Division 3.3.2 Flight Operations Segment

The Flight Operations Segment (FOS) shall provide the capability to schedule the mission operations and to monitor and control the spacecraft and payload during all mission phases. The FOS shall be responsible for spacecraft commanding activities and acquisition of S-band telemetry. It shall provide the functionality required for the generation and the uplink of the routine platform and instrument command schedules and the systematic archiving/analysis of the acquired housekeeping telemetry. The FOS shall include a Flight Dynamics System Facility, allowing orbit determination and prediction, as well as generation of attitude and orbit control information.

FOS functions and activities shall include the scheduling of S-band ground station visibility segments and access to archived housekeeping telemetry to authorised external users. Besides performing these routine tasks, the FOS Mission Control Team shall be responsible for monitoring the satellite's health status and implementing all necessary recovery actions in case of anomalies, and verification and uplink of on-board software patches.

The FOS debris collision avoidance service shall calculate the probability of a collision of any Sentinel satellites with other satellites and/or debris and provides corresponding collision avoidance forecast reports. These shall be analysed and translated in satellite collision avoidance manoeuvres when appropriate.

The FOS shall support safe and reliable spacecraft end-of life measures, including re-entry and disposal activities.