Time for Recognition – The ISS Awards
The first ISS Awards ceremony ESA was recently held at the Erasmus Centre in ESTEC. The awards were created in 2011 in recognition of industry partners, contractors and ESA staff members for their extraordinary contribution to the success of ESA's human spaceflight activities through their unique expertise, professionalism and dedication.
"This is a big team exercise," said the Director of HSO, Thomas Reiter, who presented the awards to the six winners selected for their outstanding performance in the two prize categories: the ATV-2 Johannes Kepler mission and the Columbus Increments 27 and 28.
Jessica Grenouilleau, one of the winners for her role as ESA ISS Increment Manager, received the award "not only as a recognition and a great motivation, but also as a responsibility for future assignments. We should really keep it up to standards now."
The award is a bronze casting of ESA astronaut Hans Schlegel's Extra Vehicular Activity (EVA) glove, used in 2008 during the STS-122/1E mission for the installation of the Columbus module on the International Space Station. As Andrew Herd, promoter of the initiative, put it, "the glove itself is a piece of ESA's history."
"Formed in the shape of a handshake, it symbolises the trust between the ISS crews and those who support them," explained Mr Reiter.
NASA's loan of the EVA glove allowed for a series of 21st century processes, such as laser 3-D scanning and rapid prototyping, to produce an exact replica of the glove without damaging it. That step was followed by a 1500 year-old technique of lost-wax bronze casting. The whole process reflected a combination of new and old in the field of human spaceflight.
"This is a happy coincidence: I have actually worn the real glove when it came to ESTEC and now I will keep it as a trophy," said Sergio Palumberi, awarded for his contribution to the Columbus on-site Engineering Support.
For Kris Capelle, Head of the ATV Operations Section, this award has been a complete surprise. "It is the first prize I receive from ESA, and it feels good. I will share it with the large team that has been supporting me and the ATV mission at the Control Centre in Toulouse."
ESA's partners in industry, contractors as well as ESA staff and teams were all eligible to be nominated for the award by their managers. The ESA ISS Award Board, made up of Department Heads, Working Group members, a representative of HR, and presided over by the Director of HSO, selected the three winners for each of the two categories.
The ESA ISS Awards initiative aims to continue with regular ceremonies every sixth months. "We are counting down for sixty more prizes in the next ten years", says Mr Herd.
ESA ISS Award winners
ATV-2 mission
Bachisio Dore, ESA ATV Assembly Integration and Verification Manager (HSO-PPA), ESTEC
Heinz Wartenberg, Senior ATV System Engineer (HSO-PP), ESTEC
Kris Capelle, Head of the ATV Operations Section (HSO-POO), Toulouse
Columbus Increments 27 and 28
MSL Development Team consisting of Marco Martella, Head of the Materials Sciences Payload Unit (HSO-APM) ESTEC, and Harald Lenski and Winfried Aicher, both of EADS Astrium. Marco Martella received the award on behalf of the team.
Jessica Grenouilleau, ESA ISS Increment Manager (HSO-ICF), Columbus Control Centre, Oberpfaffenhofen.
Sergio Palumberi, COLEST Lead for TCS and ECLSS (ESA IOT SE&OI), Columbus on-site Engineering Support, Columbus Control Centre, Oberpfaffenhofen.
Nominations for the ESA ISS Awards
ATV-2 mission
Patrice Amadieu, Kris Capelle, Arjette Davis, Bachisio Dore, Joachim Ebi, Harald Klein, Thiagarajan Kumaraswamy, Morgane Saint-Macary, Heinz Wartenberg, Nathalie Zalateu.
Columbus Increments 27 and 28
HDVCA Team (Giuliano Canovai, Sonia Ferrer, Hap Frerker, Rune Iden, Thomas Janke, Sara Pastor, Jan Persson, Oliver Thomas); Increment 27&28 planning team (Arturo Mellone, Kerry Sanz); MSL development team (Winfried Aicher, Harald Lenski, Marco Martella); Luca Anniciello, Filippo Castrucci, Antonio Fortunato, Jessica Grenouilleau, Olivier Lamborelle, Raimund Lentzen, Sergio Palumberi.
