The U.S. Space Force plans to launch a prototype software environment later this fall to combine commercial and military space-tracking data, with the initial system designed to deliver faster indications of activity in orbit. The service also intends to build a minimum viable product that can become operational quickly, Breaking Defense reported.
The effort is being led by Mission Delta 2, the Space Force organization responsible for organizing, training and equipping Guardians for space-domain-awareness operations. The unit includes the 18th and 19th Space Defense Squadrons, which operate the Space Surveillance Network’s telescopes and radars around the world and use software to analyze observations of space objects, including those operated by potential adversaries.
Col. Barry Croker, Mission Delta 2’s commander, said the immediate priority is improving support for space-control operations. The prototype is expected to favor timeliness over the highest possible accuracy in every observation, allowing operators to receive faster, if less precise, information from commercial companies that monitor objects in space.
That approach could help operators identify significant changes sooner, such as the appearance of a debris cloud or the launch of a large group of satellites. Croker described the desired result as a faster indication of what is happening, even when the initial information is not perfect. The prototype would therefore support early awareness while preserving more exact analysis for missions that require it.
The Space Force already obtains commercial tracking information through the Joint Commercial Operations cell and stores it in the cloud-based Unified Data Library. That information, however, currently runs on a parallel system rather than being fused directly into the operational computer systems used for space-domain awareness, according to Gen. Stephen Whiting, commander of U.S. Space Command.
Whiting said current space-domain-awareness capabilities are not sufficient to support precise targeting of adversary satellites. In his assessment, automatically integrating commercial data into the military’s existing systems, while maintaining funding for the commercial information itself, would provide a major near-term improvement.
The prototype will operate in a separate software environment rather than immediately altering the systems that handle the most demanding military tracking missions. Croker said that separation is intended to prevent commercial information with lower accuracy from degrading military sensor data used for high-accuracy collision-avoidance work. The planned environment would allow the Space Force to test and use fused information without perturbing those existing missions.
The next step is the planned fall launch of the prototype environment and the rapid development of the minimum viable product. The project’s initial focus will be on creating a usable way to combine faster commercial observations with military tracking data while keeping high-accuracy operational functions separate.