A Critical Assessment of Space Data Message Standards and Their Application to Space Force and Partner Missions
Id: 406
Type: Conference paper
Published: 09/16/2026
Event: AMOS Conference
Authors:
Click an author to filter the list of related assets below.Abstract:
The United States Space Force (USSF) and its partners (Department of War (DOW) branches (United States Navy (USN), United States Air Force (USAF), United States Army (U.S. Army), and United States Marines Corps (USMC)), DOW agencies (Missile Defense Agency (MDA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), National Security Agency (NSA), National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA)), other government departments and agencies (National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Department of Commerce (DOC), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), among many others), foreign partners (European Space Agency (ESA), North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA), Canadian Armed Forces (CAF), Australian Defence Force (ADF), United Kingdom Space Agency (UKSA), United Kingdom Space Command (UKSC), New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF), among many others), and commercial partners (Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, Boeing, RTX, General Dynamics, L3Harris, Parsons, SpaceX, Omitron, Commercial Space Operations Center (COMSPOC), Ansys, Maxar, ExoAnalytic Solutions, LeoLabs, Bluestaq, among many others)) are grappling with a complex and complicated messaging system. The underlying causes include the complexity inherent to numerous messaging formats, inadequate message formats, and competing messaging requirements. Many formats have evolved with the USSF Space Domain Awareness (SDA) infrastructure and space partners that overlap in purpose and scope. Currently, none of the formats are capable of conveying all the data needed from sensors, Command and Control (C2) systems, and analysts without using multiple messages. Many of the messages have limitations in field sizes from fixed column width that leads to issues with precision and/or counts sizes, many messages have formats that only support two-body mechanics, many do not support complex thrusting Resident Space Objects (RSOs), among many other issues. The essential complexity inherent to astrodynamics, sensor tasking, intelligence, reconnaissance, and catalog maintenance is compounded by the additional accidental complexity of file format issues that have emerged from the evolution of the systems over time. This complexity has led to gridlock related to what should be included or not included in specific messages, what the underlying technologies are, and how to resolve competing interests across organizations/missions. USSF needs to eliminate the accidental complexity from messages that overlap/duplicate capabilities while continuing to support current missions and partners and preparing for future mission capability requirements. Both the essential complexity and the accidental complexity led to problems in all mission areas for the Space Force and its partner organizations. The mission areas impacted include catalog maintenance (maneuver detection, breakup detection, breakup root cause analysis, space object identification, conjunction assessment, reentry assessment, and custody), sensor tasking/orchestration (look-angle/pointing generation, Radar Cross Section (RCS)/Visual Magnitude (VisMag), overflight, and prioritization), modeling and simulation (both defensive and offensive), reconnaissance, surveillance, communications, human space flight, science/research, Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS), and Position, Navigation, and Timing (PNT). Any updates to existing message formats impact both new systems as well as operational systems. This paper provides the results of a gap analysis that identifies issues with a limited set of commonly used formats, proposes a limited set of modifications to the commonly used formats, and identifies a possible roadmap for the USSF and its partners to pursue message formatting improvements identified message modifications.
Citation:
Tippie, D., Oltrogge, D.L., Vallado, D.A., Alfano, S., and Bormuth, L., “A Critical Assessment of Space Data Message Standards and Their Application to Space Force and Partner Missions,” AMOS Space Situational Awareness Conference, Maui, HI, 16 September 2026.