Swiss Space Adventures in Washington, D.C.

Proud to represent Swiss Space Systems at the Swiss Embassy in Washington, D.C. on September 16, 2015.

On Wednesday, I was privileged to be a guest at the Embassy of Switzerland in Washington, D.C. with my boss Robert Feierbach as representatives of Swiss Space Systems (S3 USA). The only other time I had been in an embassy was very briefly during my Presidential Classroom program in high school and, to my embarrassment, I can't even remember which embassy it was. I was looking forward to immersing myself in Swiss culture.

Thank you to the Swiss Embassy for welcoming us!

The morning meeting was interesting. It was a small gathering of Swiss-related aerospace companies and aerospace/aviation-related Swiss government officials such as the Swiss department of defense. Aside from my current company being Swiss headquartered, I have no connection to Switzerland and therefore don’t know much about the country and its defenses. Switzerland is a famously neutral country surrounded by European allies; I don’t typically think of the Swiss military at all. I learned quite a bit!

After the mid-morning break, five companies gave short presentations. Swiss technology company RUAG went first, followed by my boss presenting on our company, followed by an American UAV insurance company that works mainly with Swiss clients. Silly me, I didn’t know that Swedish company SAAB doesn’t make cars anymore; mostly they’re into defense-related products now. Finally, Swiss transportation company Panalpina wrapped up the meeting, focusing on their remote shipping services for emergency disaster relief.

Robert presenting S3 to the Swiss representatives at the embassy.

Meeting breakfast spreads in the United States are pretty standard pastries, coffee, and sometimes fruit. The breakfast spread at the Swiss Embassy (legally Swiss soil) had lots and lots of chocolate! Lunch was just as yummy with amazingly delicious chocolate pastries from a local Swiss bakery. My baby gave me the perfect excuse to go back to the table for second and third helpings.

Present was Swiss astronaut Claude Nicollier who flew in space four times. He also has an astrophysics background as I do. He is also the chairman of the expert team for our company. He is astronaut #44 that I've been honored to meet. He talked to me for a few minutes about suborbital spaceflight dynamics and the challenges of human spaceflight.

Robert and me with Swiss/ESA astronaut Claude Nicollier.

We returned later in the day for the evening activities. I had never been to an embassy party before. I had no idea that it would be so extravagant and huge! The embassy was full of Swiss-related space displays, including our own lined up outside along the red carpet leading to the party.

Next to our display out front was a model of the Mars InSight rover which will launch next year. There was a large printout of the Lagoon Nebula as observed by a telescope in Chile for a European Space Agency project. There were mock-ups of Switzerland’s first cubesat, a larger small satellite, and the Rosetta observatory. They had a rotating exoplanet detection model which showed a large planet transversing a star. There was a photo booth with a green screen to display spacy backgrounds.

A huge printout of the Lagoon Nebula greeted us and beckoned the astronomy geek in me to pose.

Posing with the alphorn players and flag waver.

Check out the Mars InSight lander model! Insight will launch in 2016 to study seismology on Mars.

Hello Rosetta! A model of the comet explorer.

Robert and me posing with the photo booth astronaut.

Dinner was well worth the wait. I don’t know what I ate but it was all delicious and I later went back for seconds. Swiss chocolate was aplenty, especially near the Swiss travel and tourism displays. Amongst the crowd of 1,200 people, I ran into astronaut Michael Lopez-Alegria who I knew from previous interactions. You never know who you'll meet at a Washington gathering!

Six months of pregnancy has taken its toll on my feet and I discovered the hard way that my pumps no longer fit me as they did. As we exited for the evening, I walked the red carpet barefoot. I'm classy like that. Thank you to the Swiss Embassy and Ambassador for being such gracious hosts and showing us a time to remember!