The Vulcan Centaur lifting off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla. on Feb. 12 carrying the USSF-87 mission, including two GSSAP satellites. Photo: ULA

The U.S. Space Force‘s Space Systems Command (SSC) wants insights from domestic and allied nation companies on possible collaboration with Canada on an allied command and control (C2) system for space domain awareness.

In a Monday business notice, SSC’s international affairs office said that it “has a letter of offer and acceptance” with the Canada Department of National Defence on space domain awareness C2.

“International companies, including Canadian, are welcome to respond,” according to the notice.

“As space becomes increasingly contested and congested, effective SDA requires an enterprise-level approach that can ingest, fuse, and share data across multiple domains and classification levels,” SSC said. “The envisioned SDA system is therefore not about commanding satellites directly, but rather it must access and fuse SDA data from diverse sources; enhance command and control at different echelons; ensure interoperability for space, joint, and combined operations; provide mission assurance and continuity of operations; automate processes to replace and/or augment current manual processes; adapt to changes within the space domain; [and] account life cycle sustainment,” SSC said.

“This effort will provide the means to transform disparate data into coherent operational insight, enabling faster, evidence-based decision-making while also supporting joint and coalition commanders in contested and uncertain environments,” according to the command.

This year, the Space Force’s Commercial Space Office (COMSO) plans to make its first award under the Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR), beginning with space domain awareness, Col. Tim Trimailo, head of the office, said last month.

Space Force is to take a “crawl, walk, run” approach to capabilities acquired through the CASR, and with space domain awareness “we’re gonna sort of crawl,” Trimailo said. CASR is the Space Force’s Space Systems Command’s effort to ensure access to commercial capabilities in times of conflict and crisis.

Beyond space domain awareness, which Trimailo equated crawling with a “minimum viable product,” the COMSO is “thinking, ‘how would we do things like manufacturing as a service?’” he said. “’How do we do all kind of mission sets and think outside the box when it comes to CASR,’ because the opportunities are endless.”

Last July, the CASR conducted a space domain awareness wargame at the Space Domain Awareness Tools, Applications and Processing Lab in Colorado Springs, Colorado.

The Space Force may soon award a contract for the Geosynchronous Reconnaissance & Surveillance Constellation (RG-XX) program — an envisioned commercial replacement for the eight Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP) satellites by Northrop Grumman.

SSC views the trimming of requirements in RG-XX and the incorporation of commercial technology as a guide for future acquisitions.

GSSAP satellites maneuver to conduct rendezvous and proximity operations to monitor and inspect other satellites.

This story was first published by Defense Daily