Dr Fred Jansen works for the European Space Agency (ESA). He studied astrophysics at Amsterdam University, the Netherlands. During his studies, he participated in a joint Leiden University/MIT programme that launched a balloon-borne set of X-ray detectors to observe the Universe.
He received his PhD from Leiden University in 1988, with a thesis on X-ray observations of supernova remnants (the hot and bright remains of exploded stars).
After his PhD, he worked on the development of one of the X-ray instruments for ESA’s XMM-Newton space observatory. In 1995, he joined ESA and was appointed project scientist for this mission shortly afterwards. After the launch of XMM-Newton, he also became the mission manager for this project.
Following the launches of Mars Express and Venus Express in 2003 and 2005, he also became mission manager for these projects. He left XMM-Newton in 2006 temporarily to work as interim project scientist for ESA’s Gaia mission.
In 2013, Fred became mission manager for ESA’s Rosetta mission to rendezvous and land on a comet. He served here from June 2013 to February 2015, covering the critical periods of hibernation exit, comet approach, landing and post-landing operations.
Following his Rosetta duties, he became mission manager of Gaia and, in mid-2017, he left XMM-Newton as mission manager to focus fully on Gaia, ESA’s ‘Billion Star Surveyor’.
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About the European Space Agency
The European Space Agency (ESA) provides Europe’s gateway to space.
ESA is an intergovernmental organisation, created in 1975, with the mission to shape the development of Europe’s space capability and ensure that investment in space delivers benefits to the citizens of Europe and the world.
ESA has 22 Member States: Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Slovenia is an Associate Member.
ESA has established formal cooperation with six Member States of the EU. Canada takes part in some ESA programmes under a Cooperation Agreement.
By coordinating the financial and intellectual resources of its members, ESA can undertake programmes and activities far beyond the scope of any single European country. It is working in particular with the EU on implementing the Galileo and Copernicus programmes as well as with Eumetsat for the development of meteorological missions.
ESA develops the launchers, spacecraft and ground facilities needed to keep Europe at the forefront of global space activities.
Today, it develops and launches satellites for Earth observation, navigation, telecommunications and astronomy, sends probes to the far reaches of the Solar System and cooperates in the human exploration of space. ESA also has a strong applications programme developing services in Earth observation, navigation and telecommunications.
Learn more about ESA at www.esa.int
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