In discussing the preliminary version of TraCSS, Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce, revealed to Breaking Defense that he's stepping down at the end of the year.
"It's not going to be like a 'boom' milestone delivery where one day there's nothing and the next day, there's a finished system," Richard DalBello, director of the Office of Space Commerce, said of the swap from DoD to Commerce.
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
"As the world gets more complicated, and there are more and more [space situational awareness] providers, the issue of who pays will be one which continually gets battered around," said Richard DalBello, the Office of Space Commerce.
DoD is working with Commerce to provide expertise on how to crunch space observational data, said Travis Langster, DoD principal director for space policy.
"China is a major space player and will be a major space player. They are not participating in the global dialogue, and in global information sharing on SSA. That's unsustainable," said Richard DalBello, head of the Commerce Department's Office of Space Commerce.
That pilot project will use SPACECOM's Unified Data Library (UDL) as a data base, DalBello said, because Commerce is still in the early stages of creating its own cloud-based data storage capability, called the Open Architecture Data Repository (OADR).
As threats rapidly evolve, digital engineering, manufacturing capacity and robust supply chains are critical to meeting challenges.
"We have an issue, as everyone here knows, with China where they're just simply not sharing information. And we cannot safely operate in space if a major space participant isn't actively engaged and sharing information in a way that enhances safety for all," said Commerce's Richard DalBello.
The $87 million in funding for the Commerce office is a step in the direction of implementing the long-stalled plan to transfer authority for tracking non-military spacecraft to a civil agency.
The MoA will be followed by a set of annexes that include how the Defense Department will share funds, personnel and/or technology to help the Office of Space Commerce stand up a civil structure for space situational awareness (SSA).