NASA safety panel's latest comments on comm's crew + Safety, Russia & Iran

NASA Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel (ASAP) notes SpaceX success but still prefers that NASA use the FAR procurement process for commercial crew vehicle development:
/-- 2012 Second Quarterly Meeting Report - ASAP - May.25.12 (pdf)
/-- ASAP insist on NASA certification amid praise for SpaceX success - NASASpaceFlight.com

ASAP is fine with placing a crew on just the second launch of the SLS (as they were with the Ares I vehicle), but the panel wants NASA to do a better Loss of Crew (LOC) probability calculation. For the commercial crew vehicles, they worry that successful initial flights, e.g. unmanned and with company crews, could give the impression that NASA "certification" is not needed. The panel does not explain why it places a higher value on process and theoretical work that on actual flight experience.

They also do not explain what exactly "certification" means and why it requires the FAR process. NASA has already released its requirements documentation for the vehicles developed in the commercial crew program (CCP). The next phase of the CCP will be contracted under the less paperwork/manpower onerous Space Act Agreements but the firms will still develop their vehicles to meet those requirements. There will be numerous ...