On September 18, 2018, A-P-T Research, Inc., received a prime contract award for the Explosion Effects, Risk Assessment, and Protective Construction Support for Explosives Safety Contract to the Naval Facilities Engineering and Expeditionary Warfare Center (NAVFAC EXWC). The contract period of performance 9/18/18 through 9/17/23 is with a total value of $6.5M. NAVFAC is the Naval Shore and Expeditionary Systems Command that: plans, builds, and maintains sustainable facilities; delivers environmental, utilities, and other base services; and acquires and manages expeditionary combat force systems and equipment. Part of EXWC’s mission is to support the Department of Defense Explosives Safety Board (DDESB). APT’s support effort will be led by John Tatom out of our Huntsville, AL, office. Mr. Tatom has spent 20 years with APT specializing in explosives safety analysis and testing. He develops explosion effects and consequence prediction methodologies for DDESB’s Technical Paper 14 (TP-14) and testing procedures for DDESB’s Technical Paper 21 (TP-21).

REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. — You’ve probably seen the photos.  Lightning seen from space appears to be nothing more than an artistic light show. Up close, lightning is no fun. People struck by lightning are badly injured or killed. Buildings hit by lightning are damaged, or destroyed by the resultant fire. “The reason why you want to do lightning, it is a natural event that the equipment in the field is going to experience,” said Redstone Test Center Engineer, Jeff Craven.

Source: See video and article @ whnt.com

During 2017, APT provided software system safety to Oshkosh Defense for the Joint Light Tactical Vehicle (JLTV). APT provided technical expertise and guidance to ensure software hazards and risks were identified and mitigated. The software safety process developed and implemented at Oshkosh ensures safety and enhances the performance of the JLTV to provide protected, sustained, networked mobility in multi-mission environments.

The Safety Engineering & Analysis Center (SEAC) is debuting two new training classes in 2018; Reliability Engineering & Risk Management for Safety Engineering.

Reliability Engineering is designed for professionals wanting to advance their understanding and knowledge in reliability engineering tools and techniques and their application in technical assessments and special studies. This course is taught by Dr. Fayssal Safie who recently retired as the NASA Technical Fellow for Reliability & Maintainability Engineering.

Risk Management for Safety Engineering provides an overview of the underlying processes used to manage risks and demonstrates the common elements that can be applied to any sector of our economy. This course is taught by Tom Pfitzer & Tom Delong who combined have over 75 years of experience as safety professionals and risk management practices.

For course brochures, available offerings, course fees, and online registration please visit: www.apt-research.com/training

APT also conducts training classes at customer locations for clients who request them. Contact Megan Stroud at 256.327.3373 or training@apt-research.com for information regarding availability.

APT received a $52 million contract from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The Safety and Mission Assurance Support Services III (SMASS III) contract scope is to perform a broad range of specialty engineering services primarily at the Kennedy Space Center, in addition to various sites supported by Kennedy’s programs and projects.

SMASS III is a cost-plus-fixed-fee contract with a two-year base period and three one-year options.

The services to be performed include safety and mission assurance risk assessments, inspections, investigations, engineering analyses, and evaluations of work performed by other government contractors and NASA organizations. SMASS III customers include NASA’s Exploration Ground Systems (Orion, Space Launch System), Commercial Crew, Launch Services and International Space Station programs.

Huntsville-based Davis Strategic Innovations, Inc. (DSI), a Service-Disabled Veteran-Owned small business will perform specialized engineering support as an APT teammate on this effort.

Kayser Italia, Livorno (Tuscany), Italy
Course Duration: 3 days, 14-16 February 2018

Instructors:
T. Sgobba (ESA Ret. – Flight Safety Chair)
P. Kirkpatrick (NASA Ret. – Ground Safety Chair)

The Challenge: The course is designed to provide the participant with an understanding of safety requirements, procedures and processes that are used for design and operations of payloads for the International Space Station. 

Scope of the course: This course is designed as a guide to the ISS payload/cargo safety review process. The student will gain an understanding of the applicable safety documents and key safety technical requirements, of payload/cargo safety as it relates to the overall development and integration process, how the payload/cargo safety review process works, and the roles and responsibilities of the various players. In addition, the student will be instructed in the hands-on fundamentals of hazard analysis, hazard documentation, and presentation to the Payload Safety Review Panel.
 
Target Audience:

• Safety engineers and managers, system engineers, QA personnel, project managers responsible for development, integration and operation of payloads/cargo for ISS;
• Other technical discipline personnel who contribute to the design and operations of ISS payload/cargo and need to understand the process by which hazards are identified and controlled.

APT will be hosting a Software System Safety Training Class in conjunction with the 9th IAASS Conference. The 9th IAASS Conference, “Know Safety, No Pain,” is October 18-20 in Toulouse, France. The conference is the premiere international forum dedicated to the discussion of a wide variety of space safety topics.

>> Click here for more info about APT Training classes

>> Click here for more info about the 9th IAASS Conference

The Model Based Systems Engineering & Software System Safety Workshop was held at APT’s Safety Engineering and Analysis Center on 2-3 May 2017. The objectives of the workshop were to understand model based concepts on modern complex programs, ensure MBSE, MBSwEng, & software/system safety integration needs are addressed, and collaborate on model based development and software system safety policies and best practices for complex and critical systems. Thank you to all of our presenters and attendees!

Workshop Presentations

• Agenda
• Model Based Mission Assurance
• DO-331 Model Based Development and Verification Supplement to DO-178C and DO-278A
• Moving NASA/MSFC Towards a more Model-Centric Organization
• MBSE Programs at UAH and Other Thoughts
• Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE) Trends
• Model Based System Engineering & Software System Safety Concepts, Goals, and Objectives
• Workshop Key Points and Findings
• Model-Based System Engineering
• SED Model Based Development Software Safety Guidelines