OMAHA, Neb. - President Bush issued a classified memo to various government agencies in July including at least nine taskings for departments to improve U.S. space situational awareness (SSA), according to industry sources.

In the memo, Bush directs the State and Defense Departments to form a cohesive government-wide approach both to avoid future anti-satellite (ASAT) launches and formulate plans on how to deal with them if they occur, according to an industry source. Officials who discussed the document requested anonymity because of its sensitive nature, and details of the taskings weren't available.

SSA refers to understanding what objects are in space and what capabilities they have. Accurate SSA is required to know for certain if a satellite's operations have been intentionally affected by an adversary. Talk of SSA and space control only began to show up in speeches given by senior political officials and the uppermost echelons of the military brass after China destroyed one of its own aging weather satellites in a dazzling ASAT test on Jan. 11 (DAILY, Jan. 19).

Though uniformed officials declined to discuss the topic of the Bush memo during the Strategic Space and Defense conference here, they all agreed on one paradoxical point. "Thanks to the Chinese," says Maj. Gen. William Shelton, 14th Air Force Commander, it has become "more palatable" to openly discuss the issues of space situational awareness and the more politically sensitive areas of offensive and defensive space operations.

Driving the government's intensified focus on SSA are concerns that China or other adversaries could threaten satellites in low-Earth orbit (LEO), including secret National Reconnaissance Office spacecraft. Likewise, the International Space Station, space shuttle and hosts of commercial satellites operate in LEO, and an attack there could have devastating effects on the U.S. economy.

Meanwhile, the Pentagon is crafting contingency plans, though none seem able to deliver in the near term. One option, dubbed Operationally Responsive Space (ORS), is a nascent concept to provide less capable though quickly launched satellites to fill gaps or replace a spacecraft that has fallen under attack.

The State Department also is exploring what data sharing could take place with friendly nations that also have space surveillance sensors. Bruce Wilson, deputy director of air, space and information operations at Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), says there has been a "lot of discussion" in the U.S. government about how to share space surveillance data while protecting sources and methods. But negotiations with other nations haven't yet begun.

While those plans are looking ahead, AFSPC is focused on the near-term goal of forming a more robust SSA sensor network. Today's SSA resources - consisting mainly of ground-based monitoring sites - are described by industry and defense officials as inadequate at best. AFSPC in nearing completion of a "clean sheet" study of what is needed for a future SSA network (DAILY, Sept. 28, 2006).

Wilson says resources are tight. Funding for improved radars doesn't peak until 2012 at the earliest, and officials are hoping to accelerate those efforts. Shelton says many "tens of millions" of dollars are set aside during the next five years to improve SSA equipment.

Currently, the Midcourse Space Experiment satellite is the Pentagon's only space-based space surveillance asset. It is used to help track satellites from their point of origin until they are parked into an orbit. AFSPC plans to launch the Space-Based Space Surveillance (SBSS) satellite in fiscal 2008 as a follow on.