40 years on the Edge of Space

The SpaceInfo Club had the huge pleasure to interview Paolo Ferri, who’s been working at the European Space Agency for almost forty years.

Follow your dream, and put passion in whatever you do, every day, every moment of your life. And learn. Continue learning 

Here are some of the questions and words out of his interview, just visit our website and log in: it’s free!

In 40 years work in the field of Space Operations there where many highlights, as you can imagine. I’ll to talk about two missions which were very important in my career: Eureca and Rosetta. 

Rosetta was not only a historical and very successful mission. It was also the start of the interplanetary adventure for ESA

What is the secret of a successful international cooperation? You have to concentrate on selecting the best contributions from each partner. Take the example of the upcoming Mars Sample Return mission, a cooperation between NASA and ESA. 

I had the privilege to work in a control centre, ESOC, the European Space Operations Centre, that operated in parallel practically all types of missions. When I became head of mission operations my department was responsible for flying over 20 spacecraft and preparing for a dozen of new missions in parallel. 

Earth observation missions are nowadays standard and can be navigated with simple, off-the-shelf tools. Interplanetary missions’ navigation requires very specialize expertise that is available only in a few places in the World

And more…

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