Psychology of Space Exploration
aboard Russian spacecraft.^8 As of early 2008, Canadian astronauts had participated
in 1 Soyuz and 13 Space Shuttle flights.^9 Five Japanese astronauts had successfully
completed their missions, and on 9 April of that year, the first South Korean astro-
naut, Yi So-Yeon, blasted off with two cosmonauts to head to the ISS.^10 With 29
partners supporting the International Space Station, multicultural crews are the
rule, rather than the exception.
International flights make tremendous sense. First, as Jennifer Boyd Ritsher
points out, by drawing from an international pool, managers can tap a broader range
of interests and skills.^11 Second, space missions are, in effect, overarching or super-
ordinate goals that encourage different nations to work together and may serve as
a prototype for other collaborative ventures. And, most obviously, international
cooperation defrays the enormous expense, increasing the palatability of flight for
large, wealthy nations and enabling nations with fewer resources to participate in
space. Differences based on ethnicity and nationality have implications for every-
thing from international relations to tourism. It is not surprising, therefore, to spec-
ulate that cultural differences could affect safety, performance, and well-being in
space. Since the United States and Russia control access to space, relations between
U.S. astronauts and Russian cosmonauts have gained the most attention.^12
We found little discussion of cultural factors in early space psychology papers,
perhaps because during the tensions of the 1960s, it was all but impossible to imag-
ine astronaut-cosmonaut collaboration. By the mid-1980s, in recognition of the
Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, Interkosmos, and Spacelab, cultural factors had joined
the list of psychologists’ concerns, with the threat of miscommunication (both ver-
bal and nonverbal) the most prominent worry.^13 Yet already by that time, there were
- J. Feustl-Beuchl, “25 Years of European Human Spaceflight,” ESA Bulletin (November
2003): 6–16. - “Canadian Astronaut Missions,” http://www.asc-csa.gc.ca/eng/astronauts/missions.asp
(accessed 23 May 2010). - JAXA, “JAXA’s Astronauts,” Human Space Activities, http://www.jaxa.jp/projects/iss_human/
astro/index_e.html (accessed 6 April 2008). - J. B. Ritsher, “Cultural Factors and the International Space Station,” Aviation, Space, and
Environmental Medicine 76, no. 6, sect. II (2005): B135–B144. - Ibid.
- M. M. Connors, A. A. Harrison, and F. R. Akins, Living Aloft: Human Requirements for
Extended Spaceflight (Washington, DC: NASA SP-483, 1985).