Reliability-Based Damage Tolerance Framework for Achieving Highly Reusable Launch Systems

The United States Space Force and NASA are exploring approaches that enable rapid launch response via highly reusable launch systems. One hindrance to achieving high reusability is the inability to meet damage tolerance requirements. To this end, a framework for applying reliability-based damage tolerance to space structures is presented. The reliability-based approach employs probabilistic distributions of key input variables such as material properties, geometry, loads, inspection probability, and defect characteristics to predict hardware reliability for the planned mission life. The probabilistic variables needed to perform the reliability assessments are defined and recommendations on how to collect the required data are provided. Several example problems illustrate the implementation and execution of this approach.