NASA has published the Spacecraft Conjunction Assessment and Collision Avoidance Best Practices Handbook to provide insight on best practices for coordinating in-orbit activity safely, the agency reported on Tuesday. The approaches outlined in the handbook are voluntary and will evolve to address new technologies and operations.

“Now is the time for all space operators to leverage innovative commercially available space situational awareness data, information, and analysis to mitigate the potential for in-orbit collisions and sustain key orbital regimes,” said NASA administrator and 2019 Wash100 Award recipient Jim Bridenstine.

NASA’s recent handbook will help increase stability, reduce operational risks and support the space environment for future missions. The handbook has analyzed how NASA currently operates in space, including the maneuverability, tracking, reliability, and disposal of space hardware.

The agency’s report has also highlighted space vehicle and constellation design, spacecraft trackability, pre launch preparation and early launch activities, in-orbit collision avoidance and automated trajectory guidance and maneuvering.

The handbook encourages consideration of commercially available space situational awareness data and information to improve and enhance existing capabilities, as well as seeks to highlight innovative opportunities for U.S. commercial and non-profit space situational awareness data and space traffic management services.

NASA developed the handbook to support Space Policy Directive-3, the National Space Traffic Management Policy, in close collaboration with the U.S. Space Command. NASA also leveraged input from other interagency partners and will consult with industry associations and the agency’s advisory committees on the content.

The U.S. Space Force has tapped a new manager for the Space Enterprise Consortium (SpEC), the agency’s prototyping organization, which will oversee $12 billion in awards for space-related projects over the next 10 years, C4ISRNet reported on Tuesday.

“There’s no question that SpEC has been an overwhelming success for the government programs that have utilized it to accelerate their prototyping, and for the consortium members to gain a better understanding on the USSF’s architectural direction,” said Col. Tim Sejba, program executive officer for Space and Missile Systems Center’s (SMC) Space Development Corps.

The SMC Space Development Corps has selected National Security Technology Accelerator (NSTXL) to manage its SpEC Reloaded portfolio, which will enable the agency to develop and integrate innovative solutions. SMC expects to issue the award on Dec. 31, following a required 30-day congressional notification period.

“We are honored to contribute to U.S. space advancement,” NSTXL CEO Tim Greeff said. “This has been a very successful program thus far, and we look forward to taking it to next level to unlock more value for the U.S. military by engaging more nontraditional defense companies and bringing great innovation to the nascent Space Force.”

Since its inception in 2017, SpEC has awarded prototyping awards for a wide variety of space and technology solutions. SpEC has reduced contract award timelines by 36 percent, grown membership by 55 percent year-over-year and awarded 80 prototype efforts with a combined value of $856 million.

In addition, SpEC  has also enabled non-traditional companies to win work with the Department of Defense on space systems. SpEC has connected vendors with organizations, including the Space Rapid Capabilities Office, as well as the intelligence community’s National Reconnaissance Office (NRO), by using other transaction authorities (OTAs).

OTAs allow “us to get on contract much faster than traditional approaches,” SMC head Lt. Gen. John Thompson said. “In addition, the vehicle really lowers the bar for nontraditional contractors to become part of national security space efforts, makes it easier for them to get in the door. In fact, 350 of those 430 members of the consortium are really nontraditional contractors or academic organizations.”

The U.S. Air Force’s F-35 Lightning II and F-22 Raptor fighter jets were able to share operational data in their native digital “languages” across multiple domains and platforms using the gatewayONE payload during a series of tests held Dec. 9th at Yuma Proving Ground in Arizona, the Air Force reported Monday.

During the test, the gatewayONE technology enabled the translation of incompatible data formats to facilitate data sharing between the two fifth-generation fighter aircraft. The flight demonstration achieved nine of the 18 established test objectives.

“The gatewayONE payload really showed what’s possible and helped us take a big step towards achieving (Joint All-Domain Command and Control),” said Lt. Col. Eric Wright, a 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron F-35 pilot. “This critical capability provides additional connections between our advanced fighters and other forces and battle managers across all domains.”

The gatewayONE technology is part of the Advanced Battle Management System program of the Air Force and the U.S. Space Force that seeks to create an internet of things platform for the military and advance the JADC2 concept to link all sensors and warfighters across ground, air, maritime, space and cyber domains.

“The future is promising, and gatewayONE will allow the F-22 and F-35 to connect to and feed data sources they've never before accessed. Those future connections will bring additional battlefield awareness into the cockpit and enable integrated fires across U.S. forces,” Wright added.

The XQ-58A Valkyrie attritableONE platform equipped with the gatewayONE payload flew in formation with Lockheed Martin-built F-22 and F-35 aircraft during the test but lost connectivity shortly after launch.