REDONDO BEACH, Calif., April 4 (UPI) -- The communications crosslink between U.S. Space Tracking and Surveillance System satellites has proved effective in transmitting missile tracking data.
Data from the demonstration satellites were sent to the U.S. Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The radio frequency crosslink enabled both STSS demonstration satellites to simultaneously acquire and track a resident space object, with only one satellite in communication with the ground in January, Northrop Grumman said Monday.
The resident space object was a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration weather satellite that acted as a surrogate for a cold missile against cold space.
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"During that exercise, the STSS ground segment fused 2-D data from each satellite in real time to form a 'stereo,' or 3-D picture, of the 'battle space' surrounding the NOAA satellite for more than 5 minutes," said Doug Young, vice president of missile defense and warning programs for Northrop Grumman's Aerospace Systems sector. "Combined tracking from both spacecraft lasted more than 17 minutes.
"Stereo tracking of missiles represents a new capability. Such high-precision, high-quality track information allows the STSS demonstrators to close the fire-control loop with missile defense system interceptors from space."
While one of the spacecraft was commanded to acquire and track the RSO, the second satellite was commanded to track the RSO via the crosslink. The resulting track data were returned via the crosslink. Track data from both STSS satellites were fused into a 3-D track at the STSS ground station.
Northrop said data also were passed in real time from the STSS ground station to Northrop Grumman's External Sensors Laboratory, where missile tracking data are processed and stored.
The Missile Defense Agency is pursuing the STSS Demonstration program as a space-based sensor component of the Ballistic Missile Defense System.
The demonstration satellites were built by Northrop and Raytheon.
