Opportunities for Team Development Based on Lessons Learned From Spaceflight Operations

Abstract

Lessons learned over a career are useful for identifying team development opportunities to ensure mission success and safety of flight. All human and robotic spaceflight is accomplished by teams of people working with technology. Spaceflight is about leading and organizing teams of people to solve engineering problems. Successful engineers identify lessons learned and best practices over the course of a career. These shape and guide how engineers make decisions, perform work, and interact with people. This paper details lessons learned from over thirty-six years of involvement in human space flight at the NASA Johnson Space Center, both in flight operations and spacecraft development.