Citation
Abstract
On May 23, 1996, two brand new capabilities were used together operationally for the first time. The in-flight Galileo spacecraft operated for the first time its newly loaded science virtual machine software to produce Phase 2 packet telemetry, and the Deep Space Communications Complex (DSCC) Galileo telemetry (DGT) subsystem received and processed this downlink format from the spacecraft [1]. Previously, the spacecraft packet data stream had been simulated in the project testbed at JPL, and the DGT had received the Phase 1 time division multiplex telemetry from the spacecraft. The transmission of a complex new spacecraft data format to a wholly new ground receiving system proceeded smoothly until the unexpected loss (undecodability) of a Reed-Solomon transfer frame that occurred on May 24. On subsequent days, additional frames were lost, in a soon predictable twice-a-day pattern. This article documents how a team, consisting of individuals from the DGT development organization, the Deep Space Network (DSN) operations and analysis organization at JPL, the Canberra DSCC, the Galileo Flight Project O–ce and Telecommunications Analysis Unit, and other members from the JPL Telecommunications Science and Engineering Division worked together to discover and correct the cause of the problem by June 6, 1996.
Details
- Volume
- 42-127
- Published
- November 15, 1996
- Pages
- 1–8
- File Size
- 185.5 KB