Evolution of the Flight Crew and Mission Control Relationship

摘要

One of the main factors that influence a mission success is the relationship between the astronauts and Mission Control. Throughout the evolution of manned missions, it's clear to observe the tension development within the flight crews and with Mission Control. This report uses personal interviews, mission transcripts and astronauts' memoirs to look closely at this evolving relationship, especially as the program grows and as it is gets shaped by changes in technology. In particular, this report delves into the conflict details in three of the most prominent examples: Mercury Atlas MA-7, Apollo 7 and Skylab IV. One common consequence of these three missions was that none of their astronauts ever flew in space again. However, more importantly, these missions uncovered a huge gap in NASA's methodology of treating astronauts in their crews. This report evaluates how such events forced NASA to implement changes in the relationship between flight crew and Mission Control, in a way that accommodates for the crew's psychological constraints, offering them more flexibility and understanding. The research also examines how the technology evolution of communications and tracking stations throughout the missions since Mercury until the International Space Station (ISS) affected the way the flight directors interacted with the flight crew. Additionally, this paper discusses the managerial and crew psychology perspective on this topic. Thus, the main goal of this research is to study the evolution of the relationship between the flight crew and Mission Control in order to understand how it was affected by major past mission conflicts and by evolving technologies because this understanding is a key for determining mission success especially in the future longer duration missions to Mars and beyond.