LEOP Preparation and Realization of the Two first Galileo Satellites by CNES Flight Dynamics Center

Abstract

This paper presents the preparation, rehearsal and realization of the LEOP (Launch and Early Orbital Phase) of the first two satellites of the Galileo constellation by the CNES Flight Dynamics Centre in Toulouse, France. Those operations were the starting point of the future European Navigation System and they were also the result of a close collaboration between the CNES and ESOC flight dynamics teams for preparation and operations in interface with ESA and DLR. Moreover, the originality of this mission was that the first six days were under the responsibility of CNES for the commanding and the flight dynamics and that the second part of the LEOP was in shared responsibility between the routine centre at DLR for the commanding and the CNES FDS for flight dynamics. This paper will focus on the flight dynamics side of the mission, describing shortly the mission analysis and entering into the details of the operational concepts applied at CNES to support this LEOP : hardware and software architecture, team organization, shifts patterns, interfaces with other entities, procedures and actual operations description. The purpose is not to address any confidential aspects of the LEOP but to describe the main operational concepts that came out of this European cooperation.