The mission of the German Space Situational Awareness Centre (GSSAC) in Uedem, in the Lower Rhine region, is to create a situational view of space. To do this, it uses national institutional and commercial capabilities in close cooperation with international experts and institutions.
Space situational awareness (SSA) is the result of the analysis and evaluation of data and information from the field of space surveillance. In this process, objects in space are continuously identified, monitored and classified, and their orbits determined. In addition, these objects are also analysed from a technical perspective. SSA also includes knowledge of space weather, which affects systems in space and on the ground.
The main tasks of the GSSAC include analysing and evaluating looming collision scenarios between space objects and warning the public of possible risks arising from the atmospheric re-entry of space debris. In addition, the Space Situational Awareness Center supports political decision-making processes on space situational issues.
Accurate and reliable knowledge of the situation in space is a fundamental prerequisite for detecting and analysing all relevant objects in near-Earth space. This serves to protect critical space-based infrastructure while ensuring the availability of the associated services and products.
In future, data from the German Experimental Space Surveillance and Tracking Radar (GESTRA) will also be analysed at the GSSAC. This German, semi-mobile radar system will monitor space objects in low-Earth orbit around the clock and contribute to the national and European orbit data catalogue maintained by the GSSAC.
The GSSAC is a civil-military facility operated by the German Armed Forces Space Command and the German Space Agency at DLR and is managed in coordination with the Federal Ministry of Defence (Bundesministerium der Verteidigung; BMVg) and the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Klimaschutz; BMWK).
German Aerospace Center (DLR)
German Space Agency
Uwe Wirt · Email Uwe.Wirt@dlr.de
