The ground segment facilities of the BeppoSAX mission

The BeppoSAX mission is supported in every phase of the project by the Grou nd Support System (GSS), located at Telespazio-Rome, which provides all the basic ground facilities required to guarantee the success of the mission. The GSS provides typical functions as spacecraft and payload monitoring and control, mission specific demands such as mission planning, scientific qui ck-look analysis, archiving and maintenance of all mission data and their d istribution to the scientific community. Tn order to fulfill all these requ irements, the GSS has been organized in separate components which, being co -located at Telespazio, ensure immediate intercommunication so as to guaran tee fast reactions in every type of situation of spacecraft or scientific c ontingency, such as gamma-ray burst follow-up and other target of opportuni ty observations.