The Department of Defense announced Tuesday it is expanding its Space-Track.org website in an effort to improve space situational awareness. New to the site will be the inclusion of “high-quality positional information on space debris of an unknown origin” to enable “owner-operators [to] better protect their satellites from objects and ultimately create less space debris,” states a release. Officials hope the new technology will reduce the threat of collisions in space. “There is also a high volume of debris smaller than the average fist that (JFCC Space) cannot track that are also on orbit today,” said Maj. Gen. David Thompson, US Strategic Command’s director of plans and policy at Offutt AFB, Neb. The space domain is occupied by public, private, commercial, and other governmental organizations, but there is no denying military reliance on accurate information about missile launch or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance. “It’s understanding what’s there (in space), what (the object) is doing, and how it poses a threat to our military mission, to our ability to support joint forces and contribute to the global good,” Thompson said. “While space is a very big place, there are a lot of things up there.”
The Air Force has begun flying its CV-22 Ospreys again. But that is just the start of a multi-step process to return the fleet to normal operations following a deadly crash last year, the service says.