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 science instrument contact for observing programs which have instrument health and safety concerns and/or which are deemed more challenging, or for which more intensive help is requested by the observer or PC during the development, implementation, planning, and scheduling 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 science instrument-specific aspects of technical and scientific issues and questions. For pre-observation help with programs to which no Contact Scientist has been assigned, and for programs which use multiple instruments, the PC may contact the relevant instrument group with cc to the program's shared email history folder, or the PC and/or the observer may contact the Help Desk via help@stsci.edu, again with cc to the program's shared history folder so that all concerned parties are automatically cc'd. CS duties end with program execution. After execution of the observation, the Help Desk serves as the point of contact for questions about or help with 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.

Explanation of Program Status

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

1. Pending Submission: You have not yet submitted your Phase II program to the STScI. 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.

Other Statuses

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 program such that the data from some visits was severely degraded in quantity or quality. All visits in this program 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.