IRIDE EAGLET-II LEOP: A New Operational Paradigm for Constellation Operations

The increasing adoption of satellite constellations in LEO orbit is driving new operational challenges during the Launch and Early Orbit Phase (LEOP) that becomes increasingly critical.
Thousands of satellites are sharing the Low Earth Orbit, elevating the importance of phasing strategies and collision mitigation, which are now central topics in mission design discussions.
This paper presents an operational case study of the LEOP for an 8-satellite (EAGLET-II) constellation within the IRIDE programme, operated by OHB Italia in its first mission hosted and controlled in the newly established proprietary Mission Control Center.
The paper will focus on the pre-launch activities such as trainings, operational product preparation to monitor and control a constellation in its nominal and potential contingency modes, their validation and processes set-up covering all phases of the mission, from LEOP to Commissioning to Routine.
The operations execution strategy will be described according to the concept of operations, bringing light to the activities carried out during the LEOP, when the operations teams managed the constellation of eight satellites. The constellation was successfully guided to a nominal configuration through a total of approximately fifty ground contacts. The efficient operational strategy, combined with a fast-paced approach for anomaly management, allowed the beginning of Commissioning activities within an exceptionally short timeframe of less than three days.
Despite the significant results achieved, the LEOP was conducted by a relatively novice operations team that progressively developed and consolidated its expertise throughout the preparation phase and, most notably, during the execution of the initial on-orbit activities. As a direct consequence of the lessons learned during this first launch, the test and validation phases of the mission’s future LEOP activities will be tuned to have a significant improvement. This paper presents and discusses the most critical of these lessons.