Hubble Space Telescope – Mission Operations

National Aeronautics and Space Administration Hubble Space Telescope – Mission Operations NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) and archive the datasets. Working closely is home to the Hubble Space Telescope together, GSFC and STScI operate Hubble Operations Project, the government’s 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, though most team of technical managers and scientists of the commanding to the telescope and who oversee all aspects of the Hubble receipt of its science data is accomplished mission. Under its direction, an integrated by computers via automated operations. group of civil servants and contractors at GSFC collectively known as the operations The Space Telescope Operations Control team is responsible for Hubble’s mission Center (STOCC) is located at GSFC. It operations—those functions of the mission consists of a Mission Operations Room (MOR) that operate together to assure the health, and an Operations Support Room (OSR). safety, and performance of the spacecraft. The MOR is Hubble’s primary command and Examples include monitoring and adjusting control room; both manual and automated the spacecraft’s subsystems (e.g., power, operations are performed from this location. facts thermal, data management, pointing control, science instruments, etc.), flight software Prior to the implementation of automated development, sustaining engineering of the operations in May 2011, a team of console control center hardware and software, and operators staffed the MOR around the clock. systems administration of the network and They executed the required procedures to ground system components. acquire communications with the telescope, manage Hubble’s science and engineering A separate contractor team at the Space data recorders, and load Hubble’s computers Telescope Science Institute (STScI) in with command sequences. They also Baltimore, Maryland, is similarly responsible monitored telemetry from the spacecraft and for science operations—the functions reported any problems or concerns to the necessary to award telescope time, appropriate subsystem engineers. schedule observations, create command timelines, calibrate the received data, NASA DATA Hubble Space Telescope Tracking and Data Relay LIGHT Satellite DATA Space Telescope Science Institute Baltimore, MD DATA Goddard Space Ground Station Flight Center White Sands, NM Greenbelt, MD Hubble transmits its data using Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) spacecraft. The Mission Operations Room during observatory commanding (left) and the Operations Support Room during Servicing Mission 4 (right) These functions, which form Hubble’s daily routine, the Space Telescope Science Institute via dedicated are now performed autonomously, enabling STOCC high-speed network links where it is processed, personnel to focus on special operations and various archived, and distributed. tests. Since the advent of automated operations, the STOCC is staffed only eight hours a day, five days a The Hubble mission and science operations teams week. If an anomaly occurs on the spacecraft or within strive to set the standard for NASA’s great observatories the ground system when the facility is unoccupied, a by continuously improving the telescope’s science high-reliability text-messaging system immediately alerts productivity. The optical quality of the telescope, the the appropriate members of the operations team. excellent pointing performance of the spacecraft, the diverse capabilities of its instruments, and the skillful In the Operations Support Room (OSR), STOCC dedication of the mission’s staff keep Hubble at the personnel interface with a high-fidelity spacecraft forefront of observational astrophysics. simulator (or the spacecraft) to conduct a variety of tasks. These include testing any configuration changes planned The observatory is operating at peak performance for Hubble, analyzing engineering telemetry, testing thanks to the astronauts who successfully completed flight or ground software updates, and running any Servicing Mission 4 in May 2009. During that mission, contingency procedures or other special commanding space-shuttle-based astronauts installed two advanced- in response to an observatory anomaly. The operations technology instruments, repaired two others, replaced a team continuously examines spacecraft subsystem Fine Guidance Sensor, six gyros, six batteries, and the performance, looking for trends that could signal instrument computer, and outfitted certain equipment component degradation and identifying ways to improve bays with protective thermal blankets. These upgrades system performance and extend the mission’s lifetime. position Hubble to continue its mission of discovery into the next decade. Communications with Hubble are accomplished via a network interface from the STOCC to NASA’s White For more information, contact: Sands Test Facility complex located in White Sands, Claire Andreoli New Mexico, near Las Cruces. The large antennas there Office of Communications transmit radio waves to NASA’s Tracking and Data 301-286-1940 Relay Satellite System (TDRSS), which forwards them [email protected] to Hubble. Science observations and engineering data that the telescope stores on solid-state recorders are Or visit the Hubble website at: returned to GSFC using the reverse path. Once received www.nasa.gov/hubble and quality checked, the science data is forwarded to National Aeronautics and Space Administration Goddard Space Flight Center 8800 Greenbelt Road Greenbelt, MD 20771 www.nasa.gov NASA Facts FS-2018-10-286-GSFC.

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