Improving Satellite Conjunction Alerts

摘要

Despite having stepped up its effort in recent years to share orbital data with commercial satellite operators, the U.S. Air Force continues to frustrate companies that rely on the service for alerts of potential close approaches, or conjunctions, involving their satellites. According to a study by Intelsat, the majority of conjunction alerts provided to the company in September 2011 by the Air Force-led Joint Space Operations Center (JSPOC) were false alarms. Moreover, potential conjunctions that should have been forecasted by the JSPOC were missed.