeles Crest Engineering Inc (ACEI) can provide project specific design guidelines and implement a plan to meet fracture control requirements in the early phases of design for flight and Space Shuttle payload hardware that can result in significant savings in cost and schedule to a program. ACEI performs fracture mechanics analyses that meet NASA-STD 5003, NHB 8071.1, ANSI AIAA S-080 and S-081, EWR127-1 and MIL-STD 1522A requirements. The ACEI staff has published several papers on the design criteria and methods for spaceflight structures and pressure vessels that include fracture and fatigue analyses.

For a payload to be flown in the NASA Space Shuttle cargo bay, the design and use of each of its hardware components must be reviewed to determine whether a pre-existing crack in the component may lead to a catastrophic hazard. A catastrophic hazard is defined as an event which can disable or cause fatal personnel injury or loss of the Space Shuttle. Examples of such events include a failure and a subsequent release from a payload any part or fragment having mass and or energy that can potentially punch through the wall of the cargo bay, a release of a significant amount of hazardous substance into the cargo bay, or a failure that prevents closure of the cargo-bay door. The payloads requirements document NASA-STD 5003 contains the procedures for fracture control classification of all payload components.

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