NASA Engineering and Safety Center

A Combination of Techniques Leads to Improved Friction Stir Welding

Download PDF: A Combination of Techniques Leads to Improved Friction Stir Welding The NESC developed several innovative tools and techniques during an assessment to find the root cause of poor tensile strength and low topography anomalies (LTA) in welds formed using a solid-state welding process called self-reacting friction stir welding (SRFSW).

Posted March 16, 2026

General

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

NESC Develops Method for Estimating Risk When Reducing NDE

Download PDF: NESC Develops Method for Estimating Risk When Reducing NDE Performing nondestructive evaluation (NDE) can have both cost and schedule impacts, leading some to question whether descoping (i.e., reducing or eliminating) NDE inspections on certain spaceflight hardware could be possible.

Posted March 16, 2026

General

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Astronauts’ Perspectives on NESC Contributions to Mission Safety and Success

This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The exact date when the crew of Space Shuttle Columbia was lost is readily recalled by Patrick Forrester, as it likely would be for any NASA employee in service that Saturday morning when the Shuttle broke up during reentry. Forrester had flown to ISS for the first […]

Posted March 13, 2026

General

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Efficient Large Displacement/Large Rotation Dynamic Simulations Using Nonlinear Dynamic Substructures

Download PDF: Efficient Large Displacement/Large Rotation Dynamic Simulations Using Nonlinear Dynamic Substructures Utilizing reduced-order dynamic math models (DMM) in linear system-level dynamic analyses is a well-known practice that enables extreme computational efficiencies. But what about nonlinear system dynamics?

Posted March 12, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Insights into Spallation Mechanisms of Thermal Protection System Materials from Mass Spectrometry and HyMETS Testing

Download PDF: Insights into Spallation Mechanisms of Thermal Protection System Materials from Mass Spectrometry and HyMETS Testing An effort was undertaken to investigate the mechanisms responsible for internal pressure build up within thermal protection system (TPS) materials subjected to high-enthalpy environments.

Posted March 10, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Computational Modeling of Failure at the Fabric Weave Level in Reentry Parachute Energy Modulators

Download PDF: Computational Modeling of Failure at the Fabric Weave Level in Reentry Parachute Energy Modulators Energy modulators (EM) are textile mechanical devices designed to dissipate snatch loads that occur when parachutes are deployed.

Posted March 10, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

Expanding the Human Factors Toolbox: An Approach to Balancing Crew and Mission Design Parameters

This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The human factors TDT looks for and creates opportunities to influence design to leverage human strengths and to protect people and missions. The human factors team has experts with knowledge of human performance in all aspects of NASA missions as well as from other safety-critical industries. The […]

Posted March 10, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

COPV Damage Tolerance Life Demonstration Guidelines

This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The NESC has invested significant time and resources to better understand composite overwrapped pressure vessels (COPV) performance and more importantly, how these complex, high-pressure storage systems can fail.

Posted March 10, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

A Technical Resource for the Agency

This article is from the 2025 Technical Update. The NESC’s Thermal Control & Protection Technical Discipline Team (TDT) is a resource providing subject matter expertise in active and passive thermal control as well as ascent and entry thermal protection across the spectrum of agency needs.

Posted March 10, 2026

NASA Engineering and Safety Center

TB 26-03 Flammability Testing Configuration and Approach of Barrier MaterialAssemblies Designed for Space Flight Applications

The NASA Engineering and Safety Center (NESC) partnered with Materials and Processes and Flammability subject matter experts from the Johnson Space Center, White Sands Test Facility, and the Marshall Space Flight Center to design and develop a test for evaluating the effectiveness of material assemblies to serve as a barrier between a potential cab

Posted March 9, 2026