How to keep a planet safe from Asteroids, and Tales from a spacecraft cockpit webinar

We were excited to host two speakers from the European Space Agency on Thursday 27 March, covering planetary defence and spacecraft operations.

How to keep a planet safe from asteroids

The ESA Planetary Defence office is tasked with the discovery and tracking of near-earth asteroids (NEOs), the assessment of potential impact risks and to find ways of mitigating the effect of potential impact threats. Richard Moissl provided some spotlights onto the past, current and future efforts of the office to keep our planet safe from asteroids, as well as a more wide-angle view on the international context and collaborations in this line of work.

Tales from a Spacecraft Cockpit

Spacecraft Operations is an invisible profession—when everything goes right, no one even knows you're there! But behind the scenes, it's a high-stakes world where split-second decisions and teamwork keep some of humanity’s most incredible machines safe in space. For over 20 years, Thomas Ormston has been piloting spacecraft around Earth and across the Solar System for the European Space Agency. In this talk, he took us behind the scenes of satellite operations, sharing insider stories of how missions are flown, the challenges faced, and the lessons learned along the way.

Webinar resources

Richard and Thomas have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing. The webinar recording on YouTube will shortly be available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

This webinar content is suitable for project professions with any level of experience.

Additional European Space Agency (ESA) resources discussed during the webinar

• Live TV control room
• BIOMASS mission
• Planetary Defence Office
• near-earth objects (NEO) toolkit

Previous presentations and webinars can be viewed on the APM Slideshare and YouTube channels.

Speakers

Richard Moissl, Head of the Planetary Defence Office, European Space Agency (ESA)​

and

Thomas Ormston, Deputy Spacecraft Operations Manager Sentinel-1, European Space Agency (ESA)​

For over 20 years, Thomas has been piloting spacecraft around Earth and across the Solar System for the European Space Agency.