Rosetta Flight Control Team profile
A brief profile of the Rosetta Flight Control Team based at ESA's European Space Operations Centre (ESOC), Darmstadt, Germany.
Andrea Accomazzo - Spacecraft Operations Manager
Andrea is a veteran operations engineer and joined Rosetta after serving as SOM for Venus Express until November 2006, including the critical launch and Venus orbit insertion phases. He's very familiar with Rosetta, having first worked on the mission after joining ESA in 1999. "I also worked on the Rosetta industry team at Fiat Avio, even before I joined ESA. It's a great spacecraft and a great mission," he says.
Sylvain Lodiot - Spacecraft Operations Engineer
Originally from France, Sylvain joined the Rosetta team for the second time in January, 2007. He previously worked on Rosetta between 2001 and 2003, but took a break to work on the Rhea and SMOS missions between 2003 and 2007. Together with Roberto Porta, he has been responsible for planning the Steins fly-by operations activities. "For this fly-by, we have a very demanding sequence of manoeuvres and operations sequences that must be correct in order to maximise the science data return. We've worked very hard, and we anticipate a spectacular fly-by," he said.
Armelle Hubault - Spacecraft Operations Engineer
Responsible for payload operations and telemetry & telecommand systems, Armelle is one of the original flight control team members, having joined Rosetta in September 2003, six months prior to launch. For the Steins fly-by, her main focus has been on instrument check-outs and ensuring payload activities can proceed on schedule. She joined ESA as a Young Graduate Trainee (YGT) from the Ecole d’Ingénieurs en Génie des Systèmes Industriels, in La Rochelle, France.
Roberto Porta - Spacecraft Operations Engineer
Roberto normally looks after Rosetta's data management systems and on-board software, and he is now focussing on the mission planning requirements for the fly-by. "This is new for me; in my last mission, Mars Express, we had a separate mission planning team that did this for us. But it's very interesting work," he explains. Roberto joined Rosetta in January 2008 and prior to working for Mars Express he worked for Alenia Spazio (now Thales Alenia Space) on ground segment software for Canada's RadarSat2.
Jose-Luis Pellon-Bailon - Spacecraft Operations Engineer
With a background in mission analysis, Jose-Luis is the newest team member, having joined in June 2007. He worked previously on ESOC's Future Studies team where he focussed on designing ground segments for next-generation missions. For the Steins fly-by, he will keep a close watch on Rosetta's thermal profile and oversee operations aspects of the ALICE and RPC instruments.
