The U.S. Air Force is slated to hand over a library of space and satellite debris data to the Department of Commerce to delegate space notification responsibilities to the agency, Spacenews reported Friday.
President Trump signed Space Policy Directive 3 ordering the Department of Defense to provide public space situational awareness data to the Department of Commerce. The legislation will also push the U.S. military to focus on the sustainment of freedom and access in space.
Additionally, the Department of Commerce issued a request for information to seek for cloud computing and artificial intelligence methods that will augment space situational awareness capacities in April. Kevin O’Connell, director of the Department of Commerce’s Office of Space Commerce, said the agency received 42 responses to the RFI and has extended the submission period through July 31st.
“We are going to get to work with some of these companies when we get access to this iteration of the Unified Data Library,†added O’Connell.
