Raytheon UK's orbital tracking has ‘evolved dramatically' to aid SDA

Image taken by the LOCI network, showing satellite streaks across the field-of-view against the background star field. (Raytheon UK)

Raytheon UK's Low-Earth Orbit Optical Camera Installation (LOCI) back-end software, called LOCI Command and Control, has “evolved dramatically” in space domain awareness (SDA) and tracking, Sean Goldsbrough, head of Space & Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR), told Janes .

The developments in the LOCI Command and Control software align with the requirements of the UK Space Agency and Ministry of Defence (MoD), who have received surveillance and tracking data via LOCI since 2021.

The UK requirements focus on timeliness of data, accuracy, and revisit rates, Goldsbrough said on 2 May, adding that they had successfully distributed more sensors worldwide to improve the revisit rate.

LOCI is a ground-based surveillance optical system that can detect objects in orbit and is able to track them shortly after launch. Once an unknown object passes through the camera's field-of-view, LOCI can generate an uncorrelated track and provide early data for tracking analysts. After the data is processed via the LOCI Command and Control software, the outputs go into NORSSTrack, SDA software that allows analysts to assess risks and predict the re-entry of unknown objects.

“So, then we can look at things like – [are] there any risks [of] collisions? What does the re-entry time and analysis look like on that object?” Goldsbrough said. In case of a collision or an explosion, when an object potentially splits into thousands of pieces, NORSSTrack helps analyse and visualise it. “NORSSTrack is at the core of this,” he said, adding that the software is being updated, including its re-entry analysis. The re-entry tool improves the ability to predict the re-entry of non-catalogued objects by using historical data.