GP-B Post-Flight Analysis—Final Report - Gravity Probe B - Stanford ...

Any significant deviation from “green” would immediately “trump” other program activities. An efficientelectronic communication-information system allowed for rapid response. Telemetry information from theMOC and information determined from off-line analysis were in near constant review. Deviations from a“green” or expected result would cause the initiation of our in-house anomaly resolution process. This process,which was developed and practiced prior to launch had the responsibility to determine root cause and to makerecommendations to the mission director and program manager for an action plan/correction. The anomalyresolution team was comprised of a team lead, technical experts, NASA representation, Lockheed Martinrepresentation, and anomaly support staff. The system worked extremely well. A more complete description ofthis process, as well as all of the other program elements described in this introduction, can be found in thesections and chapters following this one.4.1.3 NASA Group Achievement AwardBy the end of mission, the GP-B team had become very skilled at both operating the spacecraft and handlinganomalies. Thus, there was some sadness when the mission ended and members of the mission operations teamhad to move on to new jobs and other missions.Figure 4-1. NASA GP-B Program Manager, Tony Lyons, from the Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, AL,presents a NASA Group Achievement Award to the entire GP-B team in November 2005.At the end of November 2005, shortly after the successful completion of the GP-B flight mission, NASA’s GP-BProgram Manager, Tony Lyons from the Marshall Space Flight Center, presented a NASA Group AchievementAward to the entire GP-B science mission team, including people from both Stanford and Lockheed Martin.The award reads: “For exceptional dedication and highly innovative scientific and engineeringaccomplishments leading to the successful execution and completion of the Gravity Probe B Science Mission.”The award is signed by NASA Administrator Michael Griffin, and individual copies were given out to each andevery member of the team.4.2 Mission PlanningThis section discusses the Mission Planning function, which is part of the Mission Operations group.4.2.1 Function Charter: What is Mission Planning?The charter of Mission Planning at Gravity Probe-B is to program the spacecraft’s operations through aspacecraft-executable timeline, and to provide communications between it and the operators on the groundthrough a communications schedule.98 March 2007 Chapter 4 — GP-B On Orbit