PURPOSE. NASA's policy is to protect the health and safety of humans involved in and exposed to space flight activities, specifically the public, the crew, passengers, and ground processing personnel. This document aids in the implementation of that policy by establishing human-rating requirements for Agency space flight systems that carry humans or whose function or malfunction may pose a hazard to NASA space systems that carry humans. This document provides the requirements, procedures, and guidelines to design and certify as human-rated all space flight systems involving humans or interfacing with human space flight systems prior to and after becoming operational. The intent of this certification is to provide the maximum reasonable assurance that a failure will not imperil the flight crew or occupants and that personnel may be recovered without a disabling injury if there is a mishap. Certification ensures that conditions that could adversely affect the safety of personnel are mitigated. The human-rating process is used to maximize the safety of the crew and passengers. Other requirements for safety and mission assurance are documented in NASA Headquarters Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) policy and program-specific requirements documents. (For space suits and human maneuvering units, human rating implies flight certified.)

APPLICABILITY. a. The requirements in this document apply to all space flight systems (hardware, software, ground, and flight) developed and/or operated by or for NASA, to support human activity in space and that interact with NASA human space flight systems. Space flight system design and associated risks to humans shall be evaluated over the program's life cycle, including design, development, fabrication, processing, maintenance, launch, recovery, and final disposal. The Governing Program Management Council (GPMC) will determine the applicability of this document to programs and projects in existence (e.g., heritage expendable and reusable launch vehicles and evolved expendable launch vehicles), at or beyond implementation, at the time of the issuance of this document. Program managers of existing and new systems will have the option of tailoring the human-rating requirements set forth in this document, with approval from the CHMO, AA for OSF, and AA for SMA. (See section 3.4, which addresses the requirements tailoring submission and approval process.) Applicability to internationally provided space flight systems should be negotiated and documented in a distinct separate agreement, which can be joint or multilateral.