Leveraging a Legacy in Space Command & Control
For more than half a century, Lockheed Martin has been at the forefront of developing innovative technologies to track objects in space. In fact, our legacy includes supporting the development of the first satellite detection and tracking system, SPACETRACK, which used a network of space-probing cameras and radar to predict satellite behavior.
This 50+ year legacy in space command and control was top of mind when Lockheed Martin developed the iSpace system. With its debut in 2017, the iSpace command and control system became the latest innovation to provide greater situational awareness of objects orbiting the earth. Since then iSpace has been integrated with other Lockheed Martin systems to provide customers with end-to-end space protection solutions, leveraged to develop the space situational awareness mission subsystem for Space Fence, and supported several U.S. Strategic Command Global Sentinel exercises.
Monitoring Thousands of Space Objects
Collecting data from a worldwide network of government, commercial and scientific community surveillance sensors, iSpace provides a comprehensive picture of the space environment. Via its intuitive and powerful user interface, iSpace can actively monitor more than 300,000 Earth-orbiting objects.
iSpace’s powerful orbital dynamic algorithms provide real-time information on space events such as conjunctions, breakups, proximity alerts and maneuvers. The system can be used to task sensors to improve the accuracy of an object’s location, characterize an object using radar cross sections or notify operators if an object is behaving in a manner outside the norm based on pattern of life information.
iSpace Goes International
Operational at a variety of locations since 2017, the national space agency for the Federal Republic of Germany has become the latest iSpace customer.
The German Space Agency at DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt / German Aerospace Center) operates the German Space Situational Awareness Center (GSSAC). They will use iSpace to maintain a GSSAC space catalog, detect and report on events, and support analysis for conjunctions, re-entries and maneuvers. iSpace will also be used to task German sensors for specific collection exercises to support high-interest objects or space events.
For other Space Operations Centers looking for an iSpace capability, the system’s open architecture eases the integration into multiple environments for experimentation or operational use. For more information about iSpace licensing, click here.