GOAS: a cybertool for spacecraft rendezvous

The construction of the International Space Station (ISS) has begun. The European Space Agency (ESA) and the European aerospace industry are collaborating on this endeavor. ESA has been developing several prototype systems, which will make available tools and techniques for the European contributions to the ISS program. Among others, ESA is building the automatic transfer vehicle (ATV). The article describes GOAS: the ground operator assistant system. GOAS is a software tool used inside the ATV control center to monitor and re-plan the spacecraft mission. GOAS is a complex rendezvous and docking help for ground operators. GOAS improves and augments mission success and mission safety probabilities.