A revolution in progress - IRIDIUM LEO operations

摘要

The IRIDIUM program's first launch of five satellites on 5 May 1997 has set the standards for the future of space operations. ^The commercial imperative has demanded that the operational aspects of a new constellation of satellites be evaluated with respect to the cost effectiveness of the old way of doing business. ^The early systems engineers and systems operators ensured that the cost factor was incorporated into the setup of the operations centers. ^A constellation of 66 interlinked satellites challenged the designers to achieve a revolution in operational approaches to include: (a) the staffing level of each crew, (b) the launch operations for multiple satellites per launch (from two to seven per launch), (c) the checkout of each vehicle in parking orbit, (d) semiautonomous 'fly-up' from parking orbit to mission orbit, (e) semiautonomous operations in mission orbit, (f) safe-mode backup, and (g) semiautonomous fly-down at end of mission for deorbit. ^Each of these new approaches to mission operations for the IRIDIUM system is discussed with the emphasis on commercial operations. ^(Author)