Capturing and Transferring Lessons Learned for Risk Reduction: NASA’s Phase 1 Program

Abstract

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the Russian Space Agency (RSA) conducted the Phase 1 (Shuttle-Mir) Program from 1993 through 1998.  The joint manifest of this cooperative effort consisted of Russian Soyuz (crew) flights, Progress (cargo) flights, Russian science module flights (Spektr and Priroda), U.S. space shuttle docking missions, and nine long duration missions aboard Russia’s Mir space station by U.S. astronauts.  The purpose of the program was to establish and create a cooperative technical, operational and managerial experience base between Russia and the United States to reduce risks associated with the assembly, operations, science and logistical support of the International Space Station (ISS).   In this paper we take a retrospective look at the extensive capture of lessons learned—gained from Phase 1 and transferred to the ISS program (ISSP)—and how this effort served to mitigate risk.