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Redondo Beach CA (SPX) Oct 10, 2007 Northrop Grumman, in conjunction with ground system teammate Raytheon, recently completed the System Acceptance Test (SAT) of a Common Command and Telemetry System (CCTS) that will potentially reduce costs between two programs, James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) and the National Polar-orbiting Operational Environmental Satellite System (NPOESS). "The successful completion of this milestone proves our commitment to providing low-cost, synergistic enterprise solutions to our customers," said Alexis Livanos, corporate vice president and president of Northrop Grumman's Space Technology sector. "It also shows that two customers with two separate programs were willing to trust our collaboration and teamwork to align schedules so that the same system could be used. We've now demonstrated proven efficiencies across different programs that can be utilized to reduce costs and ensure success for future projects." Raytheon's ECLIPSE is a commercial off-the shelf command and telemetry product that was configured to support both satellite flight operations and integration and test (I and T) on the James Webb Space Telescope and NPOESS. Adding the I and T requirements to a traditional flight operations system is an innovative approach, increasing SAT requirements to accommodate different satellite communication protocols and user needs. Software requirements were verified on spacecraft and ground equipment simulators at Northrop Grumman over a four-week period, concluding in August. The test milestone represents the culmination of a four-year Raytheon development effort to bring Northrop Grumman its first true multi-mission command and telemetry system and proves the joint team's ability to engineer a system while balancing combined NPOESS and JWST requirements and schedules. The test verified 1300 requirements through 26 "test-as-you-fly," functional, performance and interface procedures and was the first SAT completed after program-specific requirements were merged into a baseline command and telemetry system. The SAT's objective was to verify command rate and protocol, telemetry decomutation (the ability to transform raw data into engineering values), and to control and monitor the test hardware in an environment unique to Northrop Grumman. The CCTS ECLIPSE has been delivered to science instrument providers at the Goddard Space Flight Center who will use it to develop, test, and integrate their instruments for the James Webb Space Telescope. The joint development team includes Northrop Grumman's JWST and NPOESS teams, program customers from NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, the NPOESS Integrated Program Office (IPO) and Raytheon Mission Command and Control Systems. The James Webb Space Telescope, designed to succeed the Hubble Space Telescope, will be NASA's premier space observatory following its launch in 2013. Northrop Grumman is the prime contractor, leading a team in the telescope's design and development under contract to NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md. NPOESS is the nation's next-generation low-Earth orbiting remote sensing system and will provide environmental data to military and civilian users. Prime contractor Northrop Grumman leads the overall systems engineering and systems integration effort under contract to the IPO, consisting of the Department of Commerce/National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Department of Defense and NASA. Raytheon is responsible for the command, control and communications segment; interface data processing segment; and providing systems engineering support. The first NPOESS satellite is scheduled to launch in 2013. Community Email This Article Comment On This Article Related Links Space Telescope News and Technology at Skynightly.com
Arecibo Telescope's Users Meet To Plan Threatened Observatory's Scientific Future
Washington DC (SPX) Sep 20, 2007More than 70 astronomers gathered on Capitol Hill this week, not to talk about the demise of a major national research facility, but to plan for its scientific future. With optimism, the group was planning the next 15 years of research for Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory, the home of the world's largest radio telescope. Despite proposed severe federal budget cuts for the observatory by 2011, the astronomers -- users from all over the world -- had enough faith to plan for new research and new instrumentation on the 44-year-old telescope. |
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