Looking up: GEOTracker space surveillance network gets even bigger
24.03.2020
ArianeGroup’s GEOTracker network continues to expand around the world with a seventh observatory already installed at ArianeGroup’s site of Ottobrunn in Germany, and an eighth coming soon in Australia’s Northern Territory.
In today’s world, space surveillance is a strategic priority. ArianeGroup has unique expertise in the detection and surveillance of objects in space, with its global GEOTracker network.
Using a network of optical sensors around the globe and a centralized control center, GEOTracker provides ultra-precise positioning and orbit-determination data for space objects in geostationary Earth orbit (GEO) and medium Earth orbit (MEO), in particular with a view to protecting space assets from possible collision, interference or unwelcome contact.
The latest addition to the network, the eighth station to date, will be located in Australian’s Northern Territory at the Centre for Appropriate Technology Ltd (CfAT) site, around 10km south of Alice Springs.
Just last year, the seventh GEOTracker observatory was set up at ArianeGroup’s site at Ottobrunn, near Munich in Germany.
Entirely owned and operated by ArianeGroup, the GEOTracker network of optical stations offers space monitoring at the highest level of operational availability and flexible programming that can be customized to reflect clients’ changing needs.
These data are compiled in a permanently updated catalogue and are used by institutional and commercial customers through a range of securely-managed operational services and products.
Since its entry into service in 2017, GEOTracker has been expanding its global network of observatories on three continents.