Carbon Observations Made Easier by GMV

GMV has received final acceptance of their Flight Dynamics System (FDS) for the Orbiting Carbon Observatory (OCO) mission. OCO is a NASA-JPL mission that’ll launch in late 2008. The purpose of the mission is to collect precise global measurements of carbon dioxide (CO2) in the Earth’s atmosphere and obtain a better understanding of the concentration and distribution of this important greenhouse gas. The GMV mission was completed successfully at Orbital Sciences Corporation in late 2007. Orbital is the manufacturer of the satellite and also will be responsible for the operations. The system developed by GMV is based on its product focusLEO, a member of the focusSuite line of FDS products that have been selected to fly more than 120 satellites from operators and agencies from all over the world. focusLEO was fully customized to support Orbital’s LEOStar platform, to address some mission-specific requirements and to achieve a complete integration with the rest of the ground segment. This system includes multiple FDS functions including GPS measurement processing for Orbit Determination, maneuver planning, implementation and calibration as well as mass book-keeping—Rockville, Maryland