Twelve years of planning and scheduling the Hubble Space Telescope: process improvements and the related observing efficiency gains

David S. Adler; David K. Taylor; Alan P. Patterson

doi:10.1117/12.460653

2 January 2002 Twelve years of planning and scheduling the Hubble Space Telescope: process improvements and the related observing efficiency gains

David S. Adler, David K. Taylor, Alan P. Patterson

Author Affiliations +

Proceedings Volume 4844, Observatory Operations to Optimize Scientific Return III; (2002) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460653
Event: Astronomical Telescopes and Instrumentation, 2002, Waikoloa, Hawai'i, United States

Abstract

Over the last twelve years, the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI) planning and scheduling teams have reduced the lead time to schedule the Hubble Space Telescope (HST) five-fold while doubling the overall observing efficiency. After the launch of HST, a one-week flight calendar took 56 days to prepare, schedule, and convert to flight products; the process now begins 11 days before execution. Early observing efficiency was in the 25% range; it is now typically 50%. In this paper, the process improvements that allowed these advancements are summarized. We also discuss the most recent scheduling advancement, which allows interruption of an executing flight calendar for fast-turnaround science observations or telescope anomaly resolution within 24 hours of activation.

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David S. Adler, David K. Taylor, and Alan P. Patterson "Twelve years of planning and scheduling the Hubble Space Telescope: process improvements and the related observing efficiency gains", Proc. SPIE 4844, Observatory Operations to Optimize Scientific Return III, (2 January 2002); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.460653

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