Mission Accomplished! The Role of Systems Engineering & Integration in the International Space Station Program

The International Space Station is among the largest and most complex international cooperative science and technology projects ever undertaken. Completed in 2010, the approximately 500 metric ton, permanently crewed, full-service space platform remains safely operating today as a testament to what great nations can do through peaceful cooperation. At the turn of the 21st century, industrialized nations are forming partnerships to design and build complex, technological assets for which no nation alone can bear the cost, or the risk. By partnering together, the cost is shared, the risk distributed, and the benefits accrue to all. The technical and programmatic challenges that accompany very large-scale international systems integration projects can be daunting. The "glue" that holds such enterprises together is the systems engineering function. While "first principles" for systems engineering are attributed to Bell Laboratories in the early 1900s, the RAND Corporation also made valuable contributions toward integrated systems analysis while refining the United States Air Force approach to missile development during the 1950s. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) later translated this progress into the institutionalized function of Systems Engineering & Integration (SE&I) under the Apollo Program. Landing on the moon, building and operating the Space Shuttle fleet, deploying robotic spacecraft across the solar system, and constructing the International Space Station (ISS) are the legacy of a deeply embedded SE&I function in the NASA culture. The ISS partnership was an unprecedented venture in global SE&I led by NASA that included the space agencies of Canada, Europe, Japan and Russia. At first, it was a ragged ensemble of players impeded by seemingly inescapable differences in culture, design philosophy and engineering practice. Working together, in a minefield of competing government, industry and academic interests, the cast matured. By completion of the design phase, the international team had successfully forged into a unified, high performance organization that executed the ISS development and on-orbit assembly phases with operational precision. It was a shared understanding of the role of SE&I and the consequent merger-of-practices that enabled success. Coupled with an actively managed and highly effective risk management system, the global team delivered the ISS on schedule and within budget. The following discussion will review the principles of leadership, organization and discipline that fortified the mission-critical SE&I function, and coupled it with an enlightened risk management philosophy. These key ingredients represent the art of decision sharing under risk that allowed the ISS team to prevail against the odds.