Volker Schmid completed an apprenticeship as a precision mechanic. After three years in industry as a skilled metal worker in injection molding machine construction, he studied aerospace engineering at Aachen University of Applied Sciences. During his diploma thesis and from 1996 on as a graduate aerospace engineer he was mainly engaged in system studies and software development for the design of future space transportation vehicles in the main department of system analysis at DLR in Cologne.
In 2001, he completed a master's degree in "Space Systems Engineering" at the TU Delft as part of a post graduate education program and in the same year moved to DLR's Space Management in Bonn to the department "Astronautical Space Flight, ISS and Exploration". There he was in charge of the ISS subprograms of the European space transporter ATV and the rescue vehicle CRV. In 2011, Volker Schmid took over the leadership of the ISS technical group and a delegate function in the ESA Program Council EUB, a body for the scientific use of the ISS and for ground support programs. He continued in this role as head of the ISS specialist group at DLR Space Management until 2020. As project manager, he was responsible for DLR's ISS experiment MagVector/MFX and MFX-2, among others, and initiated the AI project CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile companioN). As was already the case for the Blue Dot mission and for the horizons mission of the German ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, Volker Schmid was also responsible for the Cosmic Kiss mission of the German ESA astronaut Matthias Maurer as DLR mission manager. From 2019 to 2020, he was Head of Department and Delegate to ESA's Human Spaceflight and Exploration (PB-HME) Program Council.
Since June 2023, Volker Schmid has been working as an advisor and consultant for "Space/Aeronautics" in the Executive Board area of the Chairmen of the DLR e.V. Executive Board.
