MOSCOW. Nov 27 (Interfax-AVN) - Russian Space Systems holding (RSS, a structure of the state corporation) has put into operation the Vostochny Command and Measurement Point (VCMP), the RSS press service said.
"The RSS holding has completed the launch and alignment of all systems and equipment of the Vostochny Command and Measurement Point as part of the system of measurement, collection and processing of information of the new Russian cosmodrome Vostochny in the Amur region," the press service said.
In the launch of the meteorological satellite Meteor-M №2-1, which is scheduled for November 28, the equipment of the Vostochny Command and Measurement Point will be used for launching the Soyuz2.1b launch vehicle. After that, its inclusion in the Russian earth remove sensing satellites control loop will begin at Vostochny Cosmodrome.
Besides the regular Vostochny Command and Measurement Point systems, the launch vehicle will also use additional equipment: ground-based and sea-based mobile measurement points, the quantum optical system Sazhen, and hardware and software systems for telemetric data processing.
Vladimir Moiseyev, the main constructor of integrated information support systems at RSS, called the VCMP one of the most modern facilities of this kind in the world.
"New technologies and approaches, which had been practiced on other command measurement points in control of the Russian orbital group, including the International Space System, in whose control loop the VCMP has worked since the beginning of this year, were used in its creation. The main constructors of space systems are beginning to include the VCMP in the control loops of Russian spacecraft," Moiseyev was quoted by his press service as saying.
The construction of the VCMP took place in 2012-2016. It is one of the most modern command and measurement points of the Ground Automatic Command System of Russian spacecraft. It is the most compact of them, less resources are needed for its operation, and its capabilities are higher than those of other Russian control and measurement points as the VCMP resolves tasks associated with spacecraft command obtaining data from earth remote sensing satellites and cosmodrome measurement systems.
Since February 2017, VCMP has been used in more than 800 ISS command sessions, including information transmission sessions using the ground-based station. The facility is expected to be included in the ground control loop of earth remote-sensing satellites such as Canopus before the end of 2017 and of Resurs spacecraft from spring 2018.
The ground-based station controlling Luch data relay systems are expected to be transferred from Khabarovsk and the stations Klyon and Klyon-R are expected to be modernized in the near future. After switching to round-the-clock working mode, the VCMP will hold at least eight communication sessions with spacecraft every 24 hours.
The Vostochny Command and Measurement Point was successfully used as part of the measurement and data collection and processing equipment at Vostochny Cosmodrome during the first launch from the new Russian cosmodrome of the Soyuz-2.1a launch vehicle and the Volga unit carrying the spacecraft Lomonosov, Aist-2D and SamSat-218 in April 2016. Since then, the VCMP has begun functioning as a system taking information from earth remote sensing satellites and improvements have bene made on the command and measurement stations. New jobs have bene created in the region: the VCMP personnel was increased, 38 employees were hired in the past year.