GTD presents its ECSS Category-A Qualification work at ESA & IEEE’s EDHPC 2025
GTD took part in the European Data Handling & Data Processing Conference 2025 (EDHPC), organised by ESA and IEEE in Elche, Spain. Our colleague Andoni Arregi presented GTD’s contribution on ECSS Cat-A Qualification Promotion Guidelines and Tools, developed together with ESA to help standardise and simplify the promotion of flight software to the highest assurance level.
In his presentation, Andoni detailed how GTD GmbH and ESA have worked hand in hand to create a clear framework of guidelines and supporting tools that assist engineers in promoting software from ECSS Category B to Category A — the most demanding level of reliability within European space standards.
This initiative includes open-source utilities such as coverage analyzers, control-flow visualisers, and binary validation tools, which together help ensure software can safely operate under the most critical mission conditions.
By defining these processes and tools, GTD contributes to increasing transparency, consistency, and confidence across the European space software ecosystem — ensuring that critical systems meet the strictest safety and quality requirements.
What is ECSS Category A?
Within the European Cooperation for Space Standardization (ECSS), software is classified by its impact on mission and safety.
- Category A represents the highest criticality level, where any failure could lead to mission loss or endanger lives.
- Promoting software from B to A means bringing it up to this level of robustness — through rigorous validation, traceability, and assurance processes.
This work underlines GTD’s role as a trusted software partner in Europe’s most complex and safety-driven missions.
By sharing its experience at EDHPC 2025, GTD reinforces its long-term commitment to software reliability, mission assurance, and European space excellence.
