Latest news with #TrafficCoordinationSystemforSpace
India Today
3 days ago
- Business
- India Today
Trump plans to shut key office that prevent satellite collisions in space
Hundreds of US space companies, including industry giants SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper, have urged Congress to reject the Trump administration's proposal to slash funding for a key federal office that manages satellite traffic and prevents collisions in move threatens to dismantle the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), a civilian initiative designed to safeguard the increasingly congested space White House's 2026 budget proposal seeks to cut funding for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Space Commerce (OSC) from $65 million in 2025 to just $10 million—an 84% reduction. This drastic cut would effectively terminate TraCSS, which was launched under President Trump's first administration to centralise satellite tracking and collision avoidance, shifting responsibility away from the Department of Defense (DoD). Experts warn that cutting TraCSS funding would cede U.S. leadership in space traffic management. (Photo: Getty) In a joint letter to the Senate committee overseeing NOAA, 450 companies from seven industry groups warned that eliminating TraCSS would increase risks for U.S. commercial and government satellite operators, jeopardising critical missions and raising operational costs. They cautioned that such a move could drive the U.S. space industry to relocate rise of massive satellite constellations like SpaceX's Starlink and intensified military and commercial activity have made space traffic management more vital than about 12,000 active satellites share orbit with thousands of pieces of debris, creating a high risk of collisions. TraCSS was intended to serve as a civilian 'air traffic control' system for space, coordinating data from the DoD and private companies to prevent warn that cutting TraCSS funding would cede U.S. leadership in space traffic management to other countries, such as China and Europe, which are developing their own systems. Audrey Schaffer of Slingshot Aerospace emphasized that coordination is essential to avoid a fragmented global system. Currently, about 12,000 active satellites share orbit with thousands of pieces of debris. (Photo: Getty) The Pentagon's existing space tracking system, Space-Track, is primarily military-focused, and officials argue that civilian space traffic management should be separate to avoid conflating safety with national security TraCSS's beta rollout in 2024, the Trump administration argues that private companies now have the capability to manage space traffic independently and that the government should step industry groups maintain that providing a free, basic space situational awareness service is a core government function vital to national security and commercial now faces a critical decision on whether to preserve this crucial space safety program amid growing orbital congestion and geopolitical competition.- EndsMust Watch
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Space industry urges US Congress not to axe system that prevents satellite collisions
By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON: Hundreds of U.S. companies on Tuesday urged Congress to back off a plan to kill a small federal office tasked with managing satellite traffic in space, a badly needed civilian effort initiated by President Donald Trump's first administration but now imperiled by cuts. The White House's 2026 budget proposal seeks $10 million for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Office of Space Commerce, an 84% cut from the office's 2025 funding that would terminate Traffic Coordination System for Space ( TraCSS ), a civilian system to help prevent satellite collisions and alert operators of potential crashes. Four-hundred and fifty companies from seven different industry groups, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper satellite unit, wrote in a joint letter on Tuesday to the Senate committee overseeing NOAA that without funding TraCSS, "U.S. commercial and government satellite operators would face greater risks - putting critical missions in harm's way, raising the cost of doing business, and potentially driving U.S. industry to relocate overseas." The rise of vast satellite constellations like SpaceX's Starlink and heightened military and commercial activities in Earth's orbit have driven up risks of collisions between the roughly 12,000 active satellites in space and thousands more pieces of uncontrollable junk, prompting efforts to create what is essentially a civil air traffic control system for space. Audrey Schaffer, vice president of strategy and policy at space-tracking firm Slingshot Aerospace, said the cuts would forfeit an opportunity to shape global space traffic control as the U.S. did decades ago for international air traffic control standards, while Europe and China develop their own satellite traffic systems. "It's really important that there be coordination amongst these different systems, so we don't have this fragmented system," Schaffer said. "If the U.S. doesn't have a system that it brings to the table, I'm not really sure how the U.S. exercises any leadership in the establishment of international space traffic management ." The Pentagon has long managed a space traffic database called Space-Track, but defense and industry officials argue that responsibility detracts from its national security mission and risks conflating an essential safety service with military interests as other countries seek improvements to global satellite coordination. The space industry in 2020 praised Trump's first administration for directing the NOAA office to absorb the Pentagon's space-tracking function and improve efforts to fuse satellite position data from countries and companies. The office has since released a trial version of TraCSS currently in use by some companies ahead of a full release planned for early next year. But the Trump administration in a budget document last month explained it wants to terminate TraCSS because it did not complete the system during the prior administration and that private companies "have the capability and the business model" to do space traffic coordination on their own. The two largest space industry organizations - the Commercial Space Federation and the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics - wrote in another letter protesting the termination of TraCSS to senators on Monday that "industry believes that maintaining a basic SSA service at no cost to the end user is inherently a government function."
