Adacore has announced that the European Space Agency (ESA) has selected it to provide a qualified multitasking solution for spacecraft software development to support multiple ongoing and future ESA projects.
As part of this contract, AdaCore has implemented a pre-qualified version of the Ravenscar Small Footprint (SFP) library – a configurable Ada run-time library that implements the Ravenscar profile, allows customisation for specific platforms and capabilities, and is suitable for qualification in different domains, particularly those in which certification or a reduced footprint is needed.
The result, a pre-qualified, multitasking runtime named Ravenscar SFP QUAL, targets Ada development on LEON2 and LEON3 boards. It is pre-qualified according to the European Cooperation for Space Standardisation’s (ECSS) Criticality Level B for software. ECSS is an initiative established to develop a coherent, single set of user-friendly standards for use in all European space activities. ECSS-E-ST-40C and ECSS-Q-ST-80C are the software-related standards for use in all European space projects and applications.
As part of the validation and verification activities, a comprehensive test suite is also being developed to check compliance with restricted Ada profiles.
“Reliability of mission-critical software is a key factor for ESA satellite missions,” said Mark Dean, Software Engineer, European Space Agency. “We are confident that AdaCore’s tools and run-time environment are able to provide a solid base for the development and qualification of such applications. The recent cooperation between ESA and AdaCore to pre-qualify the generic elements of AdaCore’s Ravenscar SFP run-time towards the ECSS software standards ensures these tools are readily available to the European space industry and offers a clear path towards software qualification on a number of upcoming missions.”
“AdaCore has a long and successful track record working with the ESA and the Space industry,” said Jamie Ayre, Commercial Director at AdaCore. “We are pleased that ESA recognises the benefits of GNAT Pro and the Ravenscar profile run-time libraries for designing, developing, and now qualifying mission-critical space applications. We look forward to supporting ESA’s software efforts on this and other projects long into the future.”
