New UN forum seeks busting space traffic cooperation barriers
US officials say they hope the talks spur greater transparency from China in particular about satellite operations.
Appropriators restore funding for Commerce’s TraCSS spacewatch effort
After a drastic reduction proposed by the White House, the Senate Appropriations Committee would fund the Office of Space Commerce at $60 million in FY26 to continue with TraCSS.
Breaking Defense announces Breaking Defense Europe, a new, distinct, European edition
Breaking Defense Europe will launch May 4 with Tim Martin and Elisabeth Gosselin-Malo as co-editors.
Industry lobbies to protect Commerce space office at risk of cuts
The Trump administration’s budget would dramatically shrink the Office of Space Commerce and cancel an effort to transition responsibilities for keeping tabs on civil satellites from the Pentagon to the Commerce Department.
EU space monitoring program moves toward ‘strategic autonomy’
Many of the sensors contributed by the 15 EU SST participating states are military assets, and the European Defence Fund also is being tapped to help foster commercial innovation in the space situational awareness domain.
As industry frets licensing bottlenecks, NOAA reinstates top commercial space officials
Representatives of US remote sensing firms remain extremely nervous about possible roadblocks to future plans that require either new licenses or license modifications due to the personnel downsizing resulting from the efforts of Elon Musk's DOGE team to chop the size of the federal bureaucracy.
Firings sap NOAA office responsible for licensing remote sensing satellite firms
License holders are receiving emails saying that all correspondence with the Commercial Remote Sensing for Regulatory Affairs is now being routed to the NOAA Office of General Counsel as no "senior personnel remain in the office," according to communications reviewed by Breaking Defense.
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America must adopt a Sixth Domain of warfare doctrine
The Sixth Domain is not defined by geography. It’s a new kind of conflict in which autonomy and networked systems allow thousand-dollar consumer electronics to destroy multi-million-dollar conventional weapons systems.
US needs to engage, as well as deter, China to maintain space leadership: CFR report
"In the increasingly chaotic realm of space, the United States’ position is slipping," warns the Council on Foreign Relations in its new report on America's space leadership challenges.
Commerce taps Slingshot to create space tracking user website
Once up and running, the new TraCSS.gov site will allow commercial and foreign operators to migrate from DoD's Space-track.org website for accessing data on space object whereabouts.
Lot full? In an increasingly crowded orbit, MITRE studies how many LEO sats are too many
The proposed framework is based on adapting the risk-based approach the international air traffic control system uses to manage airspace to prevent planes from colliding, said Kevin Toner, vice president of MITRE's Center for Government Effectiveness and Modernization.
Commerce ‘on track’ for version 1.0 of space tracking system, using DoD data
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.
Modernizing defense enterprise IT without disrupting the mission
Government can’t stop to update systems, so modernization has to happen without interruptions.
Commerce IG frets delays in transition of space monitoring from DoD
The IG further is urging NOAA's Office of Space Commerce to move out more aggressively to craft a plan to set binding rules to manage the ever increasing amount of on-orbit traffic — despite the fact, as pointed out to Breaking Defense by senior NOAA officials, that Congress has yet to give OSC the legal authority to do so.
White House asks Congress to split ‘new space’ authority between Commerce, Transportation
The Biden administration's plan came, in part, in response to a different congressional proposal about how to divvy up heavenly authorities, sources told Breaking Defense.
Pentagon plans to transfer ‘high accuracy’ space tracking data to Commerce
"Commercial data, commercial processing is not classified. It does not matter that the DoD wishes it were," said Barbara Golf, special advisor to Space Systems Command.
Space moves: Trackers losing maneuvering sats, increasing heavenly danger, study says
The COMSPOC study included a look at risks from unannounced rendezvous and proximity operations — such as those being routinely performed by the Russian "inspector" satellite Luch/Olymp that have raised hackles at the Defense Department — and the risks to US military satellites cause by mis-plotting the trajectories of adversary birds.