Mission operations for the new Rosetta

The International Rosetta Mission, a cornerstone mission of the European Space Agency Scientific Programme, was scheduled for launch in January 2003 on Ariane 5, but it missed its 19 days launch window due to the suspension of Ariane 5 launches following the failure of flight 517 in December 2002. The search for a new mission opportunity started immediately after the launch cancellation. The new mission was finally selected in May, with launch in February 2004 for a rendezvous with comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in 2014. At the European Spacecraft Operations Centre (ESOC) mission redefinition activities included the identification of new targets and related trajectories and the operational analysis of the new mission's characteristics. In addition, part of the system level testing and validation of the new on-board software version was performed by ESOC. This activity, a first for ESA spacecraft controlled by ESOC, could be carried out thanks to the already planned move of the spacecraft engineering qualification model to ESOC and the commonality between checkout and flight control systems pursued from the beginning in this project. This paper analyses the implications of the new mission's characteristics on flight operations. The integrated approach to testing of the spacecraft on-board software is also described. Lessons learned at ESOC from the mission redefinition exercise are presented. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.