Mission Operations · 3
Flight Dynamics & Navigation
Determining and controlling where a spacecraft is and where it is going — orbit determination and navigation operations.
- Flight DynamicsOperations function
The discipline of determining and predicting a spacecraft's orbit and attitude, and computing the manoeuvres needed to keep it on its planned trajectory.
- Navigation OperationsOperations function
The operational process of guiding a spacecraft to its target — combining orbit determination with manoeuvre design, using the deep-space network's radiometric tracking.
- Orbit DeterminationOperations function
Estimating a spacecraft's precise position and velocity from tracking data (ranging, Doppler, and angles) — the input to every manoeuvre and every science observation.