Turn the ICD into flight code.
Spacebackend reads your spacecraft interface document, then produces the software and tests your team would write, in days rather than a quarter.
An ICD defines the code your flight software needs.
Your spacecraft interface document specifies packet structures, field encodings, boundary conditions, and command sequences for flight software. It sits in a PDF or Excel file. Engineers then convert it into code and test stubs manually, field by field, repeating work from the previous program.
That conversion is transcription, not design. Across a 3-subsystem ICD set, it keeps one engineer occupied for three to six weeks. Once the document changes, the code begins to diverge. Test harness work moves to the end of the schedule, when revisions cost the most.
Spacebackend makes this step deterministic: upload an ICD and download the code and test suite your team would have produced. The document remains the source of truth instead of becoming a reference copied once.
Three steps to verified code
Send your ICD
PDF, Excel, or XML. The parser identifies document structure, finds packet field tables, and extracts names, types, bit widths, byte offsets, and range constraints.
Map structure into a code schema
Field types become typed class properties. Widths and offsets become encode and decode logic. Limits become assertion parameters. Each extracted element keeps a reference to its source document row.
Get modules and tests
Python modules and optional C headers for TM/TC encoding and decoding, plus a pytest suite with boundary assertions. A requirements traceability CSV maps each ICD field ID to its code line.
What each ICD upload produces
Artifacts come from the source document. Re-upload and regenerate when the ICD changes. No manual sync required.
CCSDS Packet Builders
TMFrame and TCFrame classes provide typed field accessors. Names from your ICD table become generated class properties, taken from the column header identified during parsing.
TM/TC Encoders and Decoders
Bit-level packing and unpacking follows the ICD's width and offset columns. Support includes CCSDS Space Packet Protocol, ECSS PUS services, MIL-STD-1553 message frames, and custom XML packet layouts.
Unit Test Code
Each packet field gets a boundary assertion and each generated class gets an encode-then-decode round-trip check. Tests include the ICD field ID as an inline comment, allowing review without reopening the document.
Requirements Traceability Map
A CSV links each ICD field ID to the generated file and implementing line. The Program plan can export it as a review-gate artifact, while field-to-code mappings remain visible in the portal on all plans.
From our pilot programs
We needed to process 3 subsystem ICDs before integration. Doing it manually would have occupied one engineer for most of a sprint. We uploaded Monday and had encoders and initial test stubs by Wednesday. We reviewed the output, rather than writing everything from scratch.
Generated test stubs gave us something concrete for the integration team before hardware was available. Every assertion includes the ICD field ID in a comment. Reviewers traced each check to the specification without asking which row it came from.
Pilot result: one team reduced integration test prep from 6 weeks to under 8 days across 3 subsystem ICDs (reported from early-access program, Q1 2026). Early-access slots reviewed on a rolling basis.
Start free, scale as you fly.
No long-term contracts. Plans fit solo engineers, small subsystem teams, and mission programs.
- 1 ICD document per month
- Up to 500 generated lines of code
- PDF and Excel ICD upload
- Up to 5 concurrent ICDs
- 50,000 generated LOC per month
- CCSDS, PUS, MIL-STD-1553 support
- Python and C output
- Unit test suite generation
- Unlimited ICDs and generated LOC
- Requirements traceability matrix export
- Custom interface standard profiles
- ECSS-E-ST-70-41C compliance hints
- Priority support with response SLA
V&V by the team building it
Technical writing on ICD parsing, test generation, and tradeoffs observed across spacecraft programs.
Spacebackend 2026: This Half's Shipped Work
A practical look at XML MBSE support alongside PDF and Excel ICDs, parser speed gains, and a lesson from our first ECSS-E-ST-70-41C compliance-hint pass.
Reducing Integration Test Cycles: Weeks to Days
Why integration test preparation takes weeks, and how generated stubs with field-level assertions can shorten it before hardware is available.
Ground Segment V&V Tooling Gap
Why ground command and telemetry tools often trail flight software by a full development cycle, and how shared parsed field definitions can close the gap before mission readiness review.