Corrosion control in an aerospace environment covers a broad range of topics, including spacecraft, launch vehicles, habitats, and ground systems and infrastructure. As reuse of vehicles becomes the norm, corrosion has led to unexpected consequences, delays, and outright failures. The primary failure across the aerospace industry is overlooking corrosion control in design, designing to sub-par requirements that leave most corrosion control to be handled by operations and maintenance, and not having enough skilled expertise to understand these problems. The first step towards reducing these failures is buy-in from management for in-house or contracted consultants with specific aerospace related corrosion experience. This presentation touches on common corrosion issues for aerospace environments, the types of expertise needed, and an approach to create a broader corrosion control strategy that considers operations and flexibility for long and short-term corrosion control needs.
