NASA Successfully Launches IBEX Mission to Outer Solar System

GB Tech to Verify Software Interface Logic between Spacecraft and Launch Vehicle

NASA's Interstellar Boundary Explorer mission, or IBEX, successfully launched from the Kwajalein Atoll in the Pacific Ocean at 1:47 p.m. EDT on Sunday, Oct. 19, 2008 making IBEX the first spacecraft to image and map dynamic interactions taking place in the outer solar system.

The spacecraft separated from the third stage of its Pegasus launch vehicle at 1:53 p.m. EDT and immediately began powering up components necessary to control onboard systems. The operations team is continuing to check out spacecraft subsystems.

GB Tech Inc., a subcontractor to Northrop Grumman on the NASA-wide Independent Verification and Validation (IV&V) contract out of Fairmont, West Virginia, participated in the IV&V software analysis and code scrutiny tasks on the flight and science mission software. In addition, GB Tech received tasking to help uncover and verify software interface logic between the spacecraft and the Pegasus launch vehicle. GB Tech’s experienced engineers along with those of Northrop using state of the art tools and analytical techniques uncovered a number of issues that could have led to failures.

“You and the rest of the GB Tech team did some good work on this one,” said Kevin Morgan, chief engineer of the Northop Grumman IV&V and IBEX project after the successful launch in a note to the GB Tech project lead. “I guess we found all of the major stuff.”

For more information on NASA’s IBEX, go to:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/ibex/index.html

For more information on Northrop Grumman NASA IV&V, go to:
http://www.irconnect.com/noc/press/pages/news_releases.html?d=79720

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