Overview

The Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance (GEODSS) System is a series of space-observing ground stations in the United States and the Indonesian-Pacific. The GEODSS System monitors deep space objects and man-made objects that orbit from 10,000 to 45,000 km above the Earth’s surface. GEODSS was originally established at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico, United States, in 1982. Since 1982, five total sites have been a part of GEODSS: the original White Sands Missile Range site; a site in Maui, Hawaii; a site on Diego Garcia island in the British Indian Ocean Territory; a site in Choe Jong San, South Korea, which was closed in 1993; and a site in Portugal which was never completed. [1] A transportable telescope at Moron, Spain, also contributed to the GEODSS system from 1997 to 2013. [2]

GEODSS’s three operative sites canvas nearly all of Earth’s GEO orbit and contributes to over 80 percent of geosynchronous observations. Each site has three main telescopes equipped with digital FPAs (focal plane arrays) and can observe 10,000 individual space objects the size of a baseball multiple times in a single night. [3] The telescopes were designed and delivered by L3 Technologies, Inc., over 20 years ago and all three sites were supported by the Harris Corporation until 2020. [4]

In April 2020, Serco Inc. was awarded a contract from the United States Space Force to operate and maintain the GEODSS system for eight months with six optional one-year maintenance periods afterwards. The contract was worth $57 million. [5]

IN May 2022 L3Harris was awarded a $119 Million Space Force Contract for GEODOSS to upgrade and expand the system.[6]

Related Links

Wikipedia: United States Space Surveillance Network

Ground-Based Electro-Optical Deep Space Surveillance > United States Space Force > Fact Sheets