Five new sensor systems are planned or in development to enhance SSA data collection: According to DoD, a potential of 375 sensors and systems are available to contribute to SSA across the commercial, civil, military, and intelligence communities. Surveillance data were collected in a sidereal tracking mode, in which the stars appeared as point sources and the RSOs appeared as streaks. This had to be test-flown, which resulted in the suborbital HTV-2a mission being moved up the manifest to fly before SBSS-1 (Ref. The launch had been delayed from 2009 onwards several times mainly due to technical concerns over the Minotaur-4 launch vehicle, in particular the rocket's third stage. Space & Intelligence Systems (S&IS), El Segundo, CA and Seal Beach, CA The payload deck electronics package consists of: SBSS provides the data necessary to predict the trajectories of these objects, which gives experts an idea if an orbiting satellite may collide with another orbiting object, which allows time for evasive action to be taken in order to avoid collisions.
The Canadian military is looking to build a new electro-optical satellite to allow it to continue providing information to the U.S. space surveillance network beyond 2021. Space-based ADS-B brings surveillance coverage to all airspace, including the Canadian North, supporting polar routes that provide shorter flight times for transcontinental flights, and in the North Atlantic, which connects Canada and the rest of North America to Europe and Asia. The CSSS consists of two major elements: the Sapphire System and the Sensor System Operations Centre (SSOC). - Built by Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems of El Segundo, CA, the SBSS Block 10 satellite is part of a space situational awareness architecture that also includes ground-based radar and optical sensors. - The follow-on SBSS mission might also consider the concept of hosted surveillance payloads on commercial satellites. These objects propose a potential threat to U.S. space assets and the number continues to grow.
Sapphire is a key element of the Canadian Space Surveillance System, and will be a contributing sensor to the US Space Surveillance Network. BATC (Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp.), Boulder and Bloomfield, CO The SBV imager features a telescope of 30 cm aperture, mounted on a two-axis gimbal and equipped with a 2.4 megapixel detector. These preferred orbits are littered with spent rockets, dead satellites, and thousands of other bits of debris that are hazards to space operations. That issue had prompted the Air Force to delay its previously scheduled July 8, 2010 launch of SBSS-1. Few of the sensors were developed for the express purpose of conducting space surveillance (Ref. In monitoring space, SSN employs a so-called "predictive" technique, spot-checking objects as they enter and reenter certain sectors, rather than tracking them continuously in orbit. The spacecraft has a launch mass of ~1031 kg with an average power generation of 840 W (EOL). • On Sept. 26, 2015, the SBSS-1 spacecraft was 5 years on orbit continuing its contribution to the Space Surveillance Network. Currently, the primary sensors used are a core group of 8 dedicated and 18 multiple mission sensors. The SBSS-1 payload is comprised of a visible sensor assembly, a gimbal, and payload deck electronics. As the software effort came to a close, the government and industry team identified a potential mission risk associated with certain connectors used on flight avionics components aboard the Minotaur-IV launch vehicle. Even though the ground-based surveillance systems cannot provide enough information to enable the Air Force to see and comprehend what adversaries or potential adversaries are up to in space, they are considered invaluable, and will remain in service after the SBSS constellation is up and running. In March 2004, Northrop Grumman Mission Systems, the Mission Area Prime Contractor for the Air Force, awarded a Boeing best-of-industry team, including Ball Aerospace and Harris Technologies, the contract to develop and initiate operations of the SBSS-1 Pathfinder satellite.