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the National Space Transportation Systems Program Office (NSTSPO) authorized requirements and objectives for a specific mission. The board also provides a preliminary engineering assessment on interface compatibility. It further provides the authority to begin preparation of the final engineering and conceptual flight design to determine mission feasibility. A mission and crew activity operations assessment is also reviewed and approved. The engineering data are due for final review at the Cargo Integration Review (CIR) to be held 14 weeks later (L-7.7 months).

The CIR is a major NASA-customer review conducted at JSC and chaired by the STS Program Office. Board members of this review are representative of a specific flight's customers, NASA Headquarters, NASA Kennedy Space Center (KSC), JSC, and other involved NASA centers. The board reviews and approves for baselining the following areas and documents: customer requirements, cargo design, Cargo Engineering Data; flight design, Cycle 1; Preliminary Crew Activity Plan and Timelines. Areas reviewed include ground operations flow and payload safety status. As a result of this review, engineering data are approved for release to the launch site for operations support and to the customer for flight preparation. 

At L-5.5 months, the final engineering data defining Orbiter/cargo configuration and installation instructions is provided to the customer and the launch site. The launch site then begins preparation of installation instructions. 

The final internal Flight Planning and Stowage Review is held at JSC at L-5 months and chaired by the Program Office. The purpose of this review is to (1) finalize all requirements influencing crew activities, (2) update middeck configuration/stowage, and (3) finalize crew compartment configuration drawings. 

At 3 months prior to launch (L-3), two major STS reviews are held at JSC and are chaired by the Program Office: the Launch Site Flow Review (LSFR) and the Flight Operations Review (FOR). The LSFR board members consist of Headquarters, JSC, and other involved NASA centers. They are concerned with statusing engineering and hardware for STS and cargo processing at KSC. Customers, JSC, and involve NASA centers make up the FOR board which allows for customer formal review of final flight operations products. 


a. Program Freeze Points

   There are three major program freeze points in the production process. In theory, after each of these freeze points, nonmandatory changes (i.e., those for which alternatives exist) to the major design and engineering products or items are not allowed. The disciplines affected by these freeze points comprise integration hardware, engineering, crew timeline, flight design, and crew training (fig. 2).


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