The US Space Forces Procurement Unit has announced the launch of a new program, whose purpose is to warn private satellite operators of potential threats to their spacecraft.
A program called Orbital Watch involves providing unclassified information about threats over 900 commercial companies, registered through a special portal called Front Door. At the same time, it doesn't matter, whether they have government contracts or access to classified information.
In view of the rapid development of threats in outer space — from cyber attacks and radio-electronic warfare to the aggressive activities of other states directly in orbit — the initiative is aimed at, for private companies to receive critically important information on time and can take steps to increase the sustainability of their systems.
Over the last decade, Commercial Integration Cell program (CIC) provided intelligence data to a limited number of companies, such as Blacksky, SpaceX, Intelsat, Max, Viasat, Iridium and others. However, participation in CICs provided for contracts with the US Department of Defense and specially trained personnel with admission to the State Security Service. In the case of Orbital Watch there are no such requirements.
The program was launched amid growing concern about threats to satellite infrastructure, which has already become critical for global communication, navigation and Earth observation. The commercial space sector has been developing extremely fast in recent years — hundreds of new satellites are launched into orbit by large corporations, So young startups.
Among the potential threats are weapons against satellites, radio interruptions, cyberattacks and ground -made energy systems. Some states, including Russia and China, have already demonstrated the ability to disable the satellites, that attracted attention to safety in outer space.
The Orbital Watch program will be introduced gradually-in the first stage it is planned to send reports on threats quarterly within beta testing. In the future, it is planned to create a secure online portal for two-way data exchange between the government and private operators.