• Question: Who has the most important job and what is it?

    Asked by 357tch48 to Col Op, Andrea, Charlie 🚀, Kirsty, Vinita on 17 Jun 2016. This question was also asked by Summer_Louise, E.T..
    • Photo: Columbus Operations

      Columbus Operations answered on 17 Jun 2016:

      Joao: In the Columbus Control Centre we are all a big team and all of us are important.

      One could say that the Columbus Flight Director is the most important job, since he/she is responsible for all the other positions and ultimately, for the Columbus module itself. But without all other positons, the Flight Director would not be able to do much.

      For example, my position is STRATOS, and me and the rest of the STRATOS team are always monitoring the different systems of the Columbus module, making sure everything works well, and at the same time, we are controlling all of these systems as we need.

      Another position, is the EPIC, who is doing all our planing, making sure we are using our time and our resources the best way possible.

      There are also diferent centers around Europe called USOCs. They are responsible for the different science that happens on the ISS.

      And many others. And each of these positions is important and without them we would not be able to control the Columbus module and help support the Astronauts on board the Internation Space Station!

    • Photo: Andrea Boyd

      Andrea Boyd answered on 20 Jun 2016:

      We couldn’t function in the ISS Flight Control without all the different positions in all the Mission Controls around the world.

      I will say STRATOS here however – they do the job of three people (literally, there used to be three flight control positions COL DMS, COL COMMS and COL SYSTEMS and then it became two and now it has become one) and they keep all the systems of Columbus module on ISS (i.e. the entire European Humanspaceflight Science program!) running smoothly and safely.

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