The Firebird mission comprises the two spacecraft TET (launched July 22 nd 2012) and BIROS (launch foreseen for May 25 th 2016), both carrying a combined infrared-optical camera system as primary payload as well as several additional hard-and software experiments. Our Mission Planning team at the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) is responsible for generating conflict-free timelines for commanding payload and so-called background sequence operations for both spacecraft in accordance with all given spacecraft and ground-related constraints and customer requirements. Therefore, a Mission Planning system has been prepared and is continuously developed further with continuously changing space segment capabilities throughout the different project phases. The paper at hand describes the main components and their set-up, e.g. the semi-automated planning tools and the newly implemented interactive order interface for the customers. Furthermore, the decision to which extent a combined system is set up for both spacecraft as well as the advantages of being able to rely on a generic, configurable tool suite, modeling language and scheduling algorithm assembly are discussed.

At the German Space Operations Center (GSOC) two applications had been developed for scheduling operations of Launch and Early Orbit Phases (LEOP), Commissioning Phases or special operations campaigns (e.g. software upload, special orbit maneuvers, etc.): one for low earth orbit (LEO) and one for medium (MEO) and geostationary earth orbit (GEO). The experiences of these tools were now merged with the scheduling capabilities of GSOC's generic mission planning application Pinta (Program for interactive timeline analysis), its scheduling library Plato (Planning tool) and the GSOC web based timeline display TimOnWeb.

The TET-1 satellite was launched on July 22 nd , 2012, to test and demonstrate the space readiness of new hardware components. Eleven experiments are running in space since then. The mission planning system (MPS) that provides the TET-1 satellite 1, 2 with its tele-command timelines during the OnOrbitVerification (OOV) phase is presented: Based on a strategic one-year experiment plan provided in advance by an external industry partner, MPS collects all relevant information necessary to build a sequence of flight procedures, called timeline, for a time range of roughly a week, on a day-by-day basis. In contrast to the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X MPS 3 or the Incremental Planning System, 4 where several software components convert incoming orders into commandable files, a slim set of tools was decided to be used for the TET-1 mission, combined in PINTA (Program for INteractive Timeline Analysis). Necessary data was imported using the plug-in mechanism of PINTA that uses interfaces to several partners. Having all information available, scheduling itself was done by running the planning algorithms provided by Plato, GSOC's generic library for modeling and solving planning problems. An assembly of various planning algorithms, individually configurable and referencing one another, 7 creates the necessary timeline entries of flight procedures. Due to the high flexibility of the planning system it was possible to support various changes in the pre-planned onboard timeline on short notice. Additionally, an outlook on further extensions of the current MPS is given, that enables even more flexibility in terms of data acquisition and are relevant for the upcoming FireBIRD mission, which includes the TET-1 spacecraft after the OOV operations phase.

The CCSDS Mission Operations framework defined by the CCSDS Spacecraft Monitor & Control working group aims to provide a reusable, interoperable and distributed mission operations system based on a service-oriented architecture paradigm. Services are defined in terms of an abstract model called the "Message Abstraction Layer", which is cast to a concrete technology by separately defined bindings. This work is concerned with prototype implementation of binding to the Space Packet Protocol. Challenges and solutions are outlined as well as next steps in terms of testing to prove interoperability. A second prototype implementing a core set of services the Monitor and Control servicesis discussed briefly, as well as a possible way of transition towards a Mission Operations framework based infrastructure at the German Space Operations Center GSOC. The work is put into context by pointing out how benefits for missions arise from the framework and its design.

In the recent years, the "Program for INteractive Timeline Analysis" PINTA, developed at the German Space Operation Center (GSOC), was continuously improved and experienced several evolution steps. PINTA is a GUI application running on Windows-based computer systems, whose main purpose is to serve as the anchor tool for a mission planning operation's engineer when generating, modifying or analysing a mission timeline. This is supported by calling automatic planning algorithms of the embedded generic planning library "PLAnningTOol" PLATO, using input of the embedded orbit propagation and event calculation library "SpaceCraft Orbit and GroundTrack Analysis Tool" SCOTA, or its expandability through plugins.PINTA is the generic basis of many semi-automated mission planning systems for past, current and future spacecraft projects operated at GSOC. It is used or has been used for the missions Grace, TET-OOV, FireBird, Grace-FollowOn, Eu:CROPIS and is currently prepared for CubeL. Furthermore, PINTA serves as the timeline analysis tool for validating the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X mission planning system.The variety of use cases was further extended to support Launch and Early Orbit Phases (LEOPs) in its special "SoEEditor" configuration as the new generic editing tool for the so-called "Sequence of Events". It was successfully used for the satellites Biros, HAG-1, PAZ, Grace-FollowOn 1 & Grace-FollowOn 2, Eu:Cropis, EDRS-C and is currently in preparation for EnMAP. In addition to LEOP's, the SoEEditor was also capable of supporting the constellation maneuvers for the TerraSAR-X/TanDEM-X mission.Besides all these use cases, the paper at hand will especially describe how PINTA was even further extended to not only tackle spacecraft-based but also ground-based scheduling. On the one hand it serves as an "On-Call Tool" to support the on-call shifts by automatically generating conflict-free role-based shift plans for all subsystems by considering various constraints like person outages, working hours, role-conflicts, etc… The plan can then be further adapted manually to cope with user change-requests. On the other hand it is used as a "Multi-Mission-Control-Room-and-pass-Scheduler" (MuMiCoRoS) to coordinate the ground-station booking of all LEO (low-earth orbit) satellites: TerraSAR-X, TanDEM-X, TET, Biros, Grace-FollowOn 1 & 2 and Eu:CROPIS. In order to avoid ground-station and operator conflicts between the missions, an automatic and combined plan for all satellites is generated which can then be further modified manually if necessary.As another use case, PINTA (a.k.a. GPT; Galileo Planning Tool) supports the Galileo Service Operation (GSOp). The planning process involves three timelines: a Short-Term Plan (STP), covering the next ten days, two Mid-Term Plans (MTP) for the Operational (OPE) and the Validation (VAL) chain), covering the next 15 weeks, and a Long-Term Plan (LTP), covering the next 15 months. The activities in these timeframes cover all subsystems of Galileo: Flight Ops, Control segment, Mission segment, remote sit...