Evolution of Mission Control System development with EGS-CC

Abstract

For the last 15 years, Mission Control Systems (MCS), developed for the operational monitoring and control of spacecraft and missions and operated by Flight Control Teams (FCT) at the European Space Operation Centre (ESOC), have been built on top of the SCOS-2000 infrastructure. This infrastructure is going to be phased out, in favor of an infrastructure based on the European Ground Systems -Common Core (EGS-CC) as the core implementation for future Monitoring and Control Systems, both for the pre-as well as for the post-launch phases. EGS-CC introduces substantial differences in all phases of the software development lifecycle in comparison to the current MCS development process based on customizations of SCOS-2000. After more than 20 years of SCOS-2000 based MCS development, the software development approach introduced by EGS-CC can be seen as a major milestone and its adoption will ultimately impact the development lifecycle of MCS applications. This paper addresses all the changes that EGS-CC introduces, which are relevant for MCS software developers and testers, and their impact on the software development lifecycle (specification, design, implementation, integration, validation, deployment) with reference to ESOC's current practices and systems are highlighted. The results of the analysis with respect to the MCS development are presented in the context of ESA's GAIA mission.