Operating in outer space, working from home

The coronavirus pandemic has seen many people have to adapt their lives to working from home. But when your work is based in outer space, working from home becomes more of an issue.

ESA's spacecraft 'Integral' under remote control Source: ESA

With much of Europe under lockdown to prevent the spread of COVID-19, the European Space Agency has continued to operate its spacecraft.  Since early March, the bulk of the agency's workforce at its space operations centre in  Germany has  been working from home.  One of ESA's spacecraft, the BepiColombo mission, is on its way to the planet Mercury.   In April it had to execute a critical manoeuvre to adjust its speed and trajectory. Despite the strangeness of operating a spacecraft from home, it all went smoothly.