Predicting performance in manually controlled rendezvous and docking through spatial abilities

• Spatial abilities were deduced to influence manual RVD performance.
• Spatial ability tests were selected and conducted among 15 participants.
• Manual RVD simulations were designed and conducted among the participants.
• Manual RVD performance was positively correlated with spatial abilities.
• Spatial orientation ability was critical to predicting manual RVD performance.

Manually controlled rendezvous and docking (manual RVD) is a challenging space task for astronauts. This study aims to identify spatial abilities that are critical for accomplishing manual RVD. Based on task analysis, spatial abilities were deduced to be critical for accomplishing manual RVD. 15 Male participants performed manual RVD task simulations and spatial ability tests (the object-manipulation spatial ability and spatial orientation ability). Participants’ performance in the test of visualization of viewpoints (which measures the spatial orientation ability) was found to be significantly correlated with their manual RVD performance, indicating that the spatial orientation ability in the sense of perspective taking is particularly important for accomplishing manual RVD.