Ground Safety Issues

Abstract

In the history of humankind, every space adventure, great or small, has begun on the ground. While this seems to be stating the obvious, mission and flight hardware designers who have overlooked this fact have paid a high price, either in loss or damage to the hardware pre-launch, or in mission failure or reduction. Designers may risk not only their flight hardware, but they may also risk their lives, their co-workers lives and even the general public by not heeding safety on the ground. Their eyes may be on the stars but their feet are on the ground! This discussion applies to all forms of flight hardware from the largest rockets to the smallest spare parts.