NASA-STD-5002A
APPROVED FOR PUBLIC RELEASE—DISTRIBUTION IS UNLIMITED
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FOREWORD
This NASA Technical Standard is published by the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) to provide uniform engineering and technical requirements for
processes, procedures, practices, and methods that have been endorsed as standard for NASA
programs and projects, including requirements for selection, application, and design criteria of
an item.
This NASA Technical Standard is approved for use by NASA Headquarters and NASA Centers
and Facilities, and applicable technical requirements may be cited in contract, program, and
other Agency documents. It may also apply to the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (a Federally
Funded Research and Development Center (FFRDC)), other contractors, recipients of grants
and cooperative agreements, and parties to other agreements only to the extent specified or
referenced in applicable contracts, grants, or agreements.
This NASA Technical Standard was developed by the NASA Loads Standard Panel to minimize
variations in methodologies, practices, and requirements for the conduct of load analyses among
the NASA Centers. Such variations lead to misunderstandings and inefficiencies in the load
analysis arena for large projects that generally involve more than one NASA Center.
This NASA Technical Standard describes the accepted practices and requirements for the
conduct of load analyses for payloads and spacecraft structures. Load regimes are identified.
Requirements are set for establishing forcing functions and mathematical models and for
performing analyses and verification of models by tests. Major methods of analyses, practices,
and processes are identified.
Requests for information should be submitted via “Feedback” at https://standards.nasa.gov.
Requests for changes to this NASA Technical Standard should be submitted via MSFC Form
4657, Change Request for a NASA Engineering Standard.
________Original signed by_________
__________09/25/2019__________
