Space domain awareness

Space domain awareness is the study and monitoring of satellites orbiting the Earth. It involves the detection, tracking, cataloging and identification of artificial objects, i.e. active/inactive satellites, spent rocket bodies, or fragmentation debris.

"Space surveillance" redirects here and is not to be confused with Reconnaissance satellite.

Aims

Space domain awareness accomplishes the following:

• Predicting when and where a decaying space object will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere;
• Preventing a returning space object, which to radar looks like a missile, from triggering a false alarm in missile-attack warning sensors;^[1]
• Charting the present position of space objects and plot their anticipated orbital paths;
• Detecting new human-made objects in space;
• Producing a running catalogue of human-made space objects;
• Determining which country owns a re-entering space object;^[1]
• Informing countries whether or not objects may interfere with satellites and International Space Station orbits;
• Providing data for future anti-satellite weapons systems.

Systems

Ground-based electro-optical deep-space surveillance telescopes at White Sands Missile Range.

Systems include:

• The DEEP-Sight prototype, designed by Deepinder Uppal on behalf of the Defense Innovation Unit, this system is designed to provide space domain awareness across a broad-spectrum of SDA use cases to Space Force, the United States Navy and PSRA (Public Satellite Research and Analysis) teams. ^[2]
• The United States Space Surveillance Network which has detectors such as the Space Fence (replacing the now defunct Air Force Space Surveillance System) and Space Surveillance Telescope^[1]
• The Russian Centre for Outer Space Monitoring with facilities such as Okno and Krona and Sazhen-S, used to analyse the orbital parameters of space craft.
• The French GRAVES (Grand Réseau Adapté à la Veille Spatiale) bi-static radar-based space surveillance system deploy by French Air Force
• The European Space Situational Awareness Programme with multiple assets in its Space Surveillance and Tracking Segment
• The Australian based Silentium Defence Oculus passive radar space observatory in Swan Reach, South Australia^[3]
• The American National Reconnaissance Office's Silentbarker satellites^[4]

Silentium Defence Oculus Observatory