The NOAA Office of Space Commerce has awarded eight companies for the Traffic Coordination System for Space program’s $10.1 million Commercial Collision Avoidance, or COLA, Gap Pathfinder project.
OSC said Wednesday the companies selected include five data providers, namely, LeoLabs, Slingshot Aerospace, Maxar Intelligence, Turion Space and Silentium Defense. SpaceNav and a.i. solutions [sic] were chosen as the data quality monitors, while GMV Innovating Solutions was selected as the orbital determination provider.
Closing the Cola Gap
The COLA Gap Pathfinder project is intended to close the “COLA gap,” or the high-risk period right after launch, when there is a lack of positional data on new satellites that may cause collisions. The awardees were selected for their advanced commercial approaches to addressing this operational blind spot, a space situational awareness challenge.
“These awards mark meaningful progress toward enhancing U.S. space situational awareness capabilities for safer space operations in support of industry through focused commercial engagement,” said Janice Starzyk, acting director of the Office of Space Commerce.
“The selected awardees represent a diverse range of technical solutions, and we’re excited to work closely with them to evaluate these capabilities for future integration with TraCSS,” said Dmitry Poisik, TraCSS program manager.
