Coffee, Chat & Learn with Claudia Kessler

About the speaker

A life dedicated to spaceflight- fascinated by the Moon landing in 1969, the then four-year-old Claudia decides that one day she too will fly into space!

Claudia is an entrepreneur and visionary. She founded Astronautin GmbH in April 2017 to ensure the female future of (traditionally “manned”) astronautical space travel. Claudia Kessler has a clear goal: to get the first German woman into space by 2021. The new female astronaut will become an inspiration to encourage young women into technology professions.

With Astronautin GmbH, Claudia is one of the few female founders in the high-tech industry to create a space start-up that makes engaging in space activities accessible to everyone. Astronautin GmbH makes it possible to transfer space experiences into everyday life on Earth. From space events to astronaut training and analogue missions, parabolic flights plus suborbital flights, all the way through to astronaut space missions, every space experience is offered by Astronautin GmbH.

Claudia Kessler’s goal is not only to bring the first German woman into space, but above all to make women stronger in order to help position them at the top of society and the working economy. She inspires audiences in empowerment workshops with elements from astronaut training, personal coaching, and inspirational public speaking.

Being one of the few female executives in space, Claudia is constantly working to ensure more participation, because women attract women! She also promotes the international careers of female specialists and managers in the Women in Aerospace Europe (WIA-E) network, which she founded across Europe in 2009. The network today has more than 500 members across 12 European countries. In addition, she is one of the few women to be a member of the Senate of the German Aerospace Society (DGLR) and the International Aeronautical Academy (IAA).

As CEO of HE Space from 2004 to 2018, a personnel service provider specializing in space professionals, Claudia achieved a 55% representation of women among her 200 technical employees. The Family-Friendly certificate, the Diversity Charter, and the Diversity Personality of the Year 2016 awards are just a few examples of the results of her numerous campaigns to improve the position of women in technical professions who are also balancing work and family.

Claudia Kessler is a qualified aerospace engineer, is the holder of an MBA, and has more than 30 years of experience in the international space industry.

Situation/Introduction

Astronauts are per definition very courageous and curious – which for me goes always hand in hand! They want to understand what is out there. They feel very much part of the universe and not only as a citizen of a country, a continent, but of a planet!

As an astronaut you will choose your own guiding star, work to reach it, and never lose sight of it.

Successful astronauts also need to be able to show cultural competency (recognizing that everyone’s contribution has value, no matter how unfamiliar), good self-care and team-care, and excellent communication skills in variety of situations.”

Key Learnings

Many of the characteristics of astronauts can also be applied to a successful career.

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