Observing with HST II: Improving Service for Observing Program Development

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Session 3 -- HST Performance and Process
Display presentation, Monday, 30, 1994, 9:20-6:30

[3.02] Observing with HST II: Improving Service for Observing Program Development

Ron Downes, Ray Lucas, Melissa McGrath, Karla Peterson, Tony Roman, Peg Stanley, Denise C. Taylor (STScI), Bill Workman (CSC/STScI)

Great strides have been made in improving the quality of HST science with the success of the first HST Servicing Mission, and the quantity of HST science by increasing HST observing efficiency to an average of well over 40\% in the past year. The focus has now shifted to improving the process of proposing for HST observing time, and then developing effective HST observing programs. This paper will present the STScI plans for improving service to the HST observer during the program development and flight preparation stages.

An assessment of the HST implementation process revealed that too often the handoff of observing program responsibility within the STScI organization led to unexpected ``queueing" and confusion for the user about who to contact at various stages. Our new process will assign to each program one person who will remain the single point of contact to the user and will retain end-to-end responsiblity for the successful execution of the defined program. This position is the ``program coordinator''. The program coordinator will be assigned when the proposal is accepted and will have a broad range of responsibilities, including helping the observer complete their Phase II program development. The program coordinator will work with the observer throughout the implementation and planning process. Although some programs will be sufficiently difficult or large to require a team of people to implement them, there will still be a single program coordinator as the user contact. This paper will serve to introduce the HST community to the program coordinator concept and will highlight the improvements in the users' interface with the STScI development, implementation and execution process.

Monday program listing