Keynote Speakers

Samantha Cristoforetti

The 3rd ESA RAMS Conference is honoured to welcome ESA Astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti, whose distinguished career embodies excellence in engineering, operations, and human spaceflight.

Through her unique experience in long-duration missions aboard the International Space Station and her deep engagement with complex space systems, Cristoforetti brings a compelling perspective to the fields of Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety (RAMS).

Her talk is scheduled for Thursday 25 June, 10:00-11:00.

Find out more about Samantha Cristoforetti below!

Credits: ESA - A. Conigli

Biography

Samantha Cristoforetti (born 26 April 1977, Milan, Italy) is an ESA astronaut and former pilot in the Italian Air Force, holding degrees in mechanical and aeronautical engineering. Selected as an ESA astronaut in 2009, she has completed two long-duration missions to the International Space Station: Futura (2014–2015) and Minerva (2022), becoming the first European woman to command the ISS. In addition to her spaceflight experience, she has held significant technical and leadership roles within ESA, contributing to exploration programs and leading initiatives in future human spaceflight technologies. In particular, Samantha led the team responsible for establishing and implementing Phase 1 of the LEO Cargo Return Service project, which enhances Europe’s capabilities in low Earth orbit logistics and return services. Samantha is author of the book “Diary of an apprentice astronaut”, published in Germany as “Die lange Reise”. She is an advocate for STEM literacy, and for European technological autonomy.

Credits: ESA/NASA-S.Cristoforetti/ R. Rossi

Nancy J Lindsey

The 3rd ESA RAMS Conference is honoured to welcome Retired NASA RAMS Engineer and Deputy R&M Technical Fellow, Nancy Lindsey whose distinguished career embodies excellence and expertise in Space-Sustainment, Reliability & Safety Engineering, and Systems Engineering and their advancement/research.

Throughout a career of supporting defense, commercial, science, and Earth observation missions —from architecture development and risk assessment through launch, operations, and sustainment —she has gained hard-won insights on how to ensure RAMS perspectives are heard when decisions matter most— every Reliability, Availability, Maintainability, and Safety (RAMS) professional will want to hear.

Her talk is scheduled for Wednesday 24 June, 10:00-11:00.

Find out more about Nancy J Lindsey below!

Credits: NASA - GSFC

Biography

Nancy Lindsey (born 08 July 1962, NJ - USA) has spent over 40 years in aviation and aerospace performing a variety of hardware/software engineering tasks across the entire gamut of air, ground, and space system life cycles and program types including Defense Communications Satellites, Commercial Communications and Television Missions, Space-based Astronomical Observatories, On-Orbit Servicing, and Earth Science Monitoring Systems; and US Navy out-of-controlled flight training and research. Her roles and responsibilities have varied (vendor, support contractor, systems engineer, SMA engineer, branch head, team lead, review board member, sustainment/disposal Subject Matter Expert, Trilateral Task Torce lead, deputy R&M Technical Fellow, etc.) over the years but have led her to be a published specialist in Space-Sustainment, Reliability and Safety, Model-Based, and Systems Engineering and now the Proprietor and Chief Engineer of RCKTMOM, LLC (www.rcktmom.com).

Mrs. Lindsey has a Bachelor of Science undergraduate degree in Computer Science & Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida, was trained in Flight Medicine by the US Navy, and has a Master’s of Science degree in Space Studies, from the University of North Dakota.

Credits: NASA/HST SM3B