The United States is in discussions with European Space Agency (ESA) member nations to ensure the two sectors’ Space Situational Awareness (SSA) systems can share information and operate with each other, according to a high-ranking State Department official.
“The United States State Department, in close collaboration with the U.S. Department of Defense, is currently engaged in technical exchanges with experts from the European Space Agency, European Union and individual EU member states to ensure interoperability between our two respective SSA systems,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Arms Control, Verification and Compliance Frank Rose told an audience during a March 1 speech at a symposium in Tokyo on sustainable space development. Europe is currently developing its own SSA system, he added.
Rose also said the U.S. sees opportunities for cooperation on SSA with allies and partners in the Asia-Pacific, “especially Japan,” he said.
The United States, specifically Strategic Command’s (STRATCOM) Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC), provides notifications to governments and commercial satellite owner/operators of potentially hazardous conjunctions, or collisions, between orbiting objects. This provides the satellite owner/operators with information to decide whether to move the satellite to prevent a collision.
Rose also mentioned in his speech that an example of the opportunity to enhance the “long-term sustainability” of the space environment is the creation of “near-term, voluntary and pragmatic space transparency and confidence building measures,” or TCBMs. TCBMs are a way for governments to address challenges and share information and enhance knowledge of the space environment.
Rose said an example of a TCBM could be an international code of conduct for space, like the one the United States announced on Jan. 17 it wants to develop with the E.U. and other space-faring nations.
“An International Code of Conduct, if adopted, would establish a political commitment not to conduct debris-generating events and would increase the transparency of operations in space to avoid the danger of collisions,” Rose said.
Rose also said the United States is taking an “active role” in the working group of the scientific and technical subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS), which he said be a key forum for the international development of “best practices guidelines” for space activities.
According to DoD spokeswoman Lt. Col. April Cunningham, DoD has participated in State Department-led dialogues over the last four years to facilitate more technical dialogue on space data standards and formats. Cunningham said the development of these standards can help facilitate interoperability between the U.S.’ SSA and any potential European SSA system.