SSA

Space Situational Awareness (SSA) is an essential component of the EU Space Programme. By providing comprehensive knowledge and understanding about space hazards, SSA plays a key role in ensuring the safety and security of the European economies, societies and citizens who rely on space-based services for communication, navigation and observation applications.

SSA covers three areas:

Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST): A system of networked sensors to survey and track space objects, together with processing capabilities to provide data, information and services on objects that orbit the Earth. More than 200 organisations are receiving the SST services (Collision Avoidance, Re-entry Analysis and Fragmentation Analysis) through the EU SST Front Desk at EUSPA, and more than 500 satellites are safeguarded from the risk of collision.
Near-Earth Objects (NEO): Capabilities to monitor the risk of natural space objects approaching the Earth, such as asteroids and comets. By promoting networking among Member States’ facilities and research centres, this subcomponent supports the development of a routine rapid response service that can characterize newly detected NEOs.
Space Weather Events (SWE): The development of space weather models that result from the impact assessment of different scenarios based on new prediction capabilities leads to the establishment of a space weather service capable of identifying and addressing user needs.

Last modified

09 September 2024