The Commerce Department has officially announced the beta launch of its new civil space tracking system, aimed at relieving the Defense Department of the responsibility for providing space situational awareness (SSA) data to non-military users. This initiative is now in operation with a select group of participants from industry, academia, and civil agencies.
John Hill, the senior space policy officer for the Department of Defense (DoD), stated, “As the DoC assumes this important mission, it will continue to have access to data collected through DoD’s worldwide space surveillance network. DoD will also continue to provide SSA services to civil and commercial users during the transition process until DoC is able to assume full responsibility for the mission.” He added that this transition will enhance support for civil users and enable the DoD to concentrate resources on its primary defense missions.
The initial phase of the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) is designed to alert users about potential collisions in space through conjunction data messages (CDMs). According to officials from the Office of Space Commerce (OSC), users will receive these notifications every four hours—an improvement from the DoD’s previous eight-hour production rate. Sandy Magnus, chief engineer at OSC, discussed this development with Breaking Defense on September 16.
During her presentation at the annual Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance Technologies (AMOS) conference, Magnus noted that the beta users were selected to provide a diverse array of input, representing various types of satellite operators across different orbits. The nine participating organizations include:
- National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
- Maxar
- Telesat
- Intelsat
- Georgia Institute of Technology
- Planet Labs
- Eutelsat OneWeb
- Iridium
- Aerospace Corporation
Notably, NOAA serves as the parent organization for OSC and is responsible for licensing remote sensing satellite operators.
As the TraCSS program evolves, OSC officials have indicated that TraCSS.gov will eventually offer more than just collision warnings. The platform aims to provide additional information related to on-orbit decisions, including data on launch and re-entry safety.
