USAF Seeks New Space Situational Awareness Data To Track Threats

摘要

The U.S. Air Force is looking for new data from commercial providers to better map satellite movements and help detect threats to U.S. military satellites, according to a Nov. 4 request for information. In the past year, the Defense Department has been rapidly expanding the amount and type of space situational awareness data it gets from industry. The information will be used in a new space operations center, known as the Joint Interagency Coalition Space Operations Center, or JICSpOC, at Schriever Air Force Base in warfighting experiments, an Air Force official said. The Air Force, which has long relied on its own sensors to feed space situational awareness data to the Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, recently began a pilot program known as the Commercial Integration Cell to get more-refined data from commercial satellite operators. The Defense Department also has agreements with nine nations, two international organizations and 50 commercial entitles to exchange space situational awareness data.