Citation
Abstract
The Networks Consolidation Program (NCP) was established by NASA in 1979 to implement recommendations of the Networks Planning Working Group which were presented at NASA Headquarters in October of that year. The goals of the NCP were defined to include the planning, designing and implementing of a single consolidated network of ground tracking stations to replace the present two ground-based spacecraft tracking networks. The proposed consolidated network will make use of some facilities that are now included in the Ground Spaceflight Tracking and Data Network (GSTDN), operated by Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC), as well as the existing Deep Space Network (DSN), operated by Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL). These facilities will be combined and modified to provide a consolidated network managed and operated by JPL and capable of supporting the set of planetary and Highly Elliptical Earth Orbiter (HEEQ) missions planned for the Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS) era. The consolidated network will come into being after the TDRSS becomes operational. It will continue to support planetary missions that are now supported by the DSN and also provide support to a broad class of other spacecraft missions which are not compatible with or which, for other reasons, cannot be supported by the TDRSS. A previous report in the TDA Progress Report series traced the history of activities and events that led to the decision to consolidate the NASA ground tracking and data networks into a single network. It included a summary of the NCP management and planning activities that have taken place at Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Goddard Space Flight Center, and at the NASA Headquarters Office of Space Tracking and Data Systems (OSTDS), from the October 1979 decision to proceed to August 1980. This report shows the progress of the NCP since the previous report to the present with special emphasis on the planning and budgeting activities that have occurred.
Details
- Volume
- 42-65
- Published
- October 15, 1981
- Pages
- 10–13
- File Size
- 484.7 KB