The joint DoD-Commerce SSA pilot launched Dec. 5 and will run for two months.
By Theresa HitchensThe Commerce Department doesn’t simply want to replicate what DoD does now in providing space situational awareness data to industry, but go beyond to provide “a technologically superior product,” said Richard DalBello, head of DoC’s Commercial Space Office.
By Theresa HitchensTraditionally, DoD and the Intelligence Community — as well as some US allies — have been leery about revealing the position of US national security satellites, because they wish to conceal their activities and characteristics.
By Theresa HitchensThe $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.
By Theresa HitchensThe 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).
By Theresa HitchensActive debris removal is “definitely a need, and I think there is a use case for industry to get after that as a service-based opportunity,” said Maj. Gen. DeAnna Burt.
By Theresa Hitchens“I just think it’s a little too late for trying to have a stamp on something. It is just trying to say that they did something,” said veteran space policy wonk Erin Neal.
By Theresa HitchensSIA says there could be as many as 107,671 satellites on orbit by 2029. There are now slightly fewer than 3,000.
By Theresa Hitchens“The DoD system is not scalable to meet the demands of a growing number of objects in space and to deal with an increasing number of space operators,” the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) report says.
By Theresa Hitchens“Putting non-maneuverable cubesats into LEO in densely populated orbits … is like putting go-carts on the freeway. Nobody would do that,” says Viasat’s John Janka.
By Theresa HitchensThe independent FCC seemingly “wrote these proposed rules mostly (if not entirely) in a vacuum, potentially failing to ensure White House directions in Space Policy Directives 1-through-4 were fully accounted for,” said one USG official with an eye on the debate.
By Theresa HitchensO’Connell said that the “silver lining” to the near miss of two defunct US satellites over Pittsburg on Jan. 29 is that “people are beginning to realize that these near misses are taking place much more frequently.”
By Theresa Hitchens“Of all people, it’s the ‘space warmongers’ doing the most to try to sustain the (space) environment,” one DoD official said.
By Theresa Hitchens“I see no reason why a satellite the size of a shoebox, with the life expectancy of a guinea pig, should be regulated the same way as a spacecraft the size of a school bus that will stay in orbit for centuries,” says FCC Chairman Ajit Pai.
By Theresa Hitchens