Ioonos

IOONOS: What does your job consist in?

Anette Bade: As a senior astronaut instructor, my job consists in developing, preparing and implementing astronauts and ground personnel training in cooperation with the ESA and with the European Centre for Astronauts which are both located in Cologne (Germany). I work in close cooperation with different company departments (i.e. engineering, operations, testing teams etc.) to design the astronauts’ training for their various missions I also need to verify all procedures (i.e. instructions for astronauts or flights controllers for performing a specific task as for example opening a valve). I also need to be familiar with training from other international partners in order to harmonize training and structure contents with other international partners.

IOONOS: What led you to do this job?

Anette Bade: I have always worked in the space field as my studies prepared me for this job. I qualified as a Doctor in Mechanical Engineering at the Technical University of Braunschweig. My special field was Spaceflight Technology. I prepared a Master of Science Thesis and did a lot of research work in Germany. Then I worked in the United States where I did research work on space debris at NASA. But what led me to do this job is the prospect of working together with international partners with different cultural backgrounds (Europeans, Americans, Japanese etc.)

IOONOS: What kind of equipment do you use and in what kind of environment?

Anette Bade: I do most of my work in classrooms with laptops and simulators to train for future flight missions. I also use mock-ups and tools the astronauts will be using for their operations in the International Space Ship (ISS).

IOONOS: Who do you work with?

Anette Bade: I work with astronauts and crew instructors from all over the world, engineers from various disciplines, ground controllers, flight controllers and flight directors from NASA and ESA.

IOONOS: What are the skills and qualities needed?

Anette Bade: First of all, you need to be fluent in English and to be willing to travel. Then you need to be able to understand technical documentation and to extract the contents of interest. You must also be able to teach people with different backgrounds. The personal qualities needed are flexibility, stress resistance and diplomacy.

IOONOS: What are the challenges and the interests of your job?

Anette Bade: Design training which meets the requirements of the students and timely implementation of training. What is interesting in this job is to teach people what they need to know in order to do their job and to handle malfunctions.

IOONOS: What are the constraints?

Anette Bade: Main constraints are linked to deadlines. The information is not always available at the time it is needed and it is sometimes outdated. People one needs to talk to are not available or overloaded with other work. The most difficult is to handle last minute changes such as operational details change and training schedule changes at the last minute. One needs to adapt to new situations very quickly.

IOONOS: Would you recommend this profession to young people, if so, what advice would you give them?

Anette Bade : Yes, I would. I would advise them to do something that has at least a fascinating aspect for them and not something that is in fashion or common.

IOONOS: Does space make you dream?

Anette Bade: Space is fascinating since there is still a lot to discover and lots of things have never been done before.