May 13, 1998

Ed Campion
Johnson Space Center, Houston
Phone: 281/483-5111

Release: J98-14

JSC Becomes First ISO 9001 Certified NASA Field Center

The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center has become the first NASA field center to earn ISO 9001 certification and one of the largest U.S. research and development organizations so honored.

National Quality Assurance (NQA) USA today presented the certificate of ISO 9001 registration to JSC Director George Abbey. The presentation followed a successful independent audit by NQA of the JSC Quality System in late February. The third-party auditors examined such areas as management commitment, design control, documentation, purchasing, test and inspection, and corrective action procedures. NQA found that JSC met or exceeded the stringent quality standards in all areas.

"This certification is a significant testimonial to the excellence of our quality system at JSC, and also serves as a starting point for continuing improvement of our overall technical and management processes," said Abbey.

ISO 9001 comprises the most detailed, comprehensive set of standard requirements for quality programs established by the International Standards Organization. To date, nearly 20,000 U.S. organizations have received ISO 9001 certification.

All NASA centers are required by NASA Administrator Daniel S. Goldin to be ISO 9001 registered by September 1999. NASA is the first federal agency to seek the quality certification.

JSC's certification applies to all center human space flight responsibilities including program and project management, spacecraft engineering and design, flight crew training, space and life sciences research, and mission operations in support of NASA's Human Exploration and Development of Space enterprise.

text-only version of this release