June 30th, 2015

Signature of the EU initiative to guarantee the long-term availability of space structures for the security of EU citizens, along with a national ASI-INAF-Defence agreement

The European Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST) framework is now a shared strategy. Representing their various countries at the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget, leaders of the Italian, French, German, Spanish and UK space agencies signed an agreement to set up a consortiumfollowing European Parliament and Council decision 541/2014/EU passed on 16 April 2014.
The SST framework aims to provide surveillance and monitoring services for institutional users and satellite operators in EU member states, to guarantee and protect the long-term availability of space infrastructures that are essential for the safety of European citizens.
The Consortium will be set up in Europe and will make use of existing national structures. The service will guarantee Europe greater independence in the space surveillance sector, which is currently heavily based on information made available by the United States.
Moves decided on in order to achieve the goals will involve setting up a European space and earth-bound network capable of producing a database on space detritus and the creation of national data processing centres.
The main purpose of these centres will be to assess the risk of objects colliding, issuing warnings, identifying fragments andestimating the probable time and place of impact on Earth (during re-entry).
The five member states in the consortium will work alongside the European Union Satellite Centre (SATCEN) set up by the European Council to implement the measures planned for providing SST services. Given their strong interest in tracking and monitoring space, national space agencies within each member state will collaborate with their own Defence Ministries.
The European Commission has allocated funding for the 2015-2020 period to cover existing European infrastructures and sensors along with the development of new assets.
At the same time, on a national level ASI, INAF and the Ministry of Defence - represented by presidents Roberto Battiston,Giovanni Fabrizio Bignami and General Pasquale Preziosa respectively - have signed a Framework Agreement for the SSTprogram.
The agreement - which runs from 15 June 2015 to at least the whole of 2020 - will see a Steering Committee set up for Space Surveillance and Tracking activities (OCIS) by the European Commission, responsible for coordinating the national activities in the European SST initiative and directing ASI, as National Entity (NE) representing Italy within the European SST Consortium.
The Agreement will also see all parties contributing their own skills, capacities and resources to providing SST services on a national level.