Keeping watch on aggressor satellites a key challenge for U.S. Space Force

Source: https://spacenews.com/keeping-watch-on-aggressor-satellites-a-key-challenge-for-u-s-space-force/

The U.S. Space Force is working on increasing their space-tracking capability for adversaries in space, particularly in geosynchronous orbit. It is becoming more important to track adversary satellites as they become more and more aggressive. Space domain awareness helps keep our satellites safe from aggressor satellites by helping to identify, track, and anticipate the behaviors of the spacecraft and be one step ahead of the adversary.

To do this, the Space Force has requested a $100 million dollar increase for space-tracking for 2024. This will go towards improving ground radar such as the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), optical telescopes such as the Ground-based Electio-Optical Deep Space Surveillance System, surveillance satellites such as the Geosynchronous Space Awareness Program (GSSAP), and data from private companies. They are also working with the National Reconaissance Office to increase satellite coverage in GEO.

Another effort to increase space domain awareness is launching small surveillance satellites on commercial launch vehicles with a super fast turnaround time of 24 hours, starting with Victus Nox in May. This will allow investigation of potential threats within less than a day.

A better space domain awareness architecture would increase the cybersecurity of military satellites because there would be knowledge of the threat before it has the ability to attack. This would allow those satellites to have a higher availability for their respective missions.