I assume some of these standards might have their roots in Apollo days or something, and definitely there wouldn't have been many options back then. But why cha

I assume some of these standards might have their roots in Apollo days or something, and definitely there wouldn't have been many options back then. But why change now? The give clear explanation: > In 1998, NASA established by internal mandate, the need for all NASA standards users and custodians, to comply with the 1995 Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Circular A-119 on Federal Participation in the Development and Use of Voluntary Consensus Standards and in Conformity Assessment Activities. This directive compels the NASA Workmanship Project to actively identify, enhance and adopt industry standards which can be used in lieu of the NASA-STD-8739 series documents. Of course you might ask why that OMB was made, but tbh it just makes lot of sense imho, maintaining own set of standards is not cheap especially with all indirect effects that it implies