Based at the Columbus Control Centre in Munich with Telespazio Germany on behalf of the German Aerospace Center (DLR), Frank oversees the daily running of ESA’s Columbus module, coordinating astronauts on orbit and teams across the globe. It’s the kind of role that, for most people, remains a distant dream. For Frank, it’s the culmination of a journey that began with racing engines, not rocket engines.
Reflecting on receiving the Excellence in Achievement Award for Recent Space Graduates, Frank is both humble and sincere. “It’s very special. I attribute a lot of the experiences I’ve had in my career to the education I received at Cranfield. I’m genuinely honoured.”
It’s clear that the award marks an important moment, both professionally and personally.
From race circuits to orbit
As we talk about his childhood, Frank laughs, slightly embarrassed by how far his early aspirations now seem from his reality. “I wanted to be a race engineer in Formula 1. That’s why my undergraduate degree was so motorsport focused.”
He tells me about teenage weekends spent working trackside, and the turning point during an internship at Airbus in 2016. “I watched the launch of ExoMars live. I’d never realised my engineering degree could lead me to work on spacecraft heading to other planets, that moment changed everything.”
The pivot from F1 to the cosmos suddenly made perfect sense.
Arriving at Cranfield — and letting go of worry
When we speak about his first days on campus, he admits something many students will recognise.
“I was worried. I thought coming from a motorsport background might make it difficult to move into space.” He pauses, and smiles. “Seven years on, my career proves I really didn’t need to worry at all.”
His favourite Cranfield moment? “Working on my thesis. The projects Cranfield offers — especially the Airbus ones — are fantastic. Presenting my work in Stevenage was something I’ll never forget.”
A global journey and global community
After graduating, Frank joined Airbus Defence and Space UK, working across Earth observation and secure communications missions. From there, he moved to Australia to help develop the nation’s emerging space capabilities through the Australian Space Agency’s Moon to Mars initiative.
Then came Saber Astronautics, where he progressed rapidly from space operations engineer to Flight Director, overseeing real-time commanding of spacecraft, training teams, and running simulations for government and commercial missions.
Today, as Columbus Flight Director, Frank leads a multidisciplinary operations team at the Columbus Control Centre in Munich, coordinating seamlessly with NASA’s Mission Control in Houston as well as the astronauts living and working aboard the ISS. It’s a role that spans continents and time zones, and one that reflects the truly international nature of his career.
And wherever his work takes him, he tells me, Cranfield is never far away. “I meet Cranfield alumni everywhere — in Europe, in Australia, right across the sector. It’s a network that really matters.”
The rule that shaped his career
Frank shares one of the guiding principles he’s followed since graduating, and it’s one that seems to make perfect sense as he speaks about the risks he’s taken: “I always try to do the thing that scares me. If an opportunity comes up and it makes me nervous, that usually means I should take it.”
He laughs at the honesty of it. “It’s an annoying rule sometimes, but it’s never failed me. And it’s opened doors I never imagined.”
It’s that rule that has taken him from racetracks to mission control, across three continents, and into a career that pushes the frontier of human spaceflight.
Pride, people and perspective
When I ask what he’s most proud of, Frank reflects for a moment. “It’s a difficult question,” he says thoughtfully. “But if I had to choose one thing, it would be being part of the International Space Station mission. The ISS has been in orbit for almost my entire life, so to play a role in its final years — and to serve as a Flight Director for ESA — feels like an extraordinary privilege.”
He smiles when he speaks about the people who shaped him most. “My parents are my heroes,” he says simply. “They’ve both achieved a great deal in their own fields, but it’s their love and support that made everything I’ve done possible.”
And when I ask for a fun fact, he laughs. “I’m a little over-equipped for international travel,” he admits. It turns out he holds not one, but three passports — British, Irish and Australian, a quirk of his background and career that “has definitely made working around the world a lot easier.”
When our conversation turns to what he hopes to achieve next, Frank’s sense of curiosity extends into his future ambitions. At the top of his list is the ultimate ambition: to go to space himself one day. Closely following that is a long-held desire to travel to Antarctica, drawn by its remoteness and sense of frontier exploration. And, with a grin, he adds that he is determined to complete his private pilot’s licence — a goal that feels like a natural extension of a life spent looking upward.
It's impossible not to feel energised by Frank’s drive and sense of possibility. His journey from the roar of race circuits to the quiet intensity of mission control shows what can happen when curiosity meets courage.
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