Meaningful and compliant approaches to software safety for NASA's most critical missions.
EFSI delivers comprehensive Safety and Mission Assurance (SMA) support, transitioning our deep expertise into the SMAS III contract era. Our staff, which includes many former NASA civil servants, brings deep institutional knowledge to ensure mission success through a “meaningful and compliant” approach. We specialize in Software Quality Engineering, risk-based Software Assurance (SA), and Mission Operations Assurance (MOA) across the full mission lifecycle — from Phase A through Phase E and decommissioning.
A key EFSI differentiator is our software safety expertise applied across multiple NASA and NOAA missions simultaneously, giving us broad cross-mission insight that strengthens assurance on every program we support.
Our team provides high-level strategic support for Chief Safety and Mission Assurance Officers (CSOs), acting as technical authorities to perform day-to-day oversight of ground systems and reporting directly on critical technical decisions. We offer independent risk assessments of operational requirements, evaluate on-orbit anomalies, and conduct rigorous audits to ensure compliance with standards like NASA-STD-8739.8, NPR 7150.2, and NPR 7120.5.
Our team has developed a unique approach for software safety that meets NASA requirements while maximizing value to the flight project. Our emphasis is on flight products such as commands, telemetry, command scripts, and on-board scripts (i.e., stored command sequences) — the artifacts that directly impact mission safety and operational success.
Our SMA staff includes former NASA civil servants with deep institutional knowledge of Goddard's safety requirements and processes.
EFSI's expertise extends to global enterprise infrastructure, providing quality and safety oversight for remote ground assets. This includes technical support for complex antenna systems and ground stations located in extreme environments, such as Svalbard (SVALSAT) and McMurdo, Antarctica (MMCS), ensuring seamless data flow and communication integrity for low-earth orbit (LEO) and polar missions.
EFSI currently provides SMA support to the following NASA and NOAA missions and programs.
James Webb Space Telescope — the world's premier space science observatory.
Joint Polar Satellite System and Common Ground System — polar-orbiting environmental satellite constellation.
Next-generation flagship observatory for wide-field infrared surveys.
Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite — next-generation weather observation.
Space Weather Follow-On — monitoring solar wind and space weather from the L1 Lagrange point.
On-orbit Servicing, Assembly, and Manufacturing — robotic servicing demonstration mission.
Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe — studying the boundary of the heliosphere.
Heliophysics Instrument Tester and Explorers and Heliophysics Projects Division.
AI as a qualified tool within existing MA processes — not a replacement for them.
Mission Assurance answers one question: “How do I know this software is correct?” EFSI's approach integrates AI tooling into the existing MA workflow the same way a compiler or static analyzer fits in — the AI produces output that still flows through standard review, peer inspection, and CR board approval. The developer remains the author of record. Your existing gates don't change; the evidence gets better.
AI-generated test suites covering hundreds of off-nominal scenarios — message ID conflicts, table race conditions, bus routing errors — become baselined, traceable verification artifacts.
AI output flows through automated validation, developer review, peer review, and MA/CR board approval before commit — the same gates as any manually developed code.
Automated comparison of flight software command/telemetry definitions against ground system databases — run before every test, every delivery, every review.
Every codebase change triggers automated rescans — verifying no unintended message ID changes, no app conflicts, and no subscription mismatches. Continuous verification, not a one-time CDR check.
Full traceability from requirement to AI-generated code to validation evidence to human review to commit. More traceable than most manual development processes.
AI frameworks are qualified like any COTS mission tool — requirements review, test suite verification, witnessed execution, and baselined for transfer from open to closed environments.
GSFC-level expertise in software safety analysis, hazard identification, and risk mitigation for flight and ground systems.
Compliant methods for meeting NASA-STD-8739.8, NPR 7150.2, and NPR 7120.5 requirements throughout the full mission lifecycle.
Independent risk assessments of operational requirements, on-orbit anomaly evaluation, and rigorous audits ensuring mission readiness and compliance.
SMA support from Phase A concept through Phase E operations and decommissioning, including design reviews, test witnessing, and operational readiness.