SciSys Sun Shines With Ulysses Accolade

Staff at SciSys’ Space Division are celebrating their part in an International Award for Outstanding Achievement. The award to the joint ESA/NASA Ulysses solar mission operations team, which includes SciSys staff, was presented during the SpaceOps 2008 Conference in Heidelberg, Germany. The team won the award in recognition of their outstanding contributions to the success and scientific productivity of the joint ESA/NASA solar observatory mission. This is the first and still the only spacecraft to circumnavigate the Sun’s polar regions. According to the SpaceOps Secretariat, the award is presented for ‘outstanding efforts in overcoming space operations and support challenges, and recognises those teams or individuals whose exceptional contributions were critical to the success of a space mission.’ SciSys has been involved with supporting the Ulysses mission since 1988, even before its successful launch aboard space shuttle Discovery in 1990. Ulysses was sent on a trajectory to Jupiter in order to use its gravity to kick it into its unique orbit over the Sun’s poles. The Ulysses mission has proved to be tremendously successful and so has been granted a series of program extensions by the ESA and NASA. However, after almost 18 years in deep space—almost 4x its expected lifetime—the mission is finally succumbing to its harsh environment and is likely to finish sometime in mid-2008. SciSys experts in flight dynamics, software, and spacecraft operations support mission activities at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena—Chippenham, United Kingdom