European Parliament approves space surveillance and tracking programme

The growing number of satellites and amounts of debris in the space surrounding our planet makes the risk of collision a serious threat to the sustainable operation of EU space infrastructure. Today the European Commission welcomed the European Parliament vote in favour of a proposal to create a European Space Surveillance and tracking (SST) Framework. The purpose of the service is to provide alerts to help reduce the risk of collisions between spacecraft, between spacecraft and space debris, and collisions due to the uncontrolled re-entry of non-operational spacecraft or large debris. The Commission’s proposal aims to encourage Member States with relevant space surveillance abilities to work together and pool their means in order to provide the EU with space surveillance and tracking services.

European Commission Vice-President @AntonioTajaniEU, Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship commented: "The space surveillance and tracking proposal envisages the pooling of resources to protect our investments in space infrastructure from damage. Avoiding space collisions could save up to €210 million per year and remove a serious risk to the delivery of economic gains expected from the EU’s space programmes. I welcome the approval of the Parliament for the Commission’s SST proposal and hope for its swift adoption by the Council.”

The Commission proposes a programme to support EU Member States that own radars and telescopes capable of monitoring satellites and space debris, or relevant data centres, to combine their capacities and offer for the first time a European space surveillance and tracking service.

For more information see: https://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-14-364_en.htm?locale=en