The BeppoSAX Mission Planning Component

One of the basic activities provided by the Beppo-SAX Scientific Data Center/Mission Support Component (SDC/MSC), located at Telespazio, Rome, is the Mission Planning facility, which is in charge of scheduling all the satellite scientific activities. This is carried out by preparing a Mission Plan File at Long (several weeks) and Short Term (1 week), containing all the elements useful for the scheduling. The plan is prepared from the Proposals submitted by the Scientific Community once a year and approved by the Time Allocation Commettee (TAC). The Mission Planning is also in charge of preparing 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 a re-pointing of the satellite. © 1999 OPA (Overseas Publishers Association) N.V. Published by license under the Gordon and Breach Science Publishers imprint.