NASA objectives or to be in the national interest. However, flight opportunities for space flight participants will not be available in the near term. NASA will assess Shuttle operations and mission and payload requirements on an annual basis to determine when it can begin to allocate and assign space flight opportunities for future space flight participants, consistent with safety and mission considerations. When NASA determines that a flight opportunity is available for a space flight participant, first priority will be given to a "teacher in space," in fulfillment of space education plans.

(b) To be considered for selection as space flight participants, applicants must:

(1) Be free of medical conditions which would either impair the applicant's ability to participate in, or be aggravated by, space flight, as determined by NASA physicians.

(2) Be willing to undergo appropriate background investigation.

(3) Be willing to undergo necessary training.

(4) Meet additional requirements that may be stated in Announcements of Opportunity (AO) soliciting applications for particular spaceflights.

(c) Persons accepted as space flight participant candidates will enter into an agreement with NASA for the period of training, flight, debriefing, and post-flight activities. The agreements will cover such pertinent matters as, but not limited to, responsibilities and authorities of the respective parties, compensation where appropriate, insurance, and liability.

(d) Typically the selection of space flight participants will be based on their comparative abilities to fulfill the objectives and purposes stated in Announcement of Opportunities (AO's) covering one or more Space Shuttle missions in which their participation is desired. A NASA-designated outside review panel will evaluate the qualifications of applicants to select those who most appropriately meet those purposes of participant flight associated with the particular AO. NASA will retain the authority to make final selection of space flight participants for flight training and eventual flight from among those applicants rated most

highly in the review process. NASA will encourage the participation of a wide and diverse array of participants, including women and minorities.

[49 FR 17737, Apr. 25, 1984, as amended at 56 FR 47148, Sept. 18, 1991]

§ 1214.1705 Selection of space flight participants.

(a) The agency will publicly announce each space flight participant opportunity through appropriate means, including notice in the FEDERAL REGISTER and press releases. Each such Announcement of Opportunity will include a listing of basic qualification requirements to be met (including those of §1214.1704(b)), a statement of the specific National Aeronautics and Space Act purposes to which this opportunity is directed, what information is required of applicants to demonstrate their ability to fulfill those purposes, the criteria on which applicants will be judged, and administrative information such as to whom applications should be directed, the opening and closing dates for applications, and any other information or matters determined to be pertinent to the program in general and/or the specific flight.

(b) All applications received in response to the AO will be screened to eliminate those applicants not meeting the basic qualification requirements.

(c) Remaining applications will be forwarded to the outside review panel established for the announcement in question and composed of members appropriate to the specific purposes stated in that announcement. The review panel will evaluate all the applications and recommend to NASA a list of those applicants who appear most likely to meet the purposes.

(d) NASA selection of applicants qualified to undergo necessary training and be certified for flight will be made by the Committee, based upon criteria that include:

(1) Recommendation of the outside review panel.

(2) Ability to undergo successfully the necessary period of training to ensure adaptation to flight experience and mission activities.

(3) Ability to pass medical and psychological examinations to minimize

the possibility of hazard to persons or missions.

(4) Adaptability to living and working in space.

(5) Willingness to enter into an agreement with NASA covering pre-flight, flight, and post-flight activities, with individual rights and responsibilities set forth in that agreeement.

of a

(6) Satisfactory completion background investigation conducted to NASA's standards as adjudicated by the NASA Security Officer.

(e) The Committee will submit a list of those candidates suitable for selection to the NASA Administrator, who will select the requisite number to undergo the necessary training to prepare them for space flight.

(f) Those candidates who successfully complete the training will become qualified as space flight participants. Flight assignments will be made by the Administrator from this qualified group. NASA reserves the right to solicit additional space flight participant applications, if necessary.

(g) Authority to officially designate candidates for training, certify candidates as qualified space flight participants, and assign space flight participants to specific Space Shuttle flights is reserved to the Administrator.

§ 1214.1706 Program management.

The Associate Administrator for Space Flight is responsible for program management under the direction of the Committee chairperson.

