Tools Automate Spacecraft Testing, Operation

"NASA began the Small Explorer (SMEX) program to develop spacecraft to advance astrophysics and space physics. As one of the entities supporting software development at Goddard Space Flight Center, the Hammers Company Inc. (tHC Inc.), of Greenbelt, Maryland, developed the Integrated Test and Operations System to support SMEX. Later, the company received additional Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) funding from Goddard for a tool to facilitate the development of flight software called VirtualSat. NASA uses the tools to support 15 satellites, and the aerospace industry is using them to develop science instruments, spacecraft computer systems, and navigation and control software."