Flight Safety Officer

The Flight Safety Officer must be fully aware of safety regulations governing the flight of launch vehicles and completely familiar with the arrangements for ‘neutralising’ a launcher should it endanger the population or the environment.

A Flight Safety specialist spends his first few years learning the highly specialised technical characteristics of the job. This training period lasts two or three years before the specialist is qualified to act as Flight Safety Officer for a launch countdown. He will first act as Real-time Monitoring Assistant, then as Assistant Flight Safety Officer before becoming a fully fledged Flight Safety Officer, and finally Replacement (someone able to fill any of these positions).

Before moving up to any of these positions, the candidate must pass a position aptitude test. This involves, among other requirements, a series of simulated scenarios, which serve as training sequences preparing operatives to take part in launch countdowns. At least one launch campaign is necessary before an interview that can lead to accreditation.

The role of Flight Safety Officer is a complex job, requiring both technical skills and experience of operations . There are two principal assignments.

• The basic task consists in advance studies. These commence several months or even years before launch (studies of the risks created by a launch vehicle during flight, trajectory analysis, toxic risk assessment, studies of the new Vega and Soyuz launchers etc.).
• Actual operations, once the launcher has been duly qualified, which begin with the launch countdown and include controlling the launcher in flight.

As well as the appropriate technical skills the position requires self-control, rapid decision-making in risk situations, a rigorous approach and team spirit.