§ 1214.1707 Media and public inquiries. (a) The Associate Administrator for External Relations will respond to all inquiries directed to the agency concerning space flight participants and the process by which they are selected.

(b) The names of all applicants will be withheld from public release until the space flight participants are selected by the Administrator.

non-NASA service to be delivered without compromising the mission objectives of any individual user. To encourage users toward achieving efficient TDRSS usage, this reimbursement policy has been established to purposely influence users to operate with TDRSS in the most efficient and orderly manner possible. Additionally, the reimbursement policy is designed to comply with the Bureau of the Budget Circular A-25 on User Charges, dated September 23, 1959, which requires that a reasonable charge should be made to each identifiable recipient for a measurable unit or amount of Government service or property from which a special benefit is derived.

[56 FR 28048, June 19, 1991]

§ 1215.101 Scope.

This subpart sets forth the policy governing TDRSS services provided to non-U.S. government users and the reimbursement for rendering such services. It excludes TDRSS services provided as standard or optional services to Space Transportation System (STS) users under existing policy for Shuttle and Spacelab (14 CFR subparts 1214.1, 1214.2, and 1214.8); i.e., user command and telemetry support, which utilizes and is a part of the Shuttle or Spacelab communications system, is a Shuttle/ Spacelab service. Cooperative missions are also not under the purview of this subpart. The arrangements for TDRSS services for cooperative missions will be covered in a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), as a consequence of negotiations between NASA and the other concerned party. Any MOU which includes provision for any TDRSS service will require signatory concurrence by the Associate Administrator for Space Operations prior to dedicating Office of Space Operations resources for support of a cooperative mission.

[56 FR 28048, June 19, 1991]

§ 1215.102 Definitions.

(a) User. Any non-U.S. Government representative or entity who contracts with NASA to use TDRSS services.

(b) TDRSS. The Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System including Tracking and Data Relay Satellites (TDRS), the White Sands Ground Ter

necessary

minal (WSGT), and the TDRSS operational areas, interface devices and NASA communication circuits to unify the above into a functioning system. It specifically excludes the user ground system/TDRSS interface.

(c) Bit stream. The digital electronic signals acquired by TDRSS from the user craft or the user generated input commands for transmission to the user craft.

(d) Flexible support. Support requests which permit NASA, at its option, to schedule service at any time during the period of a single orbit of the user mission. Missions requiring multiple support periods during a single orbit may be classified as constrained support.

(e) Constrained support. Support requests which specify the exact times NASA is to provide service, or conditions of support which can be translated into exact times for service, such as sub-satellite positions, apogee/perigee position, etc., for which support is needed.

(f) Scheduling service period. One scheduled contact utilizing a single TDRS whereby the user by requesting service is allotted a block of time for operations between the user satellite and TDRSS.

(9) Scheduling user services via TDRSS.

(10) Access to tracking data to enable users to perform orbit determination at their option.

(b) Mission unique services. Other tracking and data services desired by the user beyond the standard service and the charges therefor, will be identified and assessed on a case-by-case basis.

§ 1215.104 Apportionment and assignment of services.

No user may apportion, assign, or otherwise convey to any third party its TDRSS service. Each user may obtain service only through contractual agreement with the Associate Administrator for Space Operations.

[56 FR 28048, June 19, 1991]

§ 1215.105 Delivery of user data.

(a) As a standard service, NASA will provide to the user its data from the TDRSS as determined by NASA in the form of one or more digital or analog bit streams synchronized to associated clock streams at the NGT.

(b) User data handling requirements beyond the NGT interface will be provided as a standard service to the user, to the extent that the requirements do not exceed NASA's planned standard communications system. Any additional data transport or handling requirements exceeding NASA's capability will be dealt with as a missionunique service.

(c) No storage of the user data is provided in the standard service. NASA will provide short-term temporary recording of data at White Sands, only in event of a NASA Communications Network (NASCOM) link outage.

(d) NASA will provide TDRSS services on a "reasonable efforts" basis and, accordingly, will not be liable for damages of any kind to the user or third parties for any reason, including but not limited to failure to provide contracted-for services. The price for TDRSS services does not include a contingency or premium for any potential damages. The user will assume any

risk of damages or obtain insurance to protect against any risk.

