Psychology of Space Exploration
1965, followed by three-person crews during the Apollo program. After Mercury,
note Clay Foushee and Robert Helmreich, the test pilot became a less relevant
model than the multi-engine aircraft commander, who not only requires technical
skills but also requires human relations skills as the leader of a team.^31 America’s first
space station, Skylab, provided a “house in space” for three-person crews; apart from
occasional emergencies or visitors, three-person crews were also typical for Soviet
(1970–89) and then Russian (1990 and onwards) space stations and the ISS. Space
Shuttles are relatively capacious and usually carry six to eight crewmembers. Other
than during brief visits from Shuttle crews, the ISS has been home to crews of two
to six people. We suspect that later space stations will house larger crews. Although
it is possible to envision huge orbiting platforms and communities on the Moon and
Mars, foreseeable missions are unlikely to exceed eight people, so crews will remain
within the “small group” range.
A second salient trend is toward increasing diversity of crew composition. The
initial vision was for a highly diverse pool of astronaut candidates, including moun-
tain climbers, deep sea divers, and arctic explorers, but, as will be explained in the
next chapter, it was military test pilots who got the nod. The military remains well
represented, but over the years, the astronaut corps has been expanded to include
people from many different professions and a greater number of women and minori-
ties. Further complexity was added with the Soviet guest cosmonaut program begin-
ning in the 1970s, the inclusion of international crewmembers on the Shuttle, and
international missions on Mir and the ISS. Already, tourists have entered the mix,
and the first industrial workers in commercial space ventures may not be far behind.
Third, initial spaceflights were measured in hours, then days. (Indeed, within
each series of flights, successive Mercury and then Gemini flights were longer and
longer, to establish that astronauts could withstand the long trip to the Moon.)
The third Skylab crew remained on orbit 84 days. Skylab was short-lived, but the
Soviets set endurance records in this area; the present record of 366 days was set
by a Russian cosmonaut on Mir during a 1987–88 mission. ISS missions have usu-
ally lasted about three months, but individuals are staying on the Space Station for
up to six months, as demonstrated in 2007 and 2008 by Sunni Williams and Peggy
- H. C. Foushee and R. L. Helmreich, “Group Interactions and Flight Crew Performance,”
in Human Factors in Aviation, ed. E. L. Wiener and D. C. Nagel (New York: Academic Press,
1998), pp. 189–228.