Steven Walker, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency deputy director, has said DARPA is working on additional programs in efforts to provide users real-time space situational awareness, DoD News reported Monday.Walker said at the transition ceremony of the DARPA-built Space Surveillance Telescope that the agency currently develops the OrbitOutlook and Hallmark programs to help monitor and act on incidents involving space assets, Cheryl Pellerin wrote.
Earlier in October, the U.S. Air Force assumed ownership of the SST that works to provide space situational awareness and track space objects.
OrbitOutlook — or O2 is designed to acquire more data from diverse sources to boost the space situational awareness of the U.S. Space Surveillance Network — a network of space surveillance radars and optical telescopes that monitors space objects, Pellerin wrote.
O2 efforts include the Spaceview program that aims to accommodate situational awareness contributions from amateur astronomers as well as the StellarView initiative which involves optical telescopes and passive radio frequency telescopes at six academic institutions, the report stated.
