Ioonos

IOONOS: You work for Astrium in Germany. What is your exact title?

Cristian Bank : I am Head of "Crew Transportation" which is a department within the BU "Orbital & Reusable Systems". Crew Transport includes the specification and / or development of all means and measures to transport people to space and back to Earth. For example, concerning the ATV Evolution programme, Ariane 5 and its launch pad as potential launcher is a given item, but the required adaptations for manned flights shall be specified by our team. The vehicle itself, i.e. the propulsion unit and the capsule, will be specified, developed, and integrated by us.

IOONOS : What is your career path and what led you to do this job?

Mr Cristian Bank : I have first studied space engineering and later business & labour law on top. Currently I study economics in parallel to my professional life. Dedication to, and interest in, all facets of this task - engineering, organisational, political, and economical aspects – led me to do this job.

IOONOS : Could you describe the different facets you are talking about ? What does your job entail?

Mr Cristian Bank : First the communication of our company's priorities towards the customer and the acquisition of the related work share in the upcoming study and development contracts. Then, together with procurement and contracts, the negotiation within the industrial team. And finally, the organisation of workflow and teams, dissemination of information, setting of priorities and goals. My job ends when our customer accepts our deliveries of the contractual obligations, delivered in time and within budget.

IOONOS : To accomplish all that, who do you work with?

Mr Cristian Bank : Fellow engineers, both specialists and system engineers, subcontractors, political decision makers, astronauts, and not to forget all company internal functions.

IOONOS : What are the main interest of your job? And What are the skills and qualities needed?

Mr Cristian Bank : The complexity of all the facets of the task - engineering, organisational, political, and economical aspect- constitutes the main interest of a job which requires endurance, ability to motivate yourself as well as a good "feeling" for the balance between risks and opportunities in the various aspects of it, and for the tension between all the internal and external priorities.

IOONOS : What are the constraints?

Mr Cristian Bank : Most of the constraints are "homemade". As said Wernher von Braun 1*: "To get to the Moon, we had to fight two things: gravity and the paperwork. We easily conquered gravity."

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

Mr Cristian Bank : If you are career oriented, you better look for some other job, but if you don't mind to wait and continuously learn some 20 years before your dream may (!) come true, why not. There are less interesting ways to waste your professional life.

IOONOS : Does the space make you dream?

Mr Cristian Bank : Of course. Since I learned to read with Apollo picture books in the early 70ies, there was not a day in my life I did not think about spaceflight, the solar system, and the limits and aspirations of humans in space. So my job is the next best thing to being an astronaut.