Calling Germany home!

Dear all,

So recently I made a move to Cologne, Germany to take up a trainee-ship at the European Astronaut Centre of the European Space Agency. This is 1 of 4 facilities where astronauts from Europe, US, Canada and Japan train for long-duration expeditions to the International Space Station. The others are NASA Johnson Space Centre in Houston, Roscosmos Star City Training Facility in Star City, Russia and facilities in Japan.

The Cologne facility is home to the European Astronaut Division, the Astronaut Training Division and the Astronaut Medical Office – all under the ESA Directorate of Human Space Flight. Based here are the astronaut offices (current and candidates), the Eurocom’s (NASA equivalent of CapCom – the folks who are the sole communicators on ground for crew in orbit), the training instructors with simulators & mock-ups (Columbus, ATV, Payloads and the Neutral Buoyancy facility) as well as the flight surgeons and medical support. All these folks fall under the realm of what is traditionally termed “Space Operations”.

My role is with the Columbus Systems Training Group – the team responsible for training crews on all levels and systems of the European Columbus Laboratory, one of the modules making up the incredible International Space Station.

Me with ISS Columbus Module Training Mock-up

In 3 weeks so far I have learned an incredible amount about the rigorous and time-pressured schedules crews must maintain, the incredulous attention to detail the instructors must comprehend and teach, and the dynamic and international environment in which a 52-week schedule makes life travel at the speed of light. But damn is it ever fun. This past week as part of my system familiarization, I sat-in on User-level training of 2 crew members of Expedition 26/27 – the “basic” first level of training on Columbus systems. Living the life of an astronaut for a few days was not only exciting, but incredibly tiring with 0900-1700 days (nominally) with an hour for lunch and 2-3 small breaks through the remainder – and a fine job these instructors do to communicate the most essential information required for the astronauts to learn. And our facility is 1 of many on a training flow including USA, Japan and Russia not to mention survival training, Shuttle and Soyuz training, USOS (United Space Operating Segment), Russian Station Segment, Japanese segments, European Segments, Canadian robotics training, the list continues with a 2-year training flow from crew assignment to launch.

Meanwhile, I am also competing to sit on a panel about “Next Generation Visions for Space Operations” at the IAC2010 in Prague, Czech Republic this September. Below is a video about my work and some comments on Space Operations you may find intriguing!

Cheers!