Basic SSA Services Definition Input Sought by NOAA
The Office of Space Commerce (OSC) has published a request for information (RFI) asking for additional input from interested parties on its currently planned scope of basic SSA services to be provided via the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program. This input will inform OSC’s development of capabilities to share space situational awareness data, information and services to space operators and the public.
The RFI lists 23 different types of SSA services and states whether or not each one will be included in the “free of fee” service that OSC intends to provide through TraCSS to any satellite owner/operator willing to accept the tenets of participation.
According to the RFI posted to the Federal Register, the base service is limited to those necessary to maintain the safety, stability, and sustainability of the increasingly congested and contested space environment. Basic services can include additional services that significantly increase the safety, stability, and sustainability of the space environment.
Basic SSA Services Driven by Market Dynamics
However, OSC will also consider whether the provision of such services will negatively impact the U.S. Space Situational Awareness industry. The precise demarcation between these basic and other advanced services is driven by present SSA needs and market dynamics. Given the rapid acceleration of technological advances, OSC is committed to continue to observe changes in the marketplace and its underlying technologies, and consider how these developments, along with SSA service needs, might shift the demarcation between basic and advanced services as time goes on. Where a service is judged to be a “basic service,” OSC is also interested in whether the service should be provided by the government or should be purchased by the government from a commercial vendor and redistributed to TraCSS users.
OSC invites the public to provide input on the scope of proposed basic SSA safety services, impacts of those services on commercial SSA providers, tenets of participation and receipt of those services, and general feedback.
Comments are due by February 27, 2023.
(Source: Office of Space Commerce. Images from file)