The roles of NASA, U.S. astronauts, and their families in long-duration missions

Abstract

Johnson Space Center oral histories, pre-flight interviews, and journals of residents of Skylab, Mir, and the International Space Station (ISS) were analyzed qualitatively to identify the U. S. astronauts’ views of the roles of NASA, the astronauts and their families in helping the astronauts to create a daily life that mirrors some aspects of their life on Earth. Findings are that NASA’s role is to establish scheduling and facilitate communication avenues. The astronaut’s role is to personalize leisure, to connect looking out the window with specific aspects of life on Earth, to find ways to make daily routines fun, and to celebrate traditions and historical space events. The family’s role is to participate in sufficient two-way communication and to send care packages with treats and reminders of home. These strategies, which provided a semblance of their life on Earth, may have helped the astronauts to remain connected to life on Earth and to deal better with time away from home and family.