Dr. Firooz Allahdadi served (1998-2011) at the United States of America HQ Air Force Safety Center in multiple capacities. He was the Center's Senior Technical Advisor, Director of Space Safety Division and the DoD representative in the presidentially mandated Inter-Agency Nuclear Safety Review Panel. In1998 Dr. Allahdadi employed rigorous scientific analysis to revamp Air Force's conventional weapons operational safety and guidelines. This undertaking produced measurable operational efficiency and considerable real estate savings. He pioneered the Directed Energy Weapons (DEW) Safety initiative leading teams of experts to identify and quantify the entire DEW hazards spectrum. He authored the governing DEW operation safety policies, AFPD 91-4, which has been benchmarked throughout US military. As the DoD representative, Dr. Firooz Allahdadi oversaw special analysis, provided technical oversight and garnered Presidential Launch authorization for the two Martian launches "Spirit" and "Opportunity" in 2003, the "New Horizons Mission," a journey to Pluto in 2005, and landing of the nuclear powered Rover "Curiosity" on the surface of Mars in 2010. He founded and directed the Space Kinetic Impact and Debris Division (1990-1998) at the Air Force Research Laboratory. He led teams of scientists and engineers to develop high-fidelity analytical tools to predict dynamics of the debris clouds created from any space engagements. This technology was employed to simulate specific space scenarios for national security planning.
Dr. Firooz Allahdadi lectured on transport phenomenon and conducted research on several nationally important programs as a faculty member at University of New Mexico. He is a member of the National Research Council, Chief Editor of the International Society for Optical Engineering and has authored over 75 scientific papers. Isabelle Rongier is General Inspector, Director of General Inspection and Quality, of the French Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) since April 2010, in charge of internal audit and risk assessment at Agency level, and responsible for quality standards application in management processes and space projects. She's also responsible for certifying technical conformity to the French Space Operation Act before each space operation (launch operations and in orbit operations) is authorized. This certificate is then sent to French Ministry of Space on behalf of President of CNES. Before (2005-2010), Isabelle Rongier was the Technical Director of CNES Launcher Directorate, dealing with all technical domain of a launcher design (solid, liquid and cryogenic propulsion, system and environment, mechanics and avionics).
She has worked on all launchers operated from the European spaceport in French Guyana: Ariane 4 and 5, VEGA and Soyuz. She has always been deeply involved in safety methods and studies for all those launchers.