Toni TOLKER NIELSEN

European Space Agency (ESA) • Acting Director of Space Transportation

A Danish national and mechanical engineer, Toni Tolker-Nielsen began his career with APV ANHYDRO in Copenhagen in 1983 before taking a role at CERN in Geneva.

He joined ESA in 1987 – initially working on pointing and tracking systems for laser communication systems – and in 2003 moved to what was then known as the Launchers Directorate, with responsibility for the return-to-flight programme for Ariane 5 ECA (Evolution Cryotechnique type A) after its launch failure in December 2002.

Mr Tolker-Nielsen went on to oversee significant changes to the organisation of the European launcher industry initiated in the wake of the ECA failure – changes which helped deliver the very successful Ariane 5 programme which ended in July 2023.

He was then appointed ESA Inspector General – an Executive Board position with the duty to guarantee technical and managerial excellence across ESA. Mr Tolker-Nielsen later headed Earth Observation projects and acted as Director of Earth Observation Programmes from 2021, when Josef Aschbacher took up duty as ESA Director General.

Events

International Astronautical Congress 2021

25-29 October 2021

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Participation:

International Astronautical Congress 2017

25-29 September 2017

Adelaide, Australia

Participation:

Participation