You’d be forgiven for thinking, that on 23 March this year, he went too far. Joe broke not just one, but two sets of thrusters on the Euclid spacecraft simulator. It was up to the Flight Control and Flight Dynamics Teams to decide which they could and should use.

“All of a sudden, a suspected mechanical failure meant one of Euclid’s attitude thrusters was stuck shut, producing no force at all, forcing us to use the backup set of thrusters. But then, the orbit control thrusters, part of that backup set, began behaving strangely, one overperforming by 10% and the other underperforming by the same amount,” recalls Tiago Loureiro, Euclid Flight Operations Director.