Flight Dynamics Experience on Target Orbit Acquisition and Maintenance Operations for Germany's Hyperspectral Satellite Mission EnMAP

Abstract

The Environmental Mapping and Analysis Program (EnMAP) is a German hyperspectral satellite mission that aims at monitoring and characterizing Earth's environment on a global scale. The satellite was successfully launched with SpaceX's Falcon 9 Transporter-4 mission on April 1st, 2022. This paper elaborates on the in-flight results obtained during the EnMAP Launch and Early-Operations Phase (LEOP) and the first months of the commissioning phase. Besides the flight dynamics operations, this paper addresses the repeat ground-track orbit control concept and discusses novel flight dynamics functionalities implemented to optimize the scientific return of the EnMAP mission, such as microservices for fast data exchange between the flight dynamics and mission planning systems.