USSTRATCOM enters into Space-Data Sharing Agreement with EUMETSAT

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. – U.S. Strategic Command (USSTRATCOM) announced today it entered into a new Space Situational Awareness (SSA) data-sharing agreement with the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT).

The agreement, which was signed Aug. 9, provides EUMETSAT with higher quality and more timely space information tailored for its organization’s specific purposes in exchange for satellite-positional and radio-frequency information.

“Space is vital to national security and economic growth, but it is increasingly congested, contested and competitive,” said Adm. Cecil D. Haney, USSTRATCOM commander. “As more countries, companies and organizations field space capabilities and benefit from the use of space systems, it is in our collective interest to act responsibly, to promote transparency and to enhance the long-term sustainability, stability, safety, and security of the space joint operating area.”

EUMETSAT joins five nations and many other organizations already participating in SSA data-sharing agreements with USSTRATCOM.

“The agreement signed with the US Strategic Command consolidates the protection of our shared assets,” said the EUMETSAT Director-General, Alain Ratier.

Such agreements enhance multinational space cooperation and streamline the process for USSTRATCOM partners to request specific information gathered by its Joint Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The information is crucial for launch support, satellite maneuver planning, support for on-orbit anomalies, electromagnetic interference reporting and investigation, satellite decommissioning activities and on-orbit conjunction assessments.

EUMETSAT is an intergovernmental organization which supplies weather and climate-related satellite data, images and products to the national meteorological services of more than 30 European countries and other users worldwide.