Space Data Association… That’s Close Enough (Tech)

[SatNews] With space operations safety first in mind…

The Space Data Association (SDA), established by commercial satellite operators to improve the safety and efficiency of space operations, has announced that the Full Operational Capability (FOC) analysis system in the SDA’s Space Data Center has successfully met SDA objectives to become operational on September 15, 2011. The FOC, developed by the SDA’s main technical adviser and systems developer Analytical Graphics, Inc. (AGI), implements a highly-available, secure and automated Space Situational Awareness (SSA) analysis system.  This system provides SDA members with full Conjunction Assessment (CA) capability (assessing the physical proximity of objects in space) and will support data sharing in support of radio frequency interference (RFI) mitigation. The SDC FOC system converts disparate operator data to a common “normalized” format and performs integrity checks on contributed ephemerides, making the information more reliable. By accessing this authoritative SDA operator-owned orbital data, the system is able to provide SDA members with the most up-to-date SSA reports available for their assets. 

The SDC began initial operations in July 2010 for SDA founding members Inmarsat, Intelsat and SES and, with the transfer of AGI’s prototype SOCRATES geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and Low Earth orbit (LEO) conjunction assessment programs to the SDC in December 2010, the SDC now provides CA processing for more than 65 percent of all operational satellites in GEO. The SDA is also pursuing data-sharing agreements with a variety of government and industry data providers to enhance the scope and quality of data available for these critical operations.