Systems Engineering Approach to Human Factors aboard the Dream Chaser® Spaceplane

Sierra Space is currently developing the Dream Chaser cargo system, a reusable, autonomous, lifting body spaceplane designed to transport cargo to the International Space Station (ISS). Because ISS astronauts will conduct a variety of crew tasks aboard the spaceplane, a highly iterative and integrated systems engineering approach to human factors has been implemented on the Dream Chaser cargo system. This paper documents the rationale behind the decomposition of human factors requirements into specific subsystem specifications, it defines requirement applicability criteria based on four crew-to-hardware interaction types, it identifies every component the crew interacts with aboard the Dream Chaser cargo system and outlines the integrated verification approach to verifying all the human factors requirements. Copyright © 2021 Sierra Space. Permission granted to INCOSE to publish and use.