EGSE - A VALIDATION TOOL FOR SATELLITE SIMULATORS

Satellite simulators are used at the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) to test and validate the Operations Control Centre (OCC) facili ties and flight-operations procedures, as well as to train the flight- control personnel. Their validation (the verification of the degree of realism with which they represent the behaviour of the actual satelli tes) requires the involvement of operations staff and is usually perfo rmed in a manual fashion. The Electrical Ground Support Equipment (EGS E) used as main test tool in all satellite Assembly Integration and Ve rification (AIV) programmes could, in principle, be used to overcome t he shortcomings of the current validation process, by providing an ope rations-independent and largely automated test environment for satelli te simulators.