Space Systems Command’s Col “Rhet” Turnbull Shares an inside look at the Space Domain Awareness Mission Published Feb. 3, 2022 By SSC Public Affairs LOS ANGELES AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. -- Space Systems Command (SSC) is supporting the analysis of recent global events including the Russian Anti-Satellite this past November and the Chinese satellite that towed a defunct navigation satellite out of geostationary orbit last week. Col “Rhet” Turnbull, director of SSC’s Cross Mission Ground and Communications Enterprise, shares why and how SSC’s advancements in Space Domain Awareness (SDA) are vital to national defense from adversarial threats. “We’re laser focused on staying ahead of threats in space and developing resilient space capabilities -- systems of systems -- that ensure the U.S. maintains its advantage in what is now a highly contested and congested space domain,” Turnbull explains. “If we don’t stay ahead, we risk having our daily way of life radically disrupted.” “SSC is operating within a great force culture change -- adapting to counter adversarial threats, delivering more resilient capabilities, and maximizing opportunities to utilize the incredible innovation that’s coming out from our commercial industry today. And we’re doing this through a collaborative approach with each other and with all our partners.” SSC works closely with the operational community to deliver SDA capabilities that operators require. For example, SSC is tracking nearly 35,000 objects in Lower Earth Orbit, a 22 percent increase from just two years ago. From a data perspective, this is a monumental task. Observation Association takes radar information from ground sensors and correlates it to known resident space objects, associating 400,000+ observations a day across a 30,000-object search field. A recent Value Assessment from Space Operations Command states the positive impacts that SSC’s command and control Space C2-delivered capabilities have had on increasing space warfighters’ productivity and improving mission performance. In less than three years, SSC’s Space C2 program has delivered 12 operationally-accepted capabilities that are currently supporting warfighter operations. Click here to watch Col Turnbull’s interview to learn more about what SSC is doing behind the scenes to keep us safe.