Space station freedom ground systems program—A survey

The Space Station Freedom will be a permanently manned, low-Earth orbit research facility, elements of which are being provided by the United States, Canada, countries of the European Space Agency and Japan. The facility will be assembled in space and operated well into the twenty-first century. The ground infrastructure must be able to support both assembly and long-term operations. The infrastructure will consist of ground facilities, support systems and the associated planning and management procedures. The key facilities identified to support Space Station Freedom Program (SSFP) integrated operations and their SSFP roles will be described in detail in this paper.

Requirements for the integrated ground infrastructure are developed and controlled within the SSFP requirements documentation and baselining processes. A Ground Systems Program directive summarizes key operations functions, roles and responsibilities of the various program participants. During 1992, the SSFP is conducting a major program review of the ground infrastructure including the definition of all facility and support system functional capabilities, interfaces and dataflow requirements. Operations functionality and interface verification tests are being identified and operations readiness dates are being established.