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SPACEBEL has recently signed a contract with the European Space Agency (ESA) regarding the evolution and consolidation of ESA’s new generation ground segment – the so-called European Ground Systems Common Core (EGS-CC) – in the context of the forthcoming Altius mission.

Context

For the past 10 years, SPACEBEL has been bringing our expertise to this European common infrastructure for monitoring and control of all types of Space systems, mission phases and categories with a perspective of long-term service and continuous extensions.
This ESA Common Software Infrastructure is gradually replacing the aging Satellite Control & Operation System (SCOS) that was conceived in the nineties and is used in all on-going Proba missions (Proba-1, Proba-2 and Proba-3).

The same holds for of ESA’s Altius satellite that is currently under development: it was decided in 2020 to build the Flight Operations System (FOS) on SCOS-based infrastructure. Altius is an ozone layer monitoring space mission “Made in Belgium” initiated by the Royal Belgian Institute for Space Aeronomy (BIRA-IASB) with contributions from Canada, Luxembourg and Romania to be launched in 2027. SPACEBEL is closely involved in this Earth Watch mission as the developer of the satellite's on-board software, the Software Validation Facility simulator (SVF) and FOS. We are also prime contractor for the payload data management ground segment (PDGS), i.e. the mission control centre software and infrastructure.

Objectives and Impact

The EGS-CC Altius Shadowing project aims to demonstrate the readiness and suitability of the new EGS-CC based Proba control centre infrastructure developed by SPACEBEL by running it in parallel (as a shadow system) with the official Altius FOS, which is based on SCOS.

This project is a continuation of two previous activities led by SPACEBEL:

• the Proba-Next ground Segment architecture performed some five years ago in the frame of an ESA General Support Technology Programme (GSTP) study to address obsolescence issues while considering advances in IT, web, cloud, mobile and automation technologies.
• the “Cybersecurity Proof-of-Concept for the Proba control centre” activity performed in 2022-2023 demonstrating cyber resilient ground segment solutions in terms of telemetry/telecommand (TM/TC) encryption and authentication.

This project starts with a review and consolidation of the ground segment architecture to leverage the main evolutions of EGS-CC. The automation concept, a key element of the Proba control centre, will evolve in line with automation developments in EGS-CC. Automated procedures will be adapted and migrated accordingly. A set of new software components will be developed to provide a complete ground segment solution including monitoring aspects (reporting, alerting services, etc.). Finally, the shadowing will be conducted gradually, starting with validation and demonstration of the solution in AIV (Assembly, Integration and Verification), followed by testing it in the context of an SVT (System Validation Tests), and finally, in operations after launch.

This test case is aimed at demonstrating the Altius FOS shadow as a model for future small satellite control centres at ESA-ESEC in Redu (Belgium), proving EGS-CC’s operational maturity. Success could inspire institutional and commercial missions beyond ESA-ESEC.
For SPACEBEL, this project offers a chance to establish an EGS-CC-based product, reducing costs and risks for future missions.

This new reference marks yet another chapter in our trusted collaboration with ESA that spans decades of innovation and discovery. We are excited to continue this journey TOGETHER, bringing our expertise to ambitious space missions and the evolution of space technologies!