Training and Certifications are Key to Flight Safety

 

While in-flight emergencies are rare, wide-ranging training keeps astronauts and ground crews ready to respond immediately and safely. The ability to react quickly comes only after years of preparation and instruction.

“In order to successfully perform key tasks in Shuttle processing, International Space Station operations, staffing a console in Mission Control or the Kennedy Space Center Firing Room, all technicians and engineers must participate in our rigorous training and certification process,” said Suzanne Cornelius, USA’s Director of Training and Development. “In fact, it is so crucial to our work that over 100,000 hours of training are completed by our employees each year.”

USA currently has 231 Shuttle Systems training courses of study, 285 classes in Workmanship Skills and 321 different courses in Safety and Quality to certify employees for critical tasks. As a result, USA has over 4,700 employees holding an average of 8.7 different job certifications.

The certification process for flight controllers and crew trainers can take anywhere from 12 months to two-and-a-half years to complete.

“Our commitment to safety and the Flight Operations Training process is critical to ensuring that the crews and flight control teams are prepared for all nominal and contingency operations for Shuttle and Space Station missions,” said Laurie Labra, Director of USA Flight Operations Training in Houston.

After extensive training of individual flight controllers for Mission Control and Firing Room operations, integrated groups undergo simulations to see how the entire team will perform. Simulation Supervisors – called Sim Sups – provide the flight control teams with challenges and mock emergencies as training exercises for solving the issues and deciding on the correct actions.

“This is where you hone the skills needed to ensure mission success and deal with emergencies when something unexpected happens,” added Labra.

Training for operations on the ground are equally critical. For example, learning to prepare a tool for use can be as important as learning to use it properly.

“There are national standards that we follow in the Calibration Lab,” said Mark Gaedcke of USA Technical Training at KSC. “Properly calibrating the wrench used to torque the bolts on an Orbiter tire or the Orbiter’s Star Tracker used in on-orbit navigation both require special instruction to complete the tasks correctly.”

While training to perform an assignment is extensive, it does not stop there.

New requirements for training are constantly being added, such as External Tank Foam Awareness Training to apply lessons learned in protecting sensitive hardware to special needs activities, including classes in performing pull tests on Orbiter tile gap fillers.

“We constantly have requests to update training and renew certifications,” Cornelius said. “Each skill will have its own recertification schedule, but it’s critical to keep skills up to date.”

Managers now have a new computer-based server application that allows them to check their employees’ training and certifications and ensure that skills are updated in a timely manner.

“All our classes and training ultimately focus on flight safety and mission success,” Cornelius said. “Safety instruction begins the first day on the job. It’s all about making sure we are doing it right.”

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