A medida que se lanzan m\u00e1s sat\u00e9lites comerciales y gubernamentales a LEO, el servicio tiene una creciente necesidad de visibilidad en el dominio , que se encuentra aproximadamente a 1.200 millas sobre la superficie de la Tierra. El objetivo es identificar proveedores comerciales que ofrezcan sensores como servicio, hoy o en el futuro, con capacidad para asignar tareas individuales a sensores directamente desde una capa de aplicaci\u00f3n preexistente.<\/p>\n
The Space Force recently\u00a0launched a survey<\/a>\u00a0of the commercial marketplace for companies that can track and characterize activities in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n As more commercial and government satellites launch to LEO, the service has\u00a0a growing need for visibility in the domain<\/a>, which resides about 1,200 miles above the Earth\u2019s surface.<\/p>\n In a May 16 notice, the service calls for information from firms that can provide space domain awareness in the \u201cincreasingly congested orbital environment.\u201d<\/p>\n Specifically, the service wants these systems to provide better insight into \u201cobjects of interest\u201d and real-time assessment of potential conjunctions. It also wants data that can be used to quickly investigate anomalies in LEO to understand if measures need to be taken to protect U.S. space assets.<\/p>\n \u201cThe goal is to identify commercial vendors offering sensors as a service, today or in the future, with a capability for individual sensor tasking directly from a pre-existing U.S. government mission application layer,\u201d the service said. \u201cThe government is particularly interested in solutions that prioritize data quality, verification, and traceability to ensure the reliability of information used in time-critical decision-making processes.\u201d<\/p>\n The mission application layer referenced in the notice is a software capability that provides information about the environment to inform military operators as they direct and task commercial sensors.<\/p>\n The call for LEO-based space domain awareness follows a similar push from the Space Force to\u00a0identify commercial capabilities in geosynchronous orbit, known as GEO<\/a>, which sits at a higher altitude than LEO and is where many of the service\u2019s high-value systems reside.<\/p>\n In early 2024, the service sought input from private sector firms on whether their GEO sensing systems could augment the existing government-owned satellites\u00a0that make up its Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program<\/a>, or GSSAP constellation.<\/p>\n That market research led the service to craft an acquisition plan for a commercial GEO-based space domain awareness architecture. The service approved the initial plan in late April and is now fleshing out a more detailed strategy, including how to make the system available at an unclassified level to U.S. allies.<\/p>\n The Space Force has several ongoing initiatives to leverage the growing marketplace of LEO-based services. In 2023, it selected a pool of 16 vendors to provide a range of services as part of its Proliferated Low Earth Orbit program. The contract initially had a ceiling of $900 million but has since grown to $13 billion in response to demand from military users.<\/p>\n In the space domain awareness area, a number of startups \u2014 including ExoAnalytic Solutions,\u00a0LeoLabs<\/a>\u00a0and Slingshot Aerospace \u2014 are offering a range of capabilities, from AI tracking tools to mobile, ground-based radars.<\/p>\n The May 16 notice doesn\u2019t state preference for either space-based or ground-based systems, but it notes that the service has a particular need for more positional data as well as electro-optical and active and passive radio frequency observations.<\/p>\n