The Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) has been declared to be capable of initial operations by the Australian Department of Defense and the US Space Force, as reported by Interesting Engineering.

(Photo : MATT HARTMAN/AFP via Getty Images)
A United Launch Alliance Delta 4 Heavy blasts off from Vandenberg Space Force Base, California as it launches a spy satellite on it's final flight from California, September 24, 2022

With the threat of a space attack, space-based technologies are more important than ever. The SST has been part of the Pentagon's Space Surveillance Network (SSN) that can track many objects in space. 

A Work in Progress

The SSN is a work in progress, and to strengthen its coverage, the Pentagon signed an agreement with Australia in 2013 to move the SST to a smaller continent. In the agreement, the SST was installed at the White Sands Missiles Range in New Mexico was to be moved to Australia in 2017. 

The SST was built by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). It can find and track debris up to 22,000 miles above the surface of the Earth. 

Additionally, the SST is still owned by the US, but is now operated and maintained by the Royal Australian Air Force. By 2020, the SST captured its first images from its new home at the Naval Communication Station Harold E. Holt. 

Then, it went through phases of testing and evaluation, and now, it can now begin its initial operations. The full operational capacity of the SST is expected to be by late 2023. 

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Better Space Awareness

Space awareness is top priority for Space Force and the US Space Command. It has been assigned to Space Delta 2 at the USSF. It is also assigned to execute combat-ready domain awareness. 

The importance of the Space Surveillance Telescope cannot be undermined. It has been declared to be a vital part of the Pentagon's ability to track and to report space activities and a space asset that is owned by the US and operated by Australia. 

The Pentagon is hopeful that threat assessments and tracking of objects in space will be more accurate. Now, while the state of technological readiness of the SST is growing, Space Force is also preparing itself for assessment and tracking of space objects in the near future.

Space Threats

Space threats are threats to national security. These threats include the need for space situational awareness, space surveillance, and the maintenance of US space assets. One of them is Space junk or space debris is the remnants of spacecrafts and satellites floating in space. These objects can do damage to space assets and satellites, thus threatening the safety of people on Earth. This is why Space Force is concerned with these space threats. To keep these space threats at bay, the US should protect their space surveillance assets and maintain their space situational awareness.

With the SST, Space Force can get an early warning system against space threats. Also, it can use the SST to track and assess the status of space assets and satellites. Tracking space junk will help Space Force secure the safety of vital assets in space.

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Written by April Fowell