On October 31st, 2019, Omitron supported the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC) Flight Dynamics Facility (FDF) Navigation Operations team in executing NASA’s Transition Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) operations through the Raptor system. This marks the first time that the Raptor scripting services capability was used operationally to generate and deliver mission products.
Raptor is a cutting edge comprehensive flight dynamics system developed by the GSFC FDF under Omitron’s FDSS-II contract to improve automation, efficiency, and robustness of satellite mission operations. It is currently in use as the FDF operational tool for Tracking Data Evaluation. The Raptor system has been extended to include an automation engine that runs sequences of simplified, modularized procedures to perform extensive processes necessary for mission navigation support. Promoting Raptor’s scripting capabilities to operations comes as a culmination of hard work put into building the support workflow, developing script libraries, evolving support plans, and months of testing.
This feat is a huge milestone as TESS is the first of many missions that will transition to using Raptor as we continue moving the FDF forward. Raptor will minimize the amount of effort required to support operational missions. This will allow FDF to focus resources on making improvements while reducing costs for current and future missions.
