ESOC

The Mission Control Centre of the European Space Operations Centre ESOC, located in Darmstadt, Germany, will implement the observing programme within the system constraints into an operational command sequence, will perform all spacecraft operations and maintenance tasks and will provide the ISDC with payload telemetry plus auxiliary spacecraft data.

In summary, ESOC

• is responsible for the spacecraft operations and all real time contacts with the spacecraft and payload,
• will directly provide the ISDC with raw science telemetry, payload housekeeping data and relevant auxiliary spacecraft data,
• will provide the ISOC with instrument status data
• is responsible for the data lines in Europe,
• will perform anomaly checks (out of limit checks) for all housekeeping parameters for both spacecraft and payload in real time
• expects to follow a pre-programmed time line
• will receive requests for Target of Opportunity observations from the ESA Project Scientist at the ISOC.

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Details of the current design of the Operational Ground Segment  are provided here (PDF, 25 pages).

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Update 09 March 1999, Christoph Winkler