6.4.1 A Case Study of the Near‐Catastrophic Mir‐Progress 234 Collision with Emphasis on the Human Factors/Systems‐Level Issues Surrounding this Mishap

Abstract

AbstractThis paper examines the June 1997 collision between the Progress 234 Supply Ship, and the Russian Mir Space Station. The unmanned Progress 234 cargo supply ship was being flown manually on a practice approach to MIR, when it collided with the Spektr module of the MIR station. The result was a punctured pressure hull, which resulted in a decompression that nearly forced the crew to leave the station in an emergency mode. An analysis of this collision reveals that a host of systems and human factors issues combined to promote the chances for such a collision occurring. These systems‐level attributes that increased the probability of a collision happening included: ground‐control pressure to perform a difficult task, a hectic pace of operations, and previous “close calls” with a variety of on‐board systems failures that left the crew in a stressed state. Systems failures in the docking apparatus itself contributed to making the attempted docking more difficult than would normally have been the case. The general deterioration of economic conditions in Russia and the Ukraine also appears to have played a subtle predisposing role for this type of practice approach to be attempted to begin with due to the mission payment/incentive structure that required the crew to complete certain tasks, and the difficulties involved with obtaining automatic docking devices from the Ukrainians for a reasonable price. Human factors issues that are noted as contributing to this mishap include chronic fatigue from the loss of sleep for an extended period just prior to the mishap, very poor display‐control interfacing under the conditions that the docking was attempted, and embedded psychological/financial pressures resulting from the previous docking failure with Progress 233. From a human factors perspective, the MIR Commander's situation awareness was dramatically degraded during the manual Progress 234 docking attempt due to inadequate visual display and control information, particularly with regard to the position, range, and velocity information of the Progress 234 supply ship.