In a move that has implications for both national defense and commercial space ventures, the U.S. Defense Department has disclosed plans to begin transferring high-accuracy data on the positions of satellites and space debris to the Department of Commerce (DoC) next year. The data will be a linchpin for the DoC’s efforts to establish a space traffic advisory service, according to Barbara Golf, senior advisor on space domain awareness to Space Systems Command.
Speaking at the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) Conference, Golf described the intentions to release the high-accuracy catalog to the DoC in machine-readable format every four hours indefinitely, beginning in spring of next year. This will provide the DoC with the basic information needed to ensure spaceflight safety, which could then be complemented by commercial data.
This initiative results from the White House’s 2018 Space Policy Directive-3, where the DoC was tasked with relieving the DoD of the responsibility for monitoring the increasingly congested skies and providing non-military space operators warnings regarding potential on-orbit collisions. Initial reliance will be on the Space Force’s Space Surveillance Network of ground- and space-based radar and telescopes.
The Pentagon plans to share this information with the newly created civil service, the Traffic Coordination System for Space, or TraCSS. The process of formalizing this exchange is already underway, with the two entities having penned a memorandum of agreement on cooperation.
Richard DalBello, the head of the Office of Space Commerce, communicated his office’s intent to spend nearly $59 million in commercial acquisitions in FY2024, with a significant portion of this funding dedicated to the acquisition and integration of commercial space situational awareness data and services as TraCSS matures.
Security concerns with regards to data sharing seem to be alleviated, with DalBello foreseeing a gradual process of easing in which issues are identified, industry dialogues take place, and necessary restrictions are applied if needed. However, the overall trend, he claims, will be towards openness.
For the full article, please see: Breaking Defense’s original coverage.