Dr. Randy Liefer
Space Surveillance is a subset and contributor to space situational awareness (SSA), which in turn, is a subset and contributor to space domain awareness (SDA). To clarify the purpose and scope of this paper, these three terms are defined and their relationships illustrated.
SDA is the overall understanding of the space operational environment required to enable planning and execution of space operations involving satellites, supporting ground assets, plus the ground-to-space, space-to-ground and space-to-space communications links that connect satellites, users and operators.1 The space operational environment encompasses active satellites (their locations, capabilities and intentions), orbital debris, space weather, terrestrial weather, policies, politics, and intelligence. SDA activities include collecting raw observables, identifying physical states and parameters (such as orbit, attitude, size, shape), determining functional characteristics (such as active vs. passive, thrust capacity, payloads), inferring mission objectives (such as communications, weather), identifying behaviors, and predicting credible threats and hazards.2
SSA is a subset of space domain awareness that focuses on the orbital segment. SSA is the requisite foundational, current, and predictive knowledge and characterization of space orbital objects including live satellites, dead satellites, and debris. It provides planners, users and operators with knowledge and characterization of objects in orbit to ensure safe, stable, and sustainable space activities.3
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