In terms of space debris surveillance and tracking information, satellite operators across Europe mostly depend on the United States. In a move to protect their satellites, the European Commission has devised a new plan to fuse together the existing capacities of EU member states, like ground-based telescopes, radars and tracking (SST) data centers to become more self-sufficient.
The commission reported that about 600,000 space debris larger than one centimeter are circling the Earth, posing a threat to the subsystems and instruments aboard a satellite. These junks are joined by approximately 16,000 other objects larger than ten centimeters, which might cause permanent damage or even destroy a satellite in case of a collision.
The only way to prevent a satellite from colliding with other space objects is to monitor and catalogue the orbiting objects to keep track of their trajectory. As such, it can give an early warning to satellite operators to move their satellites and avoid collision.
The proposed Europe-wide SST service by the commission will be available to all public, commercial and military satellite operators, as well as public authorities concerned with civil security.
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