NASA Space Flight Program and Project Management Handbook

This handbook is the companion document to NPR 7120.5F, NASA Space Flight Program and
Project Management Requirements. It represents the accumulation of knowledge on
managing program and projects derived from NASA’s human, robotic, and scientific
missions. It incorporates the “corporate knowledge” for existing and future NASA space
flight programs and projects, including NASA’s Artemis missions to establish a sustainable
human presence on the Moon through collaboration with commercial and international
partners, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) mission, and NASA’s robotic
missions on Mars. The practices discussed have evolved as a function of NASA’s core values
of safety, integrity, teamwork, excellence, and inclusion, and may also prove a resource for
other agencies, the private sector, and academia. The knowledge gained from the Agency’s
victories and defeats, including the checks and balances and initiatives to better control
cost and risk, provides a foundation for continuing an exciting and healthy space program.

This handbook provides implementation guidance for NPR 7120.5F and includes the
changes and updates to key procedural requirements in NPR 7120.5F since NPR 7120.5E.
The goal of the NPR requirements is to ensure programs and projects are developed and
successfully executed in the most cost-effective and efficient manner possible. This
handbook provides context, rationale, and explanation to facilitate the application of
requirements and to pass on some of the hard-won best practices and lessons learned.