The EGS-CC is a European programme is organised as collaboration between ESA, National Agencies, and Spacecraft Large System Integrators.
Phase A has been completed and Phase B is ongoing.
Organisation
European Space Agency (ESA)is in a collaboration process to develop a European Ground Systems Common Core. The development of EGS-CC is made up of an alliance of European space agencies -ESA (ESTEC and ESOC), CNESand DLR -, and industry -AIRBUS Defence and Space, Thales Alenia (France and Italy) and OHB System.
The initiative is considered to be a strategic move which would bring an array of resources and benefits to all parties involved. EGS-CC will provide a common infrastructure to support space systems monitoring and control in pre- and post-launch phases.
Governance
The programme is governed by a Memorandum of Understanding between the EGS-CC partnersconsistent with operational goals and priorities.
The EGS-CC governance establishes:
- Collaboration Agreement (legally binding) between EGS-CC stakeholders.
- Development of the EGS-CC in open competition according to ESA contract conditions and processes.
- Adoption of the EGS-CC for institutional missions and then for commercial missions after successful operational validation in institutional missions.
EGSS-CC stakeholders contribute to the programme by providing resources, and they all participate in the decision making process.
ESA plays a role of management and coordination of the activities, which are organised at two levels:
- Steering Board, owning the responsibility of defining and managing the implementation of policy related aspects (e.g. funding, procurement, evolution, licensing). The Steering Board is chaired by ESA, with one representative from each stakeholder.
- System Engineering Team, acting as a technical coordination body managing the definition and all technical aspects of the system. It is composed of one representative of each stakeholder andis coordinated and technically led byESA.
Plan
EGS-CC is being executed in typical space programme phases, following ESA usual procurement approach to involve European industry:
Phase A (User Requirements & System Concept) has been completed – outputs include:
- Domain analysis, Use cases, User (functional and non-functional) requirements, glossary, system concepts, conceptual architecture, external interfaces identification, preliminary technology assessment
Phase B (Software Requirements Engineering and Architectural Design) has been completed – outputs include:
- Software Requirements Engineering and Architectural Design
- Technological Proof of Concept
Phase C/D (Detailed Design and Coding) started at end of 2014:
- based on an incremental/iterative approach
- continuous integration and validation of main deliverables in the target environments (Large System Integrators and Agencies)
- Operational validation through pilot projects for EGSE and MCS applications
Phase E Will cover maintenance and evolution. An end-to-end program (covering also support to deployment/exploitation) will be established.
