ABSTRACT: Standards in Space: An Industry and a Process at a Crossroads

Andrew Updegrove

8/29/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2005)

Today, there are three layers of standard setting activities supporting space applications: a layer comprising a small number of dedicated organizations and ISO subcommittees formed expressly for that purpose; a layer of working groups within other standard setting organizations (SSOs) that have been formed to create standards unique to specific space applications; and a much more numerous layer of working groups in scores of SSOs that create standards that are relevant, but not unique, to space applications. This article will describe the first layer in detail, as well as several examples of the second layer in order to give an overview of standard setting for space applications today, and how this infrastructure is evolving. It also profiles the standards areas and membership of each SSO, and the liaison relationships that they have established in order to help create a nascent standards infrastructure to support space applications. This article closes by reviewing the recommendations of a recent critical report that urges prompt action by government and industry to improve this infrastructure in order to maintain United States leadership in the space industry.