An international association of satellite operators has joined a U.S. Department of Defense program for data sharing for situational awareness and space safety.

The Space Data Association said the agreement with the U.S. military represents a critical milestone for the organization and underlines the importance of collaboration to enhance space situational awareness.

"This agreement represents a major milestone in space situational awareness, creating a framework to exchange data; the benefit is that critical analyses will be far more robust, improving our knowledge of the space operational environment," said SDA Chairman Ron Busch.

"Our announcement with US STRATCOM builds on our long-standing informal cooperation. The agreement demonstrates that even the most advanced government space operators recognize SDA's ability to provide important and valuable services to manage operational risk, including performing conjunction assessments and activities to mitigate electromagnetic interference."

U.S. Strategic Command administers the Department of Defense's Space Situational Awareness Data Sharing Program to ensure and enhance space domain safety through services such as anomaly resolution, collision avoidance, conjunction assessment, end-of-life disposal, de-orbit and re-entry planning support, launch support and EMI investigation.

SDA keeps a database of high-accuracy orbital information. It is operated by Analytical Graphics Inc. Pennsylvania.