NOAA Launches Initiative to Inform Future Space Situational Awareness System

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Office of Space Commerce has launched Consolidated Pathfinder, a limited-term project to support the agency’s Traffic Coordinator System for Space.

Under Consolidated Pathfinder, NOAA tasked Pennsylvania-based company COMSPOC to provide orbit determination services. The agency also placed orders with the California-based companies LeoLabs and Slingshot Aerospace to provide space situational awareness data and services for the low-Earth orbit region.

The project will inform the buildout of the operational TraCSS and assess the private sector’s LEO space situational awareness capabilities, the NOAA Office of Space Commerce said.

The OSC project is one of several lines of effort to foster stronger private-public relationships for the space sector.

Earlier in January, Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, the deputy chief of space operations at the U.S. Space Force, said the service has a strategy describing how it would work with the commercial space industry on various matters. Gen. Chance Saltzman, chief of space operations and a past Wash100 awardee, said the guidance must address various matters, including data procurement and asset ownership.

In November, the Space Force awarded Australian flight technology provider Saber Astronautics a $1.2 million Small Business Technology Transfer Phase 2 contract to develop the Space Cockpit data visualization platform. Space Cockpit allows users to track and predict satellite trajectories operating in the cislunar region.