NASA Uses SDA’s Info To Keep Space Safe…No Air Bags In Space

[SatNews] Space can be a dangerous place, no traffic lights, no air bags in the event of a collision, and so to ensure safety…

NASA had signed an agreement to use information provided by the Space Data Association (SDA). This information will be used to help avoid collisions in space, which are an increasing danger as orbital lanes get ever-more crowded.

The SDA was established to improve the safety and efficiency of space operations, and Intelsat is a founding member. NASA agreeing to use SDA information to support its robotic space probes is a powerful demonstration of the confidence the agency has in SDA’s conjunction assessments (the term for tracking and computing objects in orbit).

Each time a new organization begins to work with SDA, all members benefit. This is because organizations don’t only receive data from the SDA, they provide it as well. As part of the agreement, NASA will be providing satellite positioning information (referred to as ephemera) to SDA.

The broader the participation with SDA becomes, the richer and more exact the data becomes to avoid collisions in space. Intelsat General’s Richard DalBello talks about risk management and collision avoidance in this video.

Absent from SDA’s initial list of government partners is the U.S. Defense Department, which operates the world’s most sophisticated space surveillance network. Theirs is the unofficial role of international conservator of the orbital environment. Commercial satellite operators depend on the U.S. Air Force-led Joint Space Operations Center (JSPOC) for satellite- and debris-location data, as do other governments including China, whose growing military power and space presence are viewed by many as a threat to the United States and its allies. Additionally, U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees JSPOC, hasn’t participated for reasons that include security concerns not the least which is that opening JSPOC’s computer systems to outside data could render some of the nation’s most critical defense capabilities vulnerable to cyber hackers looking to create mischief, mayhem or worse.

The SDA seeks the participation of all satellite operators globally. Their desire is that agencies such as NASA and NOAA will open the door to DoD participation, as well as international civil agencies.  Space is getting very crowded and cooperation in this area is to everyone’s benefit.

The Air Force and SDA, based in the Isle of Man, have had an ongoing dialog but no formal partnerships have been announced. Earlier this year the nonprofit organization said it had offered to help the JSPOC better predict close approaches, or conjunctions, between its members’ satellites and other orbital objects. The JSPOC regularly provides conjunction assessments to commercial operators, but these alerts would be more accurate if the service had the most up-to-date information on the whereabouts of industry spacecraft, and the SDA is attempting to enable the JSPOC to ingest this information automatically.