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Collision in spaceOn June 25, 1997, the Russian supply spacecraft Progress 234 collided with the Mir space station, rupturing Mir's pressure hull, throwing it into an uncontrolled attitude drift, and nearly forcing evacuation of the station. Like many high-profile accidents, this collision was the consequence of a chain of events leading to the final piloting errors that were its immediate cause. The discussion in this article does not resolve the relative contributions of the actions and decisions in this chain. Neither does it suggest corrective measures, many of which are straightforward and have already been implemented by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Space Agency. Rather, its purpose is to identify the human factors that played a pervasive role in the incident. Workplace stress, fatigue, and sleep deprivation were identified by NASA as contributory factors in the Mir-Progress collision (Culbertson, 1997; NASA, forthcoming), but other contributing factors, such as requiring crew to perform difficult tasks for which their training is not current, could potentially become important factors in future situations.
Document ID
20040088193
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Ellis, S. R.
(NASA Ames Research Center Moffett Field CA United States)
Date Acquired
August 21, 2013
Publication Date
December 1, 2000
Publication Information
Publication: Ergonomics in design : the magazine of human factors applications
Volume: 8
Issue: 1
ISSN: 1064-8046
Subject Category
Life Sciences (General)
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other
Keywords
Mir Project
Flight Experiment
NASA Discipline Space Human Factors
NASA Center ARC
manned
long duration

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