Photo: NASA

The Office of Space Commerce (OSC) announced $10.1 million in contracts on Wednesday to a number of space companies to address ‘blind spots’ in commercial collision avoidance. 

The awards are part of the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program’s Commercial Collision Avoidance (COLA) Gap Pathfinder effort. 

Data providers LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace, Maxar Intelligence, Turion Space, and Silentium Defense received awards. GMV Innovating Solutions will be the orbital determination provider, and SpaceNav and a.i. Solutions received awards as data quality monitors. The awards are worth $10.1 million in total. 

OSC described the “COLA gap” as “the period immediately after launch when traffic coordination services have uncertain or incomplete positional data on newly deployed satellites,” and said it is a window of elevated collision risk and a challenge for satellite operators, launch providers, and space traffic coordinators. 

“These awards mark meaningful progress toward enhancing U.S. space situational awareness capabilities for safer space operations in support of industry through focused commercial engagement,” commented Janice Starzyk, OSC acting director.

OSC said these vendors’ “collective capabilities show considerable potential to close the COLA gap and improve safety during the earliest phases of satellite deployment.” 

These technical solutions will be evaluated for future integration with TraCSS, which is part of a years-long effort for OSC to take over space situational awareness (SSA) services from the U.S. Department of Defense and to leverage data from operators, governments, commercial, academic, and international sources.