Anthea earned her bachelor’s degree in aerospace engineering with mention “cum laude” from the Polytechnic University of Milan, Italy, in 2014.
In 2017, she completed her master’s degree in space engineering with the mention “cum laude” with the Polytechnic University of Milan and a Diplôme d'Ingénieur as part of a double degree programme with ISAE-SUPAERO French grande école of engineering in Toulouse, France. In the same year, she also completed a master’s degree in image and signal processing and advanced control from the University of Paris-Saclay, France.
Anthea earned her doctorate in autonomous navigation for space rendezvous from ISAE-SUPAERO in cooperation with Thales Alenia Space in Cannes and Toulouse, France, in 2021. During her Ph.D., she spent six months as a visiting researcher in the mobile robotics and autonomous systems laboratory at the Polytechnique Montréal, Canada.
After completing her doctorate, Anthea Comellini worked as a flight dynamics engineer in orbit determination for interplanetary missions with ESA’s European Space Operations Centre ESOC in Darmstadt, Germany, from 2021 to 2022, where she conducted deep space navigation operations on missions such as BepiColombo, GAIA, Mars Express, and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter.
From 2022, Anthea has been working as a GNC (Guidance, Navigation, and Control) and AOCS (Attitude and Orbit Control System) engineer in the research and development department at Thales Alenia Space in Cannes, France.
She is a certified first aid and lifeguard and holds a private pilot license.
In her leisure time, she enjoys orienteering, swimming, cross-country skiing, and hiking.
For the first time, ESA has established a reserve pool of astronauts. This reserve list is composed of astronaut candidates who were successful throughout the entire selection process but cannot be recruited at this point in time. Astronauts in the reserve remain with their current employers and will receive a consultancy contract and basic support. They will start basic training in case a flight opportunity has been identified.
© European Space Agency