Requirements and standards

In particular, ESA has a strong commitment to support the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS), an initiative established since 1994 to develop a coherent, single set of user-friendly standards for all European space activities. The ultimate goal of building such a standardization system, at European level, is to minimise life-cycle cost, while continually improving the quality, functional integrity, and compatibility of all elements of a space project. This goal is achieved by applying common standards for project management, quality, engineering and sustainability for the design, development, testing and qualification of hardware and software.

During the development process of ECSS standards, the Requirements and Standards section acts as the ECSS central secretariat and in this function provides:

• Technical support during the drafting process of new standards and handbooks, and during the subsequent review process.
• Administrative support to the different entities (i.e ESA Standardization Steering Board, ESA Technical Steering Boards, ECSS Technical Authority, ECSS Steering Board and all ECSS working groups) to ensure the necessary flow of information between these bodies, support by implementing the actions and agreements approved by the technical committees during the editing process, submission of documents as draft standards to ECSS member bodies for voting and final publication.

To reach its goal, ECSS standards (and handbooks) have to be known and applied. A mechanism to promote, disseminate the information, and involve the space community in the development of standards is vital for ECSS success and evolution. The rapid development of information technology in the past 20 years and particularly Internet, made a series of tools suitable for this purpose. The integration of these tools in a web site provides a consistent approach to these tasks. The ECSS web site has the objective to:

• Make all the information freely available to stakeholders and worldwide: The most recent versions of the standards, handbooks, procedures, and policies are easily accessible and downloadable, making these documents publicly available in real time.
• Sharing and promoting ideas among the space community: the ECSS Technical Authority meets 4 times a year, to discuss and prioritize the needs for new standards, and the update of the existing ones. Discussions help to promote and sustain a common understanding and interpretation of the standards. All these aspects are key in building a common ECSS culture across the space community in Europe. 
• Integrate the initiatives of the different key players in the boards, panels, or working groups: When developing ECSS standards, such key players perform their task on a voluntary and non-permanent basis. They are provided with a password-protected environment as a central place to share information, decisions, and documents created during the development of their document.

To train potential users in applying ECSS standards in space projects, or tailor these standards for their specific needs, the Requirements and Standards section has prepared training plan and material and is organising and managing periodic training courses (promoted via ESA Hub training and ESA academy training catalog).

The Requirements and Standards section also provides support to the ESA Standardization Steering Board (ESSB) and the various specialised ESA Sub-boards (ESB, MSB and QSB) and maintains the List of ESA Approved Standards (LEAS)  applicable to ESA space projects. This list is largely based on published ECSS standards.