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ALUMNI NEWSMichelle Teasel (1988, Modern Languages)Not long after graduating from Catz, I accepted a job offerat a Lloyd’s syndicate offering specialist insurance products.My first and current line of business is high-net-worthinsurance: insuring the homes, art, jewellery and otherpossessions of the affluent around the globe, includingroyalty and the sometimes (in)famous. Although afascinating and fun line of business, I have been involvedin even more exotic insurance.In 1998, on my return from five years in Paris (thanksto my Modern Languages), I joined a team of a satelliteengineer and a rocket scientist to underwrite spaceinsurance. Space insurance! My first reaction was ‘what?’and ‘how?’ plus ‘who are the customers and exactlywhich risks are being transferred?’.Space insurance is the insurance of the physical assetsof satellites and their launch vehicles, the businessinterruptionrisks of the users of satellite bandwidthand the third-party liability of launch-service providersin case a launch or mission failure causes injury ordamage. Customers range from world-wide spaceagencies, governments and satellite manufacturers toindependent launch-vehicle providers, satellite operatorsand any company using satellites in their business.An insured sum of US $300 million on a single launchis not uncommon which clearly makes it a volatile lineof insurance, but one which is essential to the spaceindustry. Financers of space missions and projectsalmost always require insurance as a condition oftheir funding.The pinnacle of any space underwriter’s career is visitingone of the handful of commercial launch sites around theworld to witness first-hand a launch which one is insuring.I attended a night-time Ariane 5 launch in French Guyana,a visual and very aural spectacle. Shortly afterwards, Iexperienced the panic and adrenalin rush of the whole ofmission control when the telemetry was temporarily lostafter separation of the satellite from the launch vehicle.Another highlight was the maiden launch of the groundbreakingAtlas 5 launch vehicle from Cape Canaveral. A tripto California took me aboard the innovative Odyssey Launchpad, formerly a fire damaged oil rig and now a mobile sealaunch-platform which enables equatorial launches.My most memorable trip wasto the Kazakhstan launchsite of Baikonur, which isallegedly not exactly whereit appears on most maps asit is still used for Russianmilitary launches. We stoodon Yuri Gagarin’s launch pad,saw more rockets in piecesthan I could imagine, andvisited the space museumwhich houses various re-entry capsules from past Soyuzlaunches and the Buran, the Soviet’s response to the NASASpace shuttle programme. We also met representativesfrom the Russian Space Agency in Moscow who hosted usin true Russian style: a boat trip on the Moskva river, withcaviar blinis and numberless vodka toasts…Space insuranceis the insuranceof the physicalassets ofsatellites andtheir launchvehicles ...Michelle (centre) at theKazakhstan launch siteof BaikonurST CATHERINE’S COLLEGE 2008/37