CROWs, RAVENs, and McWOPPERs: Coordination Infrastructure for Joint International Spacecraft Commissioning

The NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar (NISAR) mission required approximately 32 days of sustained joint commissioning operations between NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), with personnel split between ISRO's ISTRAC facility in Bengaluru and JPL's Mission Support Area in Pasadena. This paper describes three core areas that helped enable NISAR’s operations success during the Commissioning Phase: procedural infrastructure, real-time coordination tooling, and human factors preparation. Drawing on Rasmussen's Skill-Rule-Knowledge framework and operational experience, the paper argues that deliberate investment in procedures, tools, and people was essential to mission success, and offers portable lessons for future joint international spacecraft operations.