[48 FR 9845, Mar. 9, 1983, as amended at 56 FR 28049, June 19, 1991]

§ 1215.106 User command and tracking data.

(a) User command data may enter the TDRSS via the NASCOM interface at one of three locations:

(1) For Shuttle payloads which utilize the Shuttle commanding system, command data must enter the system via the Johnson Space Center (JSC) and is governed by the policies established for STS services (see § 1215.101).

(2) For free flyers and other payloads, command data must enter the system at the Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) if it is to be a standard service.

(3) The use of other command data entry points [e.g., the NASA Ground Terminal (NGT) at White Sands, NM, or Johnson Space Center (JSC), for payloads using an independent direct link from TDRS to the user payload] is considered to be a mission unique service.

(b) NASA is required to maintain the user satellite orbital elements to sufficient accuracy to permit the TDRS system to establish and maintain acquisition. This can be accomplished in two ways:

(1) The user can provide the orbital elements in a NASA format to GSFC to meet TDRSS operational requirements.

(2) The user shall insure that a sufficient quantity of tracking data is received at GSFC to permit the determination of the user satellite orbital elements. The charges for this service will be determined by using the onorbit service rates.

§ 1215.107 User data security and frequency authorizations.

(a) User data security is not provided by the TDRSS. Responsibility for data security resides solely with the user. Users desiring data safeguards shall provide and operate, external to the TDRSS, the necessary equipment or systems to accomplish data security. Any such user provisions must be compatible with data flow through TDRSS and not interfere with other users.

users

(a) Initial requests for TDRSS service from non-U.S. Government should be addressed to NASA Headquarters, Code OX, Space Network Division, Washington, DC 20546. Upon review and preliminary acceptance of the service requirements by NASA Headquarters, the appropriate areas of GSFC will be assigned to the project to produce the detailed requirements, plans and documentation necessary for support of the mission. Changes to user requirements shall be made as far in advance as possible and shall be submitted in writing to both NASA Headquarters, Code OX, Space Network Division, and GSFC, Code 501, Greenbelt, MD 20771.

(b) Acceptance of user requests for TDRSS service is the sole prerogative of NASA. Although TDRSS represents a significant increase to current support capabilities, service capacity is finite, and service will be provided in accordance with operational priorities established by NASA. Request for services within priority groups shall be negotiated with non-NASA users on a

first come, first service basis for inclusion into the TDRSS mission model.

[48 FR 9845, Mar. 9, 1983, as amended at 56 FR 28049, June 19, 1991]

§ 1215.109 Scheduling user service.

(a) User service shall be scheduled only by NASA. Scheduling refers to that activity occurring after the user has been accepted and placed in the TDRSS mission model as specified in § 1215.108(b). See appendix C for a description of a typical user activity timeline.

(b) Schedule conflict will be resolved in general by application of principles of priority to user service requirements. Services shall be provided either as normally scheduled service or as emergency/disruptive update service. Priorities will be different for emergency/disruptive updates than for normal services.

(1) Normally scheduled service is service which is planned and ordered under normal operational conditions and is subject to schedule conflict resolution under normal service priorities. Priorities are established by the NASA Administrator or his/her designee. Requests for normally scheduled service must be received by the schedulers at the GSFC Network Control Center (NCC) no later than 45 minutes prior to requested support time.

(2) Normal scheduling principles of priority are generally ordered as follows beginning with the highest priority:

(i) Launch, reentry, landing of the STS Shuttle, or other NASA launches. (ii) NASA payloads/spacecraft. (iii) Other payloads/spacecraft of interest to the United States. (iv) Other payloads/spacecraft launched by a NASA launch vehicle. (v) Other payloads/spacecraft. (vi) Support of other launches.

(3) Exceptions to these priorities may be determined on a case-by-case basis Iwith the NASA Administrator or his/ her designee as the priorities stated in paragraph (b)(2) of this section are indicative of general rather than specific

cases.

(4) Emergency service conditions are those requiring rapid response to changing user service requirements.