NASA Procedural Requirements

NPR 1400.1H Effective Date: March 29, 2019 Expiration Date: December 31, 2024

Subject: NASA Directives and Charters Procedural Requirements (Updated w/Change 10)

Responsible Office: Office of the Chief of Staff

Chapter 1. NASA Directives

1.1 Overview

1.1.1 A NASA directive is a document that formally prescribes policies or requirements derived from law, the President, Federal regulation, the NASA Administrator, or other senior NASA officials.

1.1.2 NASA directives can apply to all NASA activities or to a single NASA Center.

1.1.3 NASA directives:

a. Establish policies, procedural requirements, and organizations.

b. Define purpose.

c. Grant authority to accomplish a task.

d. Assign responsibilities.

1.1.4 NASA directives are developed, coordinated, and promulgated according to this NPR to ensure that they:

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

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

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

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 at http://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov/.

1.2.1.1 Agency-level directives include NPDs that state the Agency's policies, NPRs that provide detailed procedural requirements to implement policy, NIDs that provide an immediate, short-term statement of the Agency's policies or procedural requirements, and NCs that establish groups mandated by statute, the NASA Administrator, or an Official-in-Charge of a Headquarters Office.

1.2.1.2 Center-level directives include CPDs, CPRs, and CIDs and have the same general provisions as Agency-level directives.

1.2.2 Agency-level directives may apply to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) (a Federally Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC)), other contractors, recipients of grants or cooperative agreements, and parties to other agreements only to the extent specified or referenced in the applicable contract, grant, or agreement. When NASA directives apply to JPL, other contractors, recipients of grants or cooperative agreements, or parties to other agreements, the contract, grant, or agreement should specify which specific requirements from directives apply. Conversely, requirements directed toward civil servants and contractors should be clearly delineated within directives so that contractors, grantees, or parties to agreements can appropriately identify which requirements apply. See notes under paragraphs 2.16.2 and 2.19.3 for delineating examples.

1.2.3 Approved NASA directives are in effect for a maximum of five years. However, revisions are made whenever a change is warranted. See content and structure requirements in Chapter 3 and process requirements in Chapter 4.

1.2.4 A waiver to Agency-level requirements may be requested. See process requirements in Chapter 5.

1.2.5 NPDs and NPRs are coordinated in the NODIS Document Management System (DMS) according to an established monthly directives review cycle schedule, and NIDs are coordinated outside of NODIS. See process requirements in Chapter 4.

1.3 Description and Hierarchy of NASA Directives

1.3.1 In the event of a conflict among the top-level directives (e.g., NPD 1000.0 and NPD 1000.3), the information provided in the highest-ranking directive (i.e., NPD 1000.0) 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 NID, NPD, and an NPR, the information provided in the NID takes precedence. For example, an NID to NPD 1400.1 would take precedence over NPD 1400.1.

Note: NIDs are included in the hierarchy at the same level of the directive it is intended to replace or update (i.e., an NID that is published in place of an NPD or NPR is included in the hierarchy at the level of either directive type).

1.3.4 In the event of a conflict between an NPD and 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 establishes the flow and order of precedence and displays the hierarchical relationship between directives and NASA internal requirement documents.

Note 2: Readers may report conflicts to the Directives Manager (DM) to initiate resolution. See paragraph 2.20.1f.

DISTRIBUTION:
NODIS

This document does not bind the public, except as authorized by law or as incorporated into a contract. This document is uncontrolled when printed. Check the NASA Online Directives Information System (NODIS) Library to verify that this is the correct version before use: https://nodis3.gsfc.nasa.gov.