NASA Procedural Requirements

NPR 1400.1E Effective Date: July 15, 2011 Expiration Date: July 15, 2016

Subject: NASA Directives and Charters Procedural Requirements

Responsible Office: Office of Internal Controls and Management Systems

Chapter 1. NASA Directives

1.1 Overview

1.1.1 A NASA directive is a document that formally prescribes requirements derived from law, the President, Federal regulation, the NASA Administrator, or other senior NASA officials. NASA directives can apply to all NASA activities or to a single NASA Center. NASA directives: (1) Establish policies, procedural requirements, and organizations; (2) Define purpose; (3) Grant authority to accomplish a task; and (4) Assign responsibilities.

1.1.2 Responsible Offices develop, coordinate, and promulgate NASA directives in accordance with this NPR to ensure that NASA directives:

a. Are necessary for the fulfillment of NASA's mission.

b. Are evaluated by all affected or interested parties in draft form before issuance and that the feedback is provided for comments received.

c. Are reviewed in draft form to reduce the potential for unintended technical, financial, or legal risks.

d. Are available and easily accessible or retrievable by all affected or interested parties.

e. Include an explanation of how the requirements in the directive will be verified for compliance.

1.2 General Provisions Governing NASA Directives

1.2.1 NASA Directives are published in the NODIS Library.

1.2.1.1 Agency-level directives include NPDs that state the Agency's policies, NPRs that provide detailed procedural requirements to implement policy, and NIDs that provide an immediate, short-term statement of the Agency's policies or procedural requirements.

1.2.1.2 The Administrator approves all NPDs. Center Directors, or designees, approve all Center directives (e.g., CPDs, CPRs, and CIDs).

1.2.1.3 The signatory authority for NPRs and NIDs is either the Official-in-Charge of the Headquarters organization originating the NPR/NID or the Administrator.

1.2.2 NASA directives may apply to JPL or to other contractors, grant recipients, or parties to agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in the appropriate contracts, grants, or agreements. When NASA directives are applied to JPL, other contractors, grantees, or parties to agreements, the contract, grant, or agreement should specify which specific requirements from directives apply to contractors, grantees, or parties to agreements. Conversely, requirements directed toward civil servants and contractors should be clearly delineated within directives so that contracts, grants, or agreements can appropriately identify which requirements can be applied to contractors, grantees, or parties to agreements. See notes under paragraphs 2.12.2 and 2.13.2f for delineating examples.

1.2.3 Approved NASA directives are in effect for a maximum of five years. However, revisions can be made whenever a change is warranted.

Note: Updates to change sections of an NPR can be coordinated in NODIS if the entire directive does not need to be revised. These updates will be recorded in the NPR's Change Log. There will be an assignment of a new 5-year expiration date upon the completion of the changes.

1.2.4 NASA Centers may issue directives when no Agency-level directive exists that provides the required policy or instruction, when an Agency-level directive does not provide adequate policy or instruction, or when a situation is unique to a particular Center.

Note: It is at the discretion of Center management to determine whether Agency-level directives are sufficient or if more specific requirements are needed by the Center.

1.2.5 Requests for Relief (e.g., waivers, deviations, tailoring) to Agency-level directives may be requested. See requirements for waiver requests in paragraph 4.2.

1.2.6 NPDs and NPRs are coordinated in the NODIS Document Management System. The coordination time for NPDs is no more than 90 calendar days. The coordination time for NPRs is no more than 120 calendar days. See the Directives Coordination Cycle in Figure 1.

Note 1: The timeline starts on the day the formal review commences. The Responsible Office may request up to three 30-day extensions to the coordination cycle. If the third 30-day extension has lapsed, the Responsible Office may request a waiver to receive another extension.

Note 2: Directives in coordination are tracked in the Headquarters Action Tracking System and will appear overdue if submitted after the suspense date. Directives that languish in NODIS review may be withdrawn by the Office of Internal Controls and Management Systems, if extensions are not requested.

Figure 1, Directives Coordination Cycle

1.3 Description and Hierarchy of NASA Directives

1.3.1 In the event of a conflict among the top-level directives, the information provided in the highest ranking directive takes precedence.

1.3.2 In the event of a conflict among the top-level directives and one or more NPDs and CPDs and/or NPRs and CPRs, the information provided in the top-level directive(s) takes precedence.

1.3.3 In the event of a conflict between an NPD and an NPR, the information provided in the NPD takes precedence.

1.3.4 In the event of a conflict between an NPD or an NPR with a Center-level directive, the information provided in the NPD or NPR takes precedence.

1.3.5 In the event of a conflict between a CPD and a CPR, the information provided in the CPD takes precedence.

1.3.6 In the event of a conflict between two or more equally ranking documents, the directive assigned to the office that is responsible for the function or program takes precedence.

Note 1: Attachment D of NPD 1400.1, Documentation and Promulgation of Internal NASA Requirements, displays the hierarchical relationship between directives and NASA internal requirement documents.

Note 2: Readers may report conflicts to the Directives Manager to initiate resolution. See paragraph 2.13.1f.

DISTRIBUTION:
NODIS