9.11.2022

And why she has a poster of the Australian classic movie ‘The Dish’

Credit: Andrea Boyd/Twitter

Andrea Boyd has arguably one of the coolest jobs in the world… well, at least for those of us who are still on the ground. Boyd is the ‘EUROCOM’ flight controller at the European Space Agency (ESA), meaning she’s the person who gets to talk to the astronauts on the ISS.

“The more interesting days is when they have questions. Astronauts are very smart people, so if they have a question, it’s a good question,” says Boyd.

“I’m listening to the question from the astronauts, I’m listening to the details from the scientists at the same time, and I’m processing both of them. And then I’ll give a really short, succinct, astronaut-relevant answer.”

Talking to me from her office in the European Astronaut Centre, near Cologne in Germany – which she notes is right down the hall from the astronauts’ offices – Boyd speaks fast and talks with her hands.

Although she can speak Italian fluently, and other European languages like Russian and German quite well, her Australian accent makes her stand out to both the astronauts and the rest of the ESA team. In fact, she’s the only Australian in the world working at the ISS Flight Control Team.

“Usually, the astronauts have to look up on the roster who’s talking to them, because some of the accents are quite similar … but nobody has to look it up when I when I talk, because, I’m the only one that sounds like me,” says Boyd.

“I try and throw in a few ‘mates’ and ‘good as golds’ and other random things while I’m on space-to-ground with the astronauts.”

Her job isn’t just being the Australian accent on the phone to space though. As the deputy lead of astronaut operations, she also looks after the astronauts before they leave and after they return to Earth.

During our interview, she was running the day for Italian astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, helping her get acclimatised to life back on Earth. During our interview she had on an N95 mask on her neck, as astronauts have lowered immune systems after they return from space, and crew aren’t allowed to spend time with her without one.

When asked how astronauts are to work with, she says in the past astronauts might have been more egotistical but, she says, every astronaut she’s worked with in the last 11 years has been ‘delightful’.

“If you were short duration shuttle, then it didn’t really matter if you had a nice personality or not – people only had to deal with you for a few days.

Now, “the selection is very much focused on astronauts who are really good at teamwork. Who have adaptability, resilience, and the ability to work well with others over long durations, and people from lots of different countries.”

Quelle: COSMOS