Program Type

HST observing programs are categorized into a number of different types:

AR - Archival Research
CAL/SI - Calibration program, where SI is the science instrument
ENG/SI - Engineering program where SI is the science instrument
GO - General Observer program
GO/DD - Director's Discretionary program
GO/PAR - Pure parallel program
GTO/team - Guaranteed Time Observer program, where team indicates the GTO team affiliation
NASA - Observing program conducted at the direction of NASA
SNAP - Snapshot program
There are numerous other program types. Please contact your PC or CS if you have a question about your program type.

Contacts at the STScI

Program Coordinator: The Program Coordinator (PC) is the primary technical point of contact during the development, implementation, planning and scheduling of a program. The PC and Contact Scientist (CS - see below) work together to prepare programs for flight execution with the PC concentrating on technical issues and questions.
Contact Scientist: The Contact Scientist (CS) is the scientific contact during the development, implementation, planning, scheduling, and data reduction and analysis of a program. The CS and the Program Coordinator (PC - see above) work together to prepare programs for flight execution with the CS concentrating on scientific issues and questions. After execution of the observation, the CS and a Data Analyst (if necessary) provide support for the data calibration, reduction, and analysis.
Liaison Scientist: For Cycle 5 programs only, the Liaison Scientist (LS) is the scientific contact during the development, implementation, planning and scheduling of a program. The LS and the Program Coordinator (PC -see above) work together to prepare programs for flight execution with the LS concentrating on scientific issues and questions.

A program normally goes through the following steps (in order) from submission to execution:

1. Pending Phase II Submission: You have not yet submitted your program to the STScI. If you are not sure how to do this, look here. If you have submitted your program and are getting this as your status, you should contact your Program Coordinator for assistance.
2. Implementation: Your Program Coordinator is preparing your visits for flight scheduling. The preparation may be complete for some visits, but at least one visit is still being worked. Please see the visit statuses for details and contact your Program Coordinator if you need more information.
3. Scheduling: All of your visits have been implemented and are available as candidates for flight scheduling. Please see the visit statuses for details and contact your Program Coordinator if you need more information.
4. Program has been Completed: Your program has been completed. For most programs, this means that all observations have been made. In some cases, technical or other problems may prevent the execution of certain observations. Such a program may be marked completed if the completion threshold has been met. Please contact your Program Coordinator if you have questions about this.

Pending Update from Observer: At least one of the visits cannot be implemented until you supply updates or further information. Please see the visit statuses for details.
Program has been Withdrawn: Your program has been withdrawn from the observing cycle. Please contact your Program Coordinator if this is in error.
Failed: Problems were encountered during the execution of this proposal such that the data from some visits was severely degraded in quantity or quality. All visits in this proposal are either failed or withdrawn. Contact your Program Coordinator for further information.
Other: Please contact your Program Coordinator for an explanation of the state of your program.

Send comments about this page to: help@stsci.edu