AEROSPACE REPORT NUMBER: ATR-2005(5128)-1, OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR SPACEFLIGHT VESSELS (31-MAR-2005)

AEROSPACE REPORT NUMBER: ATR-2005(5128)-1, OPERATIONAL GUIDELINES FOR SPACEFLIGHT VESSELS (31-MAR-2005)., The Aerospace Corporation (Aerospace) was tasked by the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center to provide technical support to the Federal Aviation Administration, Office of Commercial Space Transportation (FAA/AST), to develop operational guidelines for the recurring use of safety-critical pressure vessels (PVs) in spaceflight systems. Emphasis was on PV guidelines to help ensure the safety of flight crew and passengers on commercial reusable launch vehicles (RLVs). These guidelines were developed by reviewing and analyzing specifications, requirements, and lessons-learned for safety of PVs used in commercial, military, and experimental space systems, and past and present human-carrying space systems, followed by interpolation and projection of these requirements for crew and passengers aboard both suborbital and orbital categories of future commercial RLVs. These guidelines appear to be robust, reasonable, and adaptable for PVs used in various RLV configurations. They do not appear to impose unreasonable technical or economic barriers to advancement of the commercial pressure vessel industry.