Our history of building spaceflight hardware
includes over 64 spacecraft and 150 instruments, more flight hardware than
most aerospace institutions around the globe.
APL has adhered to the better, faster, cheaper
concept long before it became a mantra. We aim to launch all spacecraft within
36 months of starting the project. Shortening the development cycle alone
provides significant cost savings, and our program management philosophy includes
tight budget control. The 36 month cycle is a key element of our philosophy
that also includes the following:
-
Establish small, experienced technical
team with authority to do mission
-
Design spacecraft and instruments to
cost
-
Use lead engineer method for all subsystems
-
Reliability and redundancy must be designed-in
(not expensive)
-
Have R&QA engineer report directly
to project manager
-
Single agency manager to interface with
contractor
Another fundamental aspect of APL's program management is
to foster a strong working relationship between space scientists and engineers.
Missions are not only originated and designed, but also fabricated, tested,
and operated from the Applied Physics Laboratory.
Other elements of our program management philosophy are
described in Tech Digest articles here
and here.
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