| After the cold war was over, the government money trees for space programs became less fruitful causing the unused infrastructure of the defense industry to be consumed by commercial ventures.; With limited resources, the government also decided to take advantage of the incentives and driving factors of commercial space programs through acquisition reforms. The acquisition reforms led the way to the concept of Faster Better Cheaper. With lower cost as the most significant driving factor in the majority of government sponsored space programs in the early to mid-nineties, quality took a back seat and the result was failed satellites on-orbit.; To counteract the effects of limited funding, many companies did research to determine the essential engineering tools and processes necessary to promote cost effective satellite development. The result of their research efforts is an approach to satellite development commonly referred to as the Integrated Product Development (IPD) process.; This thesis analyzes the key elements of the IPD approach to space system development. Through a comparative evaluation of the IPD approach with the lessons learned from the SSTI-Lewis program, it will be evident that NASA could have benefited from IPD to avoid some of the program development mistakes that led to the satellite's failure on-orbit. |
