NASA's Independent Verification & Validation (IV&V) Program was established in 1993 as part of an agency-wide strategy to provide the highest achievable levels of safety and cost-effectiveness for mission critical software. NASA's IV&V Program was founded under the NASA Office of Safety and Mission Assurance (OSMA) as a direct result of recommendations made by the National Research Council (NRC) and the Report of the Presidential Commission on the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster.[1] Since then, NASA's IV&V Program has experienced growth in personnel, projects, capabilities, and accomplishments. The NASA IV&V Program is responsible for providing a systems engineering function that is focused on partnering with missions to improve reliability, find defects earlier, reduce mission development cost, and mitigate operational risk related to the safety- and mission-critical software. Today, Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) is an Agency-level function, delegated from OSMA to Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and managed by NASA IV&V. NASA's IV&V Program's primary business, software IV&V, is sponsored by OSMA as a software assurance technology. Having been reassigned as GSFC, NASA IV&V is Code 180 (Center Director's direct report).
NASA's IV&V Program houses approximately 270 employees and leverages the expertise of in-house partners and contractors. Its facilities are located in Fairmont, West Virginia. As a result of being located in North Central West Virginia, the NASA IV&V Program boasts some of the lowest cost (labor rate) systems and software engineers in the country.
NASA's IV&V Program is focused on employing effective and efficient technical solutions that maximize the value being provided to NASA's highest profile missions. In 2022, to reduce operational and overhead expenses, the IV&V program consolidated its operations into a single facility thereby allowing the elimination of leased office space and more funding being made available for mission support. The IV&V Facility currently operates at approximately 95% of its physical capacity.
On February 22, 2019, the facility was renamed to the Katherine Johnson Independent Verification and Validation Facility in honor of Katherine Johnson, who worked as a mathematician at NASA for 35 years and who is featured in the 2016 film Hidden Figures.[2]
Affiliations
NASA's IV&V Program is affiliated with NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and the Educator Resource Center (ERC), funded through a partnership with Fairmont State University, is part of a nationwide network of training sites at NASA centers and facilities.
Projects
NASA's IV&V Program is the lead NASA organization for system software IV&V, and is responsible for the management of all system software IV&V efforts within the Agency. NASA's IV&V Program's role is to provide value-added service to the Agency's system software projects, primarily by appropriately performing IV&V on system software based on the cost, size, complexity, life span, risk, and consequences of failure. NASA's IV&V Program employes an approach that ensures all services are driven by mission success and partnerships, not compliance or standards adherence, and that all IV&V services are strategically tailored to the unique needs of each mission.
Current IV&V Projects: NASA’s IV&V Program is currently performing IV&V for the projects listed below.[3]
Artemis: NASA’s Artemis campaign is exploring the Moon for scientific discovery, technology advancement, and to learn how to live and work on another world as we prepare for human missions to Mars. NASA will land the first woman and first person of color on the Moon, using innovative technologies to explore more of the lunar surface than ever before.
Dragonfly- Dragonfly is a drone-like rotorcraft that would explore the prebiotic chemistry and habitability of dozens of sites on Saturn’s moon Titan, an ocean world in our solar system. Dragonfly will study dozens of promising sites around Saturn’s icy moon Titan and advance our search for the building blocks of life in the universe.
Europa Clipper - NASA’s mission would conduct detailed reconnaissance of Jupiter’s moon and investigate whether the icy moon could harbor conditions suitable for life. Europa Clipper launched in October 2024.
Exploration Ground Systems - Exploration Ground Systems’ primary objective is to prepare the center to process and launch the next-generation vehicles and spacecraft designed to achieve NASA’s goals for space exploration.
Mars Sample Return (MSR)- Mars Sample Return (MSR) campaign will bring pristine samples from Mars to Earth for scientific study. Once on Mars, Perseverance aims to cache rock and regolith samples in its collection tubes. It then would leave some of them on the Martian surface for an ESA-provided “fetch” rover to collect and deliver to a NASA-provided Mars Ascent Vehicle, which then would launch the samples into orbit around Mars. An ESA-provided Earth Return Orbiter would then rendezvous with the samples in orbit around Mars and take them in a highly secure containment capsule for return to Earth in the 2030s.
Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility- NASA’s Extravehicular Activity and Human Surface Mobility Program provides safe, reliable, and effective spacewalking and surface mobility capabilities that allow astronauts to survive and work outside the confines of a base spacecraft in order to explore on and around the Moon.
Gateway- Gateway is central to the NASA-led Artemis missions to return to the Moon for scientific discovery and chart a path for the first human missions to Mars and beyond. The small space station will be a multi-purpose outpost supporting lunar surface missions, science in lunar orbit, and human exploration further into the cosmos. NASA is working with commercial and international partners to build humanity’s Gateway.
Human Landing System (HLS) - The Human Landing System (HLS) is the mode of transportation that will take astronauts to the lunar surface as part of the Artemis program, including the first woman and the first person of color.
International Space Station (ISS)- The International Space Station is an unprecedented achievement in global human endeavors to conceive, plan, build, operate, and utilize a research platform in space. With the assembly of the space station at its completion and the support of a full-time crew of six, a new era of utilization for research has begun.
Landsat Next- Landsat Next, expected to launch in late 2030/early 2031, is an innovative Landsat mission that represents a quantum leap in measurement capabilities with improved temporal, spatial, and spectral resolutions. The mission will satisfy global Landsat data user needs and support evolving and emerging applications, all while maintaining Landsat data continuity and quality of the longest space-based record of Earth’s land surface.
Orion - NASA’s Orion spacecraft is built to take humans farther than they’ve ever gone before. On Artemis missions, Orion will carry the crew to space, provide emergency abort capability, sustain the crew during the space travel, and provide safe re-entry from deep space return velocities.
Space Launch System (SLS)- The Space Launch System (SLS) Program will develop a heavy-lift launch vehicle to expand human presence to celestial destinations beyond low Earth orbit. This launch vehicle will be capable of lifting the Orion MPCV to asteroids, the moon, Lagrange points and, ultimately, to Mars.
Roman Space Telescope (Formerly WFIRST)- The Roman Space Telescope (formerly known as WFIRST, the Wide Field Infrared Survey Telescope) – a mission concept to answer vital questions in both exoplanet detection and dark energy research.
U.S. Deorbit Vehicle (USDV) - The U.S. Deorbit Vehicle will provide the capability to safely deorbit the International Space Station at the end of station operations and ensure avoidance of risk to populated areas.
Independent Technical Assessments of NASA Systems
NASA's IV&V Program also provides independent technical assessments of NASA systems and software processes/products to identify developmental and operational risks. This effort helps to provide assurance that safe and reliable software is being provided to NASA missions and projects as they work toward successful systems and software development. Independent assessments can address any aspect of software engineering and can be applied within any SDLC phase. This capability provides for multiple spot-checking throughout the SDLC and addresses those issues that can jeopardize mission safety and quality.
Jon McBride Software Testing and Research (JSTAR)
Jon McBride Software Testing and Research (JSTAR) is a subgroup within the NASA IV&V Program’s IV&V office. It is named for West Virginian Astronaut Jon McBride. JSTAR’s main role consists of developing industry leading digital-twin computer simulations of embedded spacecraft environments. These simulations allow spacecraft software to be tested, verified, and validated in ways that cannot be done on spacecraft hardware. Testing in a digital-twin platform enables IV&V to work closely with the mission software developers to execute tests that improve the robustness and resiliency of NASA's most critical spacecraft software systems. JSTAR performs research and developmental efforts in order to improve testing methods and is also responsible for managing and enhancing the JSTAR laboratory network.
Education Resource Center
Thanks to a partnership with Fairmont State University, the Independent Verification and Validation Program Educator Resource Center (ERC)[4] provides resources and training opportunities for approximately 1,000 in-service, pre-service, and informal educators and in West Virginia annually. The materials and training cover a wide range of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) topics. The ERC also loans hands-on STEM kits to trained teachers which impact over 10,000 students per year in the state. The on-site student outreach program brings over 2,000 youth to the facility annually to experience workshops on robotics, rocketry, aviation, and other STEM topics. The ERC also runs numerous student STEM competitions in the fields of robotics and aviation. Starting in 2012 the ERC became the partner for the FIRST LEGO League competition and has overseen a rapid growth in robotic competitions that now include over 100 teams at 10 tournaments statewide each fall.
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