Elodie Collins
LeoLabs has entered into a Space Act Agreement, or SAA, with NASA to explore the potential use of its data to support the agency’s Conjunction Assessment Risk Analysis, or CARA, program.
Under the agreement, LeoLabs will provide satellite metric observations and radar cross-section data and orbital safety products to NASA CARA. The program carries out conjunction assessments, which enable the agency to predict the position of its assets in orbit and other known objects in space to avoid collisions.
How LeoLabs Data Will Support NASA
LeoLabs monitors nearly 25,000 objects and associated activity in low Earth orbit. The orbital intelligence provider delivers tracking information with precision better than 10 meters for range and 10 centimeters per second for radial velocity.
Data is delivered to customers in near-real time.
NASA intends to combine the company’s data with the Department of Defense’s Space Surveillance Network tracking data to create a combined CA solution for monitoring of the increasingly congested LEO.
“LeoLabs has long set the standard for proven, commercial space safety services and is well positioned to support a combined commercial-government solution for the NASA conjunction assessment process,” commented LeoLabs CEO Tony Frazier, a six-time Wash100 Award winner. “We are committed to offering seamless data integration to ensure resilient operations in a growing threat environment and this SAA will further enhance our ability to meet this mission need.”
