The building blocks for JWST I&T to operations - from simulator to flight units

Francis Wasiak; William Ochs; Alan Johns; Bonita Seaton; Cynthia Adams; Curtis Fatig; Ronald Jones; Wallace Jackson

doi:10.1117/12.921818

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13 September 2012 The building blocks for JWST I&T to operations: from simulator to flight units

Francis Wasiak, William Ochs, Alan Johns, Bonita Seaton, Cynthia Adams, Curtis Fatig, Ronald Jones, Wallace Jackson

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Proceedings Volume 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV; 844803 (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.921818
Event: SPIE Astronomical Telescopes + Instrumentation, 2012, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Abstract

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) Project has an extended integration and test (I&T) phase due to long procurement and development times of various components as well as recent launch delays. The JWST Ground Segment and Operations group has developed a roadmap of the various ground and flight elements and their use in the various JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project's building block approach to the eventual operational systems, while not new, is complex and challenging; a large-scale mission like JWST involves international partners, many vendors across the United States, and competing needs for the same systems. One of the challenges is resource balancing so simulators and flight products for various elements congeal into integrated systems used for I&T and flight operations activities. This building block approach to an incremental buildup provides for early problem identification with simulators and exercises the flight operations systems, products, and interfaces during the JWST I&T test programs. The JWST Project has completed some early I&T with the simulators, engineering models and some components of the operational ground system. The JWST Project is testing the various flight units as they are delivered and will continue to do so for the entire flight and operational system. The JWST Project has already and will continue to reap the value of the building block approach on the road to launch and flight operations.

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Francis Wasiak, William Ochs, Alan Johns, Bonita Seaton, Cynthia Adams, Curtis Fatig, Ronald Jones, and Wallace Jackson "The building blocks for JWST I&T to operations: from simulator to flight units", Proc. SPIE 8448, Observatory Operations: Strategies, Processes, and Systems IV, 844803 (13 September 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.921818

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