Colorado USA and Sydney Australia: Saber Astronautics was one of 19 commercial companies and nine US Militaryorganizations joiningthe “Sprint Advanced Concept Training for Space Situational Awareness”(SACT-SSA) event. During the event,Saber provided real-time operational support fromtheir Mission Control Centers in Sydneyand Colorado.
SACT is a United States Air Force run event to test the combat readiness of itsspaceforces.The event draws upon a combination of real-world, commercial, and defense assets to sense and retrieve data ofspace threatsand to conductorbital maneuvers. This was a live event usingbothcommercial and defense sensors to detect and locate spacecraftin flight.
With the number of space objects set to triple over the next decade there are newbusinesses developing sensors to find objects in space, withtelescopes and radars cropping up around the globe. The USAF is investigating newways to collaborate andto integrate these new commercialcapabilitiesinto their day-to-day operations.
The Saber Astronautics role was to supplysoftware called the Predictive Interactive Groundstation Interface software (PIGI), to manage thousands of space objects observed by sensorsprovided by the rest of the team. High quality visualizationof the space environment is criticalin situations where operators need to be able to understand and make decisions onlarge volumesof information.
Saber also provided commercial Mission Control Centers, called the “Responsive Space Operations Center(RSOC)”,which usedPIGI and other tools to understand theimpacts of decisions. RSOC is based in Colorado (“Daywatch”) and Sydney Australia(“Nightswatch”)to support global operations.
The Director of Saber Astronautics USA Nathan Parrott noted the responsiveness of the teams, "SACT-2 provided a wonderful opportunity for us to test PIGI in an operational environment to model live on-orbit maneuvers using actual real-time sensor data. Saber's Australian team (Nightswatch) did a wonderful job of taking over operations to provide a full 24-houroperational window for SACT which was a first for the event. This was a capability that was very much welcomed by our US allies."
Saber’s international presence allowed, for the first timein the SACT exercise, the successful integration of operations from the U.S. Space Operations Center (SPOC) to Australia, providing 24-hour operational readiness from Saber's RSOCs.They received data from sensors, compared to known and expected satellite positions, measured divergences, and identified maneuvers for live spacecraft.
ACT-2, which ran from August 26th to August 29th in Colorado Springs, Colorado (USA), was the second such event to be operating in partnership with the U.S. Air Force.SACT-2networkedcommercial sensor providers to track satellites and make live operational decisions in partnership with the USAF.
The next SACT event (SACT-3) is scheduled forDecember 2019 where Saber Astronautics is again expected to play a leading role.
