NASA’s Implementation Plan for Space Shuttle Return to Flight and Beyond was developed in response to the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) report. This report provided a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve the safety of the Space Shuttle Program as well as provide a roadmap for moving forward with return to flight efforts. One key area of the CAIB findings focuses attention on systematic cultural and organizational issues, including decision making, risk management, and communications.

In response to this key area NASA identified actionable objectives that are intended to improve communication and decision making, especially on the part of the Mission Management Team. The Mission Management Team (MMT) is responsible for making Space Shuttle Program decisions regarding preflight and in-flight activities as well as operations that exceed the authority of the launch director or the flight directors. These objectives are to:

• Ensure that focus is first on safety and then on all other mission objectives
• Actively encourage people to express dissenting views, even if they do not have the supporting data onhand, and create alternative organizational avenues for the expression of those views
• Revise the Mission Management Team structure and process to enhance its ability to assess risk and improve communication across all levels and organizations

To directly meet the objectives identified above, a formal plan for MMT members was drafted that included:

• Training in MMT processes and responsibilities
• MMT off-nominal simulations
• Training classes intended to improve problem recognition and reaction skills, human factors, and decision making

As a result, NASA-JSC Human Resources Management requested an independent assessment of the decision processes utilized during Space Shuttle Program Orbit MMT Simulation exercises.

The Solution

Application Solutions Group (ASG) conducted assessments of the decision processes employed by the Mission Management Team (MMT) during Space Shuttle On-Orbit Simulations. These assessments did not assess the technical accuracy of the content discussed, but instead paid attention to the process used to reach conclusions. Each assessment was done from the perspective of how mission, critical and time sensitive information was organized, clarified, prioritized, evaluated and utilized by the members of the MMT in order to resolve technical and/or programmatic issues outside the scope of authority and responsibility of the Flight Directors. 

Results

NASA’s commitment to returning the Space Shuttle safely to flight has resulted in their ability to better organize, clarify, process, assess and process successes, challenges and contingencies, helping the agency move forward with renewed confidence. The Space Shuttle program continued flying, servicing the International Space Station, until the fleet was retired in 2011.