Holger Krag

Holger Krag acquired his master’s in Aerospace Engineering at the University of Braunschweig, followed by a 4 year research period at the Institute of Aerospace System where he focussed on space debris modelling and surveillance. In 2002, he became a system engineer at Thales ATM at Langen (Germany) and was part of the development team of the Galileo ground mission segment (GMS), for which he worked in collocation with the customer in Toulouse, France. His main tasks included the development of the validation platform for the Galileo GMS.
In 2006, he joined ESA as an Analysist in the Space Debris Office at ESOC. He worked on establishing risk models and an operational collision avoidance system and contributed to first space surveillance studies. In 2014, he took the position of the Head of the Space Debris Office, which, among others, provides fundamental support to ESA’s Space Situational Awareness Programme. In 2019, he took over the position as the head of the programme and prepared the evolution into the new Space Safety Programme which was established at the Space19+ Ministerial in Sevilla. The new programme addresses an enlarged scope within the areas of Space Weather, Planetary Defence and Space Debris including early warning systems and mitigation measures and three ambitious missions (Lagrange, Hera und ADRIOS). He is lecturing on Space Debris at universities in Germany. His roles and responsibilities include the implementation of the SSA and Space Safety Programmes at ESA in close coordination with participating states, related third party activities with member states and the European Commission as well as ESA representation at international bodies related to space debris and frequency management matters.