NOAA OSC Extends Consolidated Pathfinder Order with LeoLabs
Company Will Continue to Provide Orbital Data and Technical Expertise
The NOAA Office of Space Commerce (OSC) has extended its Consolidated Pathfinder Order with LeoLabs to inform the development of the civil-led, US Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS).
"(This) announcement is a positive development towards ensuring the U.S. Traffic Coordination System for Space meets the safety needs of the growing space economy."
Tony Frazier, LeoLabs
This order enables LeoLabs to continue supporting the development of TraCSS as the OSC extends the live data collection period of the pathfinder project. The purpose of this extension is to explore additional opportunities to improve performance and conduct further analysis for metric validation. During this time, the OSC will continue to leverage LeoLabs' in-house expertise, artificial intelligence techniques, and the largest commercial dataset of over 20,000 objects and millions of daily conjunction data messages.
This extension builds on the success of the previous live data collection period, during which the team confirmed data flows and conducted object tasking using the mission planning tool.
"(This) announcement is a positive development towards ensuring the U.S. Traffic Coordination System for Space meets the safety needs of the growing space economy," said LeoLabs Chief Executive Officer Tony Frazier. "LeoLabs is proud to deliver our commercial expertise, data, and services to this monumental effort to rapidly deploy a U.S. civil space traffic coordination system."
The Consolidated Pathfinder is part of a series of pathfinder projects aimed at supporting the development of TraCSS by exploring how commercial Space Situational Awareness (SSA) capabilities can be tested and integrated. This order demonstrates the rapid progress made by the US Government in developing this system and fulfilling Space Policy Directive-3 (SPD-3), which calls for the development of a national Space Traffic Management (STM) service managed by a civil government agency. The US is not only demonstrating its leadership in space safety but is also signaling its ongoing support for the space industry by integrating commercial solutions.