Flight Software for the Entire Operationally Responsive Space Vision

263 INTRODUCTION Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) encompasses a vision of a new class of satellites that are rapidly developed and directly tasked by the warfighter in theater. The ORS Office, tasked with making this vision a reality, has developed a plan to rapidly develop and deploy space assets. However, the rapid development and evelopment of flight software for Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) is not simply the rapid development and testing of software in time schedules as short as 1 week. By examining the requirements from the original vision for tactical satellites and the plan for ORS, one can glean a set of software requirements that describes the needs of ORS in a more expansive manner. The ORS software solution needs to encompass capabilities that enable modification to meet future needs, to support rapid assembly of a system from existing component parts, and to provide the flexibility to add new capabilities to a system without compromising the existing development and testing. This software solution must also cover the entire life cycle from requirements development, to the time the spacecraft goes operational, and finally to the maintenance phase in the event that an on-orbit asset must be modified to meet a new need. A better understanding of the requirements for ORS software has led APL to define a new concept architecture made up of five key properties, which are described in this article. APL is pursuing the development of this architecture across multiple programs. This pursuit is a practical attempt to achieve our new architecture by coordinating multiple achievable steps en route to the ultimate goal of software enabling the entire ORS vision. Flight Software for the Entire Operationally Responsive Space Vision