Leider steht diese Case Study zur Zeit nur auf Englisch zur Verfügung.

 

Systems Engineering & Procurement

Ground Segment AIV Support

ATV to ISSESA’s Human Spaceflight Exploitation Operations team (OPS-HO) manages the development of all aspects of the ground segment for ESA’s contributions to the International Space Station (ISS), of which the most important are the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) – an unmanned cargo vehicle – and the Columbus laboratory.

 

In late 2001, as the ATV and Columbus control centre developments (contracted to Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales, CNES, and Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, DLR, respectively) were making the transition from the study phase into full production, OPS-HO identified the need for contractor support to manage the control centre Assembly, Integration and Verification (AIV) activities. The most urgent requirement was to support planning of System Validation Tests (SVT) for ATV and Columbus – tests that will connect the control centres to the flight systems prior to launch in order to demonstrate that the ground segment can successfully control the flight segment.

 

VEGA was chosen to provide the necessary AIV support because it was able to offer consultants with the right mix of experience in the area of ground systems integration and verification, with specific relevance to the manned space programme. VEGA’s extensive expertise in ground segment development and operations for scientific and Earth observation satellites was also a significant factor.

 

VEGA’s contribution has grown from an initial contract to supply one consultant addressing SVT planning and all areas of control centre AIV, to a team of five supporting the full range of ground segment AIV and operations validation planning:

 

  • AIV of the ATV and Columbus control centres, including day-to-day monitoring of AIV planning and progress
  • SVT planning for ATV and Columbus, including management of the execution of each test
  • Support for planning the validation of all operations products required by ATV and Columbus
  • Co-ordination of overall OPS-H ground segment integration and verification planning, including providing evidence of verification results to NASA; Support to major programme reviews.