INTEGRAL 17 years of operations: the Spacecraft Controller at MOC
INTEGRAL celebrated 17 years in space and successful operations on 17
October 2019. It was launched with a Proton rocket from Baikonur,
Kazakhstan.
A spacecraft controller (SPACON) is responsible for ensuring the safe
and efficient operations of a satellite. A team of 6 SPACONs is taking
care of INTEGRAL, together with Gaia and XMM-Newton. An increasingly
automated and reliable operations approach now allows one SPACON to
control all three missions and maintain a very high level of mission
performance. One SPACON is always present in the control centre at the
Mission Operations Centre (MOC), located at ESOC, Darmstadt, Germany;
the position has been permanently occupied 24/7 since 22nd
October 2002.
The responsibilities of the SPACON include:
Monitoring and control of the automated operations schedule.
Manual operations to support special events such as calibrations,
Targets of Opportunity, SPI Annealing, etc.
First intervention in case of ground or on-board anomaly.
Timely escalation of serious issues.
Configuration of data links to the ground stations.
A professional and dedicated SPACON team is fundamental to the success
of INTEGRAL (as well as to the other ESA missions). The frequent fast
reaction of the SPACON to unexpected events often ensures that they are
addressed, before they even become a problem and go unnoticed by the
outside world. The SPACON is one of the unsung heroes of the INTEGRAL team.
Although the operations of INTEGRAL have become more automated, the
importance of the SPACON role has not diminished, as the spacecraft ages
and passes repeatedly through the hostile Van Allen belts. Their careful
monitoring and fast reaction will become more important than ever.
Photo credits: Richard Southworth, INTEGRAL Spacecraft Operations
Manager, ESA/ESOC
