425 August 6, 1999

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD

FROM: 425/ICESat Project Manager

301/Chief, System Review Office

303/ICESat Systems Assurance Manager

SUBJECT: ICESat System Review Plan

This memorandum documents the roles and responsibilities of personnel
from the GSFC Office of Flight Assurance, Systems Review Office (Code
301) in support of the ICESat Project and its instrument, the Geoscience
Laser Altimeter (GLAS). This support is agreed upon by all parties as
signified by the signatures on this memorandum. These agreements are
also reflected in the Mission Assurance Requirements (MAR) document for
the Instrument (CM# LAM-SPEC-303-001) and RFP5-02816-001 (Rapid
Spacecraft Development Office) for the spacecraft bus issued for this
Project.

It is important to note that the ICESat bus will be a copy of an
existing, previously flown or qualified bus design. All RSDO bus
products will be evaluated by the Code 700 Integrated Mission
Development Center for technical content, "twice". The first evaluation
will be for qualifying the vendor and the merits of their offerings. The
second evaluation will be conducted at the time of purchase. Necessary
technical changes to the bus product, either to suit a science
requirement or fix a determined weakness, will be identified and
factored into the bus design and price at the start of the contract.
From then on, the focus of the Project and the Systems Review Office
will on bus modifications, rather than on the basic "already qualified"
product itself.

The ICESat Project philosophy is to utilize engineering working level
reviews, peer reviews, during the formative stage of the mission. The
purpose of these peer reviews at the instrument and spacecraft subsystem
levels is to identify and resolve problems and concerns within the
mission teams before issues reach the more formal, Code 301 chaired
system level reviews. All peer reviews will be chaired by either the
Project or Instrument Managers with an invitation to the Office of
Flight Assurance to attend.

The formal system level reviews commence at the development phase (C/D)
of the mission, and will concentrate on the critical mission elements,
end-to-end testing, technical and programmatic issues. There are ten,
formal Code 301 chaired reviews for this project. These reviews are for
hardware development (numbers 1-7) and mission operations (numbers 8-10)
as shown below:

2

[Code 301 Chaired Review]{.underline} [Date (on or about)]{.underline}
[Location]{.underline}

1.  GLAS Preliminary Design Review (PRD) 1/12-14/98 GSFC

2.  GLAS Critical Design Review (CDR) 3/23-25/99 GSFC

3.  GLAS Pre-environmental Review 9/5/00 GSFC

4\. Mission Design Review 12/4/98 BASD

5\. Observatory Pre-environmental Review 12/30/00 BASD

6\. Observatory Pre-ship review (PSR) 5/30/01 BASD

7\. Launch Readiness Review (LRR) 6/29/01 BASD

There will also be an Observatory Integration Readiness Review (IRR).
This review will be a project chaired peer review to access the
readiness of the bus to receive the instrument. It is envisioned that
interfaces will be the focal point, and the review shall be held before
the Instrument Pre-environmental Review. Code 301 is welcome to send a
representative to this review.

In the area of mission operations, there will be three, formal Code 301
chaired mission operations reviews, plus the aforementioned Mission
Design Review (number 4 above). These are:

[Code 301 Chaired Review]{.underline} [Date (on or about)]{.underline}
[Location]{.underline}

1.  Mission Operations Center Design Review 12/30/99 BASD

2.  Mission Operations Review (MOR) 12/30/99 BASD

3.  Flight Operations Review (FOR) 4/30/01 BASD

Scheduling for all of these formal reviews will be coordinated between
the ICESat Project and the Office of Flight Assurance. The Code 301
review chairman, in concert with the Project and other GSFC
Directorates, appoints key technical experts as review team members.
Every effort shall be made to maintain the continuity (chairman and key
technical experts) for the duration of the Project. Experts will be
added and/or deleted from the review team according to the technical
needs and phases of the Project.

Original Signed by: Original Signed by:

Joseph A. Dezio Ronald E. Kolecki

ICESat Project Manager ICESat Flight Assurance Manager

Oribinal Signed by:

Josef Wonsever

Chief, System Review Office

cc:

300/Mr. C. Vanek

400/Mr. J. Moore

420/Mr. C. Scolese

425/Mr. G. F. Smith

425/Mr. W. Anselm

924/Dr. J. Abshire

924/Mr. R. Follas

924/Mr. J. Smith