About How to Train an Astronaut

How to Train an Astronaut explores what six decades of spaceflight have taught us about human performance, leadership, and the skills that matter when the stakes are high.

I’m Susan Charlesworth. Between 2011 and 2016, I worked as a Human Behaviour and Performance Specialist at the European Space Agency, where I designed and delivered training for ESA astronauts preparing to deploy to the International Space Station. I also trained ground control teams and international crews heading to Antarctica for year-long isolation missions. In 2022, I returned to ESA to teach Human Factors to the latest astronaut cohort, this time preparing them for missions beyond the ISS.

The lessons from space aren’t just for astronauts. Every era of spaceflight demanded different capabilities from individual technical mastery to team psychology to autonomous decision-making. The same patterns play out everywhere: in organisations navigating change, teams working under pressure, and individuals trying to lead well in uncertain conditions.

I’ll be writing about the tipping points that transformed what we needed from astronauts, the specific skills that saved lives in extreme environments, what I learned training people for the most demanding assignments on (and off) Earth, and what all of this means for how we think about performance, resilience, and leadership today.