Space Safety is No Accident (PDF)

Tommaso Sgobba holds an M.S. in aeronautical engineering from the Polytechnic Institute of Turin, where he was professor of space system safety from 1999-2011. Currently, he is President Emeritus and co-founder of the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety (IAASS), which gathers the top space safety experts worldwide. He is also Board Member of the US-based International Space Safety Foundation (ISSF). Until October 2012, Sgobba was responsible for flight safety at the European Space Agency (ESA), including human-rated systems, spacecraft re-entries, space debris, use of nuclear power sources and planetary protection. He joined ESA in 1989, after 13 years in the aeronautical industry. Initially he supported the developments of the Ariane 5 launcher, several earth observation and meteorological satellites and the early phase of the Hermes spaceplane. Later he became product assurance and safety manager for all European manned missions on Shuttle, MIR station and for the European research facilities for the International Space Station (ISS).

During his long and close cooperation with the NASA Shuttle/ISS Payload Safety Review Panel, Sgobba developed at ESA the safety technical and organizational capabilities that eventually led in 2002 to the establishment of the first ESA formal safety review panel and first International Partner ISS Payload Safety Review Panel. He was also instrumental in setting up the ESA Re-entry Safety Review Panel and in organizing the first ESA scientific observation campaign of a destructively re-entering spacecraft (ATV- Jules Verne). Sgobba received the NASA recognition for outstanding contribution to the International Space Station in 2004 and the prestigious NASA Space Flight Awareness (SFA) Award.

Sgobba has published several articles and papers on space safety, and has co-edited with two NASA colleagues the text book "Safety Design for Space Systems," published in 2009 by Elsevier, and "The Need for