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Cultural Challenges Faced by American Mission Control Personnel Working with International PartnersOperating the International Space Station (ISS) involves an indefinite, continuous series of long-duration international missions, and this requires an unprecedented degree of cooperation across multiple sites, organizations, and nations. Both junior and senior mission control personnel have had to find ways to address the cultural challenges inherent in such work, but neither have had systematic training in how to do so. The goals of this study were to identify and evaluate the major cultural challenges faced by ISS mission control personnel and to highlight the approaches that they have found most effective to surmount these challenges. We pay particular attention to the approaches successfully employed by the senior personnel and the training needs identified by the junior personnel. We also evaluate the extent to which the identified approaches and needs are consistent across the two samples. METHODS: Participants included a sample of 14 senior ISS flight controllers and a contrasting sample of 12 more junior controllers. All participants were mission operations specialists chosen on the basis of having worked extensively with international partners. Data were collected using a semi-structured qualitative interview and content analyzed using an iterative process with multiple coders and consensus meetings to resolve discrepancies. RESULTS: The senior respondents had substantial consensus on several cultural challenges and on key strategies for dealing with them, and they offered a wide range of specific tactics for implementing these strategies. Data from the junior respondents will be presented for the first time at the meeting. DISCUSSION: Although specific to American ISS personnel, our results are consistent with recent management, cultural, and aerospace research on other populations. We aim to use our results to improve training for current and future mission control personnel working in international or multicultural mission operations teams.
Document ID
20060020769
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Clement, J. L.
(NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)
Ritsher, J. B.
(California Univ. San Francisco, CA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 23, 2013
Publication Date
January 1, 2006
Subject Category
Social And Information Sciences (General)
Meeting Information
Meeting: COSPAR
Location: Beijing
Country: China
Start Date: July 16, 2006
End Date: July 23, 2006
Sponsors: Committee on Space Research
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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