In this podcast episode, host Rachael Everard meets Libby Jackson, currently the Human Spaceflight and Microgravity Programme Manager for the UK Space Agency, responsible for the UK's Human Spaceflight and Microgravity programmes at the International Space Station (ISS).  Libby reflects on her time as a flight director and explains how she coped with the mental stress this role involved.​ Previously a flight director on space missions, she ensured that everyone worked together, and everything went according to plan. Flight directors talk to everyone involved – from the astronauts to the scientists on Earth, to the people who are responsible for making the rockets work. A flight director's most important tasks are to keep the astronauts safe, to check that all the planned experiments take place in space, and to sort out any problems that crop up. Though these things can happen, the flight director will always find the answer.