Joint ESA/NASA team wins international award (Forwarded)

ESA News
http://www.esa.int

8 May 2008

Joint ESA/NASA team wins international award

The Ulysses mission operations team has won an international award in
recognition of their outstanding contributions to the success and
scientific productivity of the joint ESA/NASA observatory mission, now
orbiting the poles of the Sun.

The ESA/NASA Ulysses team was tapped to receive the 2008 'International
SpaceOps Award for Outstanding Achievement' by the International Committee
on Technical Interchange for Space Mission Operations and Ground Data
Systems, also known as the SpaceOps Committee. The award will be presented
during the SpaceOps 2008 Conference, taking place from 12 to 16 May in
Heidelberg, Germany.

The Ulysses spacecraft was launched in 1990 on a planned five-year
mission; keeping the hugely successful spacecraft operating for more than
17 years has presented operations engineers on the ground with a series of
unique challenges.

Science of the highest quality

"Fortunately, the science from our mission has been of the highest
quality, which has made it easier for both ESA and NASA to justify
extending the mission on three occasions. I'd also like to commend
Dornier, now Astrium, for delivering such a robust spacecraft; from flying
past Jupiter to traversing the poles of the Sun, it has performed
everything it was designed to do and also a number of things that it
wasn't," said Nigel Angold, ESA Mission Operations Manager at NASA's Jet
Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California.

According to the SpaceOps Secretariat, the Achievement award is presented
for 'outstanding efforts in overcoming space operations and support
challenges, and recognises those teams or individuals whose exceptional
contributions were critical to the success of a space mission.'

"Recovery of science data throughout the mission has been exemplary and
the results are a testament to the skills and dedication of everyone
involved. For 17 years, more than 98% of available data has been captured
and made available to the science investigators," said Ed Massey, NASA
Project Manager for Ulysses at JPL.

He also added that, "People have been an integral part of the success of
Ulysses operations. The level of experience of management has been fairly
stable throughout and young, smart and innovative people have cycled
through and made significant contributions to the operations team."

Ulysses is an excellent example of an international scientific mission
that could not have been operated by any one agency alone.

Multi-national success story

The spacecraft was built in Europe while NASA provided the Radio-isotope
Thermoelectric Generator (RTG) power source and the launch on board Space
Shuttle Discovery in 1990. The scientific payload was provided by both US
and European investigators.

Mission operations have been performed by a joint ESA/NASA team located at
JPL with ESA responsible for the spacecraft and JPL in charge of the
ground segment. Tracking for Ulysses has been provided by NASA's Deep
Space Network (DSN), with additional support from ESA tracking stations as
well as stations located in several other countries.

After many years of successful operation, the power generated by the
spacecraft's Radio-isotope Thermoelectric Generator has started to fall
below the minimum necessary to run all of its communications, heating and
scientific equipment simultaneously. When the on-board temperature falls
below 2 C, the spacecraft's hydrazine fuel will freeze, blocking the fuel
pipes and making the spacecraft impossible to manoeuvre. Ulysses is
expected to cease operating in the near future.

"I am very proud to be part of the Ulysses team and appreciate all the
hard work of my dedicated colleagues at JPL, ESA and industry in making
this mission such a long and successful one," said Angold.

About SpaceOps

SpaceOps is the world's top conference focusing on space operations. The
bi-annual event provides a technical and managerial forum for the global
space operations community addressing state-of-the-art spacecraft
operations principles, methods and tools.

The conference is organised in turn by members of the International
Committee for Space Mission Operations and Ground Data Systems (the
'SpaceOps Organisation'), which include representatives of most spacecraft
operating organisations and institutions. SpaceOps 2008 is the 10th
edition of the SpaceOps conference and is being jointly organised by ESA,
and EUMETSAT, the European Organisation for the Exploitation of
Meteorological Satellites.

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