Integral Systems Europe Announces EPOCH IPS Satellite Ground System Compliance With The ESA Packet-Utilization Standard (PUS)

(8 May 2008) ISE (Integral Systems Europe), a subsidiary of Integral Systems, Inc., today announced that its' EPOCH IPS (EPOCH Integrated Product Suite) COTS product is in compliance with ESA's (European Space Agency) PUS (Packet-Utilization Standard) for Satellite Control Systems and EGSE (Electrical Ground Support Equipment).

Integral has implemented a complete, database-driven system for PUS services, with an open architecture for mission-specific services and solutions.

This new EPOCH IPS capability is specifically designed to satisfy the demanding requirements of ESA satellite programs. It includes full spacecraft commanding at 64 kb/s and implements European standards for spacecraft operations. In particular, EPOCH IPS delivers a command queue and command history capability with real-time GUI (Graphical User Interface) displays.

"Based on our success at Eumetsat with the METOP satellites, this investment demonstrates the suitability of our COTS products to support European Earth Observation missions," says Bruno Dupas, President of Integral Systems Europe.

EPOCH IPS PUS features include:

• Command verification for immediate and time-tagged commands, merging
  ECSS (European Cooperation for Space Standardization) PUS reports and
  EPOCH telemetry verification.
• Commanding with full ECSS PUS command formats, including sub-formats
  and all ECSS PUS command point types.
• ECSS PUS satellite housekeeping and diagnostic telemetry format
  decommutation.
• "On-the-fly" satellite telemetry programming and immediate updating of
  the decommutation logic in the ground system.
• Ground spacecraft schedule and procedure execution modelling with GUI
  displays.
• Database-driven spacecraft event and alarm formatting through GUI
  displays.
• Database-driven spacecraft report XML formatting and management.
• Standardised spacecraft database ingest from predefined ASCII files.

About Integral Systems Europe (ISE)

Founded in 2001, Integral Systems Europe is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Integral Systems, Inc. ISE integrates satellite ground systems using Integral Systems' COTS products and third-party products. ISE is providing Satellite Control and Payload Management Systems for communication satellites and Earth observation satellites in Europe, the Middle East, and Central Asia.

About Integral Systems

Founded in 1982, Integral Systems is a leading provider of satellite ground systems and has supported more than 205 different satellite missions for communications, science, meteorological, and earth resource applications. Integral Systems was the first company to offer an integrated suite of COTS (Commercial-Off-the-Shelf) software products for satellite command and control: the EPOCH IPS (Integrated Product Suite) product line. EPOCH IPS has become the world market leader in commercial applications with successful installations on five continents.

Through its wholly-owned subsidiary, SAT Corporation, Integral Systems provides satellite and terrestrial communications signal monitoring systems to satellite operators and users throughout the world. Through its Newpoint Technologies, Inc., subsidiary, Integral Systems also provides software for equipment monitoring and control to satellite operators, broadcasters, and telecommunications firms. Integral Systems' RT Logic subsidiary builds telemetry processing systems for military applications, including tracking stations, control centres, and range operations. Integral Systems' Lumistar, Inc., subsidiary provides system- and board-level telemetry acquisition products. Integral Systems has approximately 500 employees working at its headquarters in Lanham, MD, and at other locations in the U.S. and Europe.

(source: Integral Systems)

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