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Can you speak at all as to how the development on this software is done? Is it distributed with centralized version control? Does release and engineering proc

Can you speak at all as to how the development on this software is done? Is it distributed with centralized version control? Does release and engineering process interact with the version control at all? Are there mechanisms that link defect reports, corrections, and sign offs back to version control and into the build system? I got lost recently in how the Shuttle software was managed, mostly through IBM mainframes, and z/OSs facilities for all the above. I'm curious how modern development looks in comparison.

linebeck 2y ago
FSW development is done by a different team than mine but I believe it's just managed through gitlab. Releases are done through tags, and any updates that need to be made have tickets created for them and are developed by the FSW team. Final approval is given by certified product engineers and then a new tag is created for that release. Like I said this is a different team but from what I've seen the process is fairly modern given how old our hardware is. I'm not sure of the exact process of how it's loaded onto the satellite through.
jdiez17 2y ago
> I got lost recently in how the Shuttle software was managed, mostly through IBM mainframes, and z/OSs facilities for all the above. I'm curious how modern development looks in comparison. Do you have any references for this? I also recently went down a research rabbit hole of the history of computing on Earth and in space - super interesting stuff. And the parallels are quite obvious when you look at it.
- akira2501 2y ago
  > Do you have any references for this? Oh yea. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20090001334 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20090001334 > And the parallels are quite obvious when you look at it. The insane level of detail and strategy when writing the shuttle software is something to behold. The testing laboratory SAIL was a full scale orbiter that actually flew test missions. "Day of use I-Loads" are one of my favorite things. They couldn't change the software load, but they could move some constants around before launch, really useful for feeding wind data into the shuttle before it launched.
  - jdiez17 2y ago
    Thanks!

linebeck 2y ago

FSW development is done by a different team than mine but I believe it's just managed through gitlab. Releases are done through tags, and any updates that need to be made have tickets created for them and are developed by the FSW team. Final approval is given by certified product engineers and then a new tag is created for that release. Like I said this is a different team but from what I've seen the process is fairly modern given how old our hardware is. I'm not sure of the exact process of how it's loaded onto the satellite through.

jdiez17 2y ago

> I got lost recently in how the Shuttle software was managed, mostly through IBM mainframes, and z/OSs facilities for all the above. I'm curious how modern development looks in comparison. Do you have any references for this? I also recently went down a research rabbit hole of the history of computing on Earth and in space - super interesting stuff. And the parallels are quite obvious when you look at it.

akira2501 2y ago
> Do you have any references for this? Oh yea. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20090001334 https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20090001334 > And the parallels are quite obvious when you look at it. The insane level of detail and strategy when writing the shuttle software is something to behold. The testing laboratory SAIL was a full scale orbiter that actually flew test missions. "Day of use I-Loads" are one of my favorite things. They couldn't change the software load, but they could move some constants around before launch, really useful for feeding wind data into the shuttle before it launched.
- jdiez17 2y ago
  Thanks!