NASA-STD-7012 Leak Test Requirements: Potential Reference for ASNT Nondestructive Testing Handbook for Leak Testing

Developed in 2018-2019, NASA-STD-7012 Leak Test Requirements, has been drafted based mostly on the NASA technical requirement documents applicable to the International Space Station (ISS) hardware and payloads that were developed over the years taking into consideration many known references such as Leakage Testing Handbook prepared by General Electric for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the ASTM International standards for leak testing, and last, but not least, the ASNT Nondestructive Testing Handbook for Leak Testing. Thus, NASA-STD-7012 has a reference to the above-mentioned handbook in the leak test method/technique descriptions. However, there are some technical details that are described differently in NASA standard and ASNT Handbook. Those technical details are mostly related to the classification of the leak test methods/techniques, and also to tracer gas to working fluid (gas or liquid) leakage rate conversion methodology, and to some definitions used in the text of both NASA standard and ASNT Handbook. Those differences are going to be briefly described in this paper to let ASNT leak test experts decide if they want to refer to NASA-STD-7012 while working on the next edition of the ASNT Handbook, Volume 2 for Leak Testing.