SPONSORED CONTENT
International Space Station 20th Anniversary Hewlett Packard Enterprise By Norm Follett in collaboration with Dr. Mark R. Fernandez
F
rom the moment we learned to raise our heads, our eyes
the results are technically advanced, fiscally prudent, and flight
have always drifted upwards. The beauty, the wonder, and the
schedule friendly.
unknown mystery of what might hover above have seemingly
Launched on SpaceX CRS-12 on Aug. 14, 2017, the SBC program
always drawn humankind beyond the boundaries of Earth. During
evolved from an “experiment” to delivering “in mission” opera-
the 1960s, the United States competitively pursued the reality of
tional computer value. Exceeding original mission objectives, this
leaping beyond the blue to the vastness of what might be. Fast
self-contained, water-cooled, and solar-powered system enjoyed
forward several decades and the United States, working coopera-
an 8-month mission extension, where additional computational
tively with the global scientific community, continues to pursue this
tasks, not previously scoped, were performed at the request of
dream. At the forefront of the technology that steered the journey
NASA and its partner agencies. This included the monitoring and
of our early space explorers was the company that Bill Hewlett
measurement of the landing of InSight on the surface of Mars
and Dave Packard founded. From navigational tracking systems
in 2019. The final flight log of SBC is impressive – 53,936 experi-
that monitored the Apollo spacecraft to diodes and pin switches in
ments executed flawlessly during the course of 9,562 orbits while
the suits of Armstrong and Aldrin, the company that carries their
dealing with 6,879 South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA) crossings.
names continues to drive technology exploration with the intent of making physical space exploration a reality. It could be argued as to what was the first commercially available “computer” to journey into space. Was it Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s (HPE) Spaceborne Computer system (SBC) in 2017? Or perhaps it was Bill and Dave’s answer to address the need for on-board orbital rendezvous calculations during the 1975 Apollo-Soyuz mission – the HP65 calculator? Or the GRiD laptop computer that flew aboard the space shuttle in the 1980s? There can be no doubt, however, that the 657 days that the SBC system spent aboard the ISS demonstrated that a modern, commercially available computer system could be successfully integrated into a space-based flight system in a timely fashion. The significance is multi-faceted. As we have moved beyond asking ourselves “can we do it” to “can we can afford it,” the technical and fiscal impact is huge across every space exploration project. The ability to leverage market dynamics and technological
After 657 days of 24/7 operations, NASA astronaut Christine Koch gets the
innovations and apply them in a real-time, affordable format to
SB1 ready for its flight home – April 30, 2019.
spaceflight ultimately allows our scientific capabilities to extend and evolve. As a result, the most sophisticated craft of its day,
During its 20 years of flight, the ISS has always benefited from
such as the Endeavor in the ‘90s, will no longer be forced to fly
being a mere 240 miles or so from the world’s greatest computer
with dated equipment to support computational activity. This was
resources. While the addition of on-board super computer capa-
a spacecraft design decision dictated by development, test, and
bility is a significant upgrade to on-board experimentation and
cost constraints. By removing the burden of developing propri-
research possibilities, it was not necessarily the core mission of
etary computer systems for space exploration from government
the SBC program. Consistent with NASA and the international
agencies and aerospace contractors and shifting the computer
space community’s goal of using the ISS as a platform to prepare
need to private-sector companies who specialize in the field,
for deeper exploration of space, the SBC system proved that