TimesLIVE
5 days ago
- Business
- TimesLIVE
Space industry urges US Congress not to axe system that prevents satellite collisions
Hundreds of US companies on Tuesday urged Congress to back off from a plan to kill a small federal office tasked with managing satellite traffic in space, a badly needed civilian effort initiated by President Donald Trump's first administration but threatened by cuts. The White House's 2026 budget proposal seeks $10m (R177m) for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Office of Space Commerce, an 84% cut from the office's 2025 funding that would terminate Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS), a civilian system to help prevent satellite collisions and alert operators of potential crashes. A total of 450 companies from seven different industry groups, including Elon Musk's SpaceX and Amazon's Kuiper satellite unit, wrote in a joint letter on Tuesday to the Senate committee overseeing the NOAA that without funding TraCSS, 'US commercial and government satellite operators would face greater risks, putting critical missions in harm's way, raising the cost of doing business and potentially driving US industry to relocate overseas'. The rise of vast satellite constellations such as SpaceX's Starlink and heightened military and commercial activities in Earth's orbit have driven up risks of collisions between the 12,000 active satellites in space and thousands more pieces of uncontrollable junk, prompting efforts to create what is essentially a civil air traffic control system for space. Audrey Schaffer, vice-president of strategy and policy at space-tracking firm Slingshot Aerospace, said the cuts would forfeit an opportunity to shape global space traffic control as the US did decades ago for international air traffic control standards, while Europe and China develop their own satellite traffic systems.
Yahoo
01-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Trump layoffs hit key 'air traffic control for space' unit
By Joey Roulette and Valerie Volcovici WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration this week fired employees who were building a system to manage satellite traffic in space, weakening a badly needed effort championed by the U.S. space industry and the president's first administration, according to people familiar with the move. Roughly a third of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's 25-person Office of Space Commerce, a little-known body relied heavily upon by the space industry, were given a few hours' notice of their termination on Thursday by acting NOAA chief Nancy Hann and were forced out of the office by the end of the day, two of the sources said. Their termination, the sources said, threatens to undermine efforts to complete what is essentially an air traffic coordination system for space, currently operating in a trial phase as growing global demand for crucial satellite services sharply increases the number of spacecraft in Earth's orbit. A NOAA spokesperson declined to comment on personnel matters. The layoffs were among hundreds of employees fired Thursday at NOAA, which also provides the U.S. government's weather forecasts and hurricane warnings. The chief of the Traffic Coordination System for Space, Dmitry Poisik, was among the employees fired, according to one of the sources. He could not be reached for comment. Cutting staff from the space traffic program, which currently alerts satellite operators of potential collisions with debris or other spacecraft, complicates a years-long effort to migrate those alerting duties out of the Pentagon and could cause confusion among early users of the system, two of the sources said. Donald Trump, as president in 2018, released a space policy directive calling on the Office of Space Commerce to create its own traffic management system, acknowledging an increasingly congested orbital environment. Elon Musk's government efficiency effort has led to thousands of layoffs in the federal government, disrupting government operations across the country. Musk, who leads space company SpaceX, has long criticized space regulations for being too slow and outdated. "These are like air traffic controllers for space, they handle space traffic coordination to prevent collisions," one of the sources said, adding the layoffs come at a bad time given the number of collision notices sent out. A collision notice is an alert that a satellite could collide with another object in space. "We are not talking a few dozen per year. We are talking tens of thousands," the source said. "It's like a game of chicken up there." The layoffs also upend the agency's core function of licensing commercial imagery satellites. By Friday, companies seeking licenses or asking regulatory questions by email were met with a response stating all those communications will be handled by NOAA lawyers, according to an email seen by Reuters. "This is a temporary arrangement to address continuity of operations as no senior personnel remain in the office due to ongoing reductions in force," the email read. The firings at one of the most important U.S. space-licensing agencies hit at a particular dire time for a booming U.S. space industry that has long pushed for more nimble and simplified satellite regulatory processes, a bipartisan push echoed by lawmakers and agency heads. But the sources and other individuals across the space industry and U.S. government who spoke with Reuters said these layoffs are likely to trigger major delays in getting spacecraft approved for launch. The Federal Aviation Administration, which signs off on rocket payloads, cannot approve the launch of a satellite requiring a NOAA license if it has not obtained it.
