The BeppoSAX mission planning component

One of the basic activities provided by the Beppo-SAX Scientific Data Cente r/Mission Support Component (SDC/MSC), located at Telespasio, Rome, is the Mission Planning facility, which is iri charge of scheduling all the satell ite scientific activities. This is carried out by preparing a Mission Plan File at Long (several weeks) and Short Term (1 week), containing all the el ements useful for the scheduling. The plan is prepared from the Proposals s ubmitted by the Scientific Community-once a year and approved by the Time A llocation Commettee (TAC). The Mission Planning is also in charge of prepar ing and scheduling all the Urgent Observation Requests originally submitted by the Scientific Community in relation of unexpected astronomical events that may require a fast re-planning of the Schedule with are-pointing of th e satellite.