A progress report on the NASA orbital debris handbook

To implement the NASA policy to limit the generation of orbital debris for NASA space missions as stated in NASA Management Instruction 1700.8, NASA has sponsored the development of a handbook to provide guidelines and analysis tools for use by NASA Program and Project managers. This handbook has been discussed in other papers/1,2/. In the last 8 months the handbook has been subject to two reviews within NASA. In December, 1993, comments were received from a general review of the handbook and guidelines. The document was modified and sent out for detailed technical review in June, 1994. In this paper the concerns raised during the review process will be discussed and the current form of the handbook guidelines and support documentation will described.