History of U.S. Space Surveillance and Satellite Cataloging

Creation of a fundamentally new technical capability ideally begins with the recognition of some future need, a careful description of requirements, development, testing, and operational implementation. In contrast to this ideal situation, the launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite on 4 October 1957 created an immediate need within the United States to track and maintain a catalog of orbital elements for artificial Earth satellites. This required inventing a solution to a problem that did not even exist prior to 1957. Thus, the initial effort was driven both by external circumstances and by highly constrained solution options such as computing and data communications capacities. This external event-driven paradigm has continued to be the case to this day. Describing the system evolution based on a small mix of planning and far larger mix of reaction to external circumstance, in fact, makes a very interesting story.This book begins with an introduction that provides a snapshot collection of episodes from the first half century of space surveillance that illustrates how events drove invention. The narrative describes how external problems arose, demanding near real-time adaptation and invention to maintain the satellite catalog and provide timely space situational awareness.The main elements of space surveillance are then discussed separately, such as key people and organizations, orbit models, computing systems, observing sites, networks, and international relationships. The book concludes with an Epilogue briefly discussing the prospects and problems facing the future space surveillance mission. Aimed at engineers and specialists in space surveillance as well as general readers, this systematic historical account broadens and clarifies understanding of this fascinating, vitally important, and often underappreciated field.