Summary of the regulatory context

The regulatory environment in the space sector is well structured with a hierarchy of regulations from major international treaties down to specific standards, themselves organized into a coherent structure like those of the ECSS European space sector, and defined with the maximum consistency vis-a-vis the higher level rules of this hierarchy. 

Except where the mission is to provide a service to another system itself critical in terms of protecting people, assets, and the environment, see section 7.3.3. 

In the space sector, the usual practice and a certain number of reasons lead to a separate consideration of safety to include not only the consequences of system failures, but also those due simply to the systems presence (e.g. risk of injury to astronauts on cutting or hot parts of the equipment). 

The regulatory environment and its implementation are still complicated mainly because of the multiple parties involved and the importance of strategic and economic stakes. There is also a growing criticality of the services expected of space systems whereby regulations are also derived from the relevant regulations in the areas of service utilization. 

Generally, regulations and standards do not deal only with dependability. Much of the ECSS standard is, for example, devoted to the definition of industrial organization, to processes and management, and to examinations of key issues in lifecycle. This promotes the implementation of a trustworthy system, but also has the important objective of improving the efficiency of industrial organization and control. 

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