Investigation and development of a project plan for the REXUS/BEXUS near-space launch programme

Abstract: REXUS/BEXUS is a near-space launch programme providing university students
with the opportunity to fly their experiments aboard rockets and balloons.
This is made possible through the joint efforts of SNSB, DLR Space Agency,
SSC, DLR and ESA Education. Previously, although planning has occurred in
tandem and by agreement with all the parties, no singular project plan
document for the programme has been created. Although operating together
under the EuroLaunch Cooperation Agreement for the organisation and
management of the programme, SSC and DLR both created separate plans at the
beginning of the current REXUS/BEXUS programme.
In order to remedy the discrepancies between the separate project plans and
how work has actually progressed, a joint EuroLaunch Project Plan is to be
developed. Due to the complexity and scope of the project, certain topics in
particular needed to be reviewed and developed. The requirements which were
not explicitly defined previously were addressed by reviewing the previous
documentation sources and establishing a set of requirements to which the
programme must address. Due to the close cooperation, a decomposition of the
work involved was conducted to a high level of detail so that
responsibilities were clear. In order to manage all this data, a work
breakdown visualization system was developed through which an extended task
list database could be transformed into a large graphical representation of
the project for tracking and further planning work. Analysis of scheduling
requirements was conducted by looking at past progress and a simple schedule
was created to address the needs of the programme.
The EuroLaunch Project Plan for REXUS/BEXUS nears completion with the work
presented here. There is some analysis and estimation that must be done
outside of the scope of this thesis before it can go through a three phase
review process to ensure that the project plan is a true representation of
the programme.