US Space Force sends two Space Domain Awareness sensors to Japan

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https://www.dvidshub.net/image/7802237/us-space-force-sends-two-space-domain-awareness-sensors-japan

US Space Force sends two Space Domain Awareness sensors to Japan

05.17.2023
Courtesy Story
Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs


U.S. Forces Japan and U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific continue to make significant strides in Japan since activating the new service component in November 2022. This week, the U.S. Space Force announced the delivery the second of two Space Domain Awareness sensors to Japan that will be hosted on Japanese satellites to build SDA capacity and resiliency, in support of a US-Japan cooperative effort called Quasi-Zenith Satellite System Hosted Payload.

"The U.S. Space Force and Japan are pathfinding how we extend our alliance into space through QZSS-HP," remarked Brig. Gen. Anthony Mastalir, USSPACEFOR-INDOPAC commander. "We are dedicated to enabling a cadre of space experts who can work with Allies and partners to integrate space activities into shared operations, activities, and investments. By bringing in the right Guardians at the right time with our Allies, we can maximize opportunities to exercise and train together as well as cooperatively field capabilities such as QZSS-HP.” Mastalir emphasized, “this milestone is significant for both nations."

The first QZSS-HP payload was successfully delivered via a combination of C-17 and ground movements from Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory in Lexington, Massachusetts, to Japan in January 2023. Guardians and Airman from U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, USSPACEFOR-INDOPAC, USFJ, and the 374th Air Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan worked in close coordination with the program office at Space Systems Command. The National Space Policy Secretariat leads the effort on Japan's side.

"This important system is a beneficial space cooperation pacesetter for both nations, and it paves the way for future initiatives," said Lt. Gen. Ricky Rupp, USFJ commander. "US-Japan dialogue and collaboration across all domains is imperative to set conditions with our Japanese counterparts to
ensure U.S. service components maintain a lethal posture and readiness to support theater-wide operations," said Rupp. "This includes the Space Force and I'm excited to see such amazing progress on this particular effort."

The second delivery comes on the heels of a myriad of Congressional Testimonies by senior USINDOPACOM, SPACECOM, and USSF leaders bolstering the importance of space cooperation initiatives with Allies and partners.

China remains the pacing threat in the space domain. "In 2022, the People's Republic of China completed 64 successful space launches that placed at least 160 satellites into orbit," Adm. John Aquilino, USINDOPACOM commander, highlighted in his April testimony. “The PRC is delivering capabilities that seek to deny use of our own space architecture."

In his statement to Congress, Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, USSF's Chief of Space Operations, explained, "the Space Force has two fundamental missions: to provide essential services to the joint force and to protect the joint force from adversary hostile uses of space systems. The ability to perform these missions is at risk today and that risk is increasing over time,” said Saltzman. “Our space systems are threatened by a variety of growing anti-satellite capabilities, and the joint force is threatened by increasingly sophisticated adversary space-based systems intended to target the joint force."

The QZSS-HP will augment the Space Force's ability to conduct persistent, time dominant volume search at geosynchronous orbit.

The effort seeks to demonstrate the ability of the US-Japan alliance to extend to space, contribute toward the Department of Defense's broader integrated deterrence posture against our shared concerns in the Indo-Pacific and contribute to the USSF's Space Domain Awareness. Ultimately, this effort provides a basis for future international cooperative space partnerships and initiatives.

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https://www.ll.mit.edu/news/space-force-delivers-first-payload-japans-qzss-satellites


Space Force delivers first payload for Japan’s QZSS satellites
The two hosted payloads, designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, will keep tabs on spacecraft and dangerous debris in geosynchronous orbit (GEO).
January 17, 2023
Breaking Defense
Three satellites orbit the Earth.
Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS) provides GPS services for a swath of Asia. (Screengrab via QZSS official website.)

WASHINGTON — The Space Force today announced it has delivered the first of two planned space surveillance payloads for integration with Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System (QZSS), with the launch planned for later this year on Tokyo’s sixth QZSS.

“This delivery of the first spaceflight-ready payload represents an important milestone for QZSS-HP. While a lot of work remains, I’m happy to report that we’re on track to meet our commitments,” said Lt. Col. Brian Fredrickson, the Space Force’s program manager on the project. “QZSS-HP has benefited tremendously from being categorized as a prototype, as it has enabled the program to be responsive and move with speed.”

The two hosted payloads, designed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory, will keep tabs on spacecraft and dangerous debris in geosynchronous orbit (GEO). The second of the two payloads is expected to launch in fiscal 2024 on the seventh QZSS satellite. The QZSS constellation is designed to complement and enhance GPS signals over Japan used for positioning, timing and navigation.

According to the service’s fiscal 2023 budget documents [PDF], the QZSS payloads will “enhance capabilities over the Eurasian theater and facilitates resilient capabilities in the Space Surveillance Network (SSN).”

The SSN is the U.S. military’s network of ground-based radar and telescopes for space domain awareness, along with the six Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program satellites.

The service budgeted $16.3 million in FY23 for development and launch support of the QZSS payloads, but the budget justification documents did not provide funding levels for future years.

The program, launched in 2018, is characterized by the Space Force as a “pacesetter” for future U.S.-Japan cooperation — and today’s announcement comes on the heels of a sweeping new agreement, formally signed Jan. 13, between Washington and Tokyo that expands that cooperation in both the military and civil domains.

The Framework Agreement for Cooperation in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, for Peaceful Purposes, was “10 years in the making,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a Jan. 11 press conference meeting of the U.S.-Japan Consultative Committee (2+2) meeting. That meeting included both foreign and defense ministers from both sides, and focused on security cooperation, with a clear eye on China.

In particular, the ministers agreed for the first time that their pledge of mutual response to adversary attacks under the longstanding U.S.-Japan Security Treaty includes attacks on national satellites.

“The Ministers consider that attacks to, from, or within space present a clear challenge to the security of the Alliance, and affirmed such attacks, in certain circumstances, could lead to the invocation of Article V of the Japan-U.S. Security Treaty,” explained the Jan. 11 joint statement on the outcome of the Consultative Committee meeting.

[AndrewM]

The 1st of these launched on QZS-6 on February 2, 2025 with the 2nd scheduled to launch on QZS-7 in early FY26.

https://www.spaceforce.mil/news/article-display/article/4055022/space-systems-command-japan-launch-first-bilateral-space-effort/ [Feb 5]

A U.S. space domain awareness payload hosted on Japan's Quasi-Zenith Satellite 6 successfully launched on a Japanese H-3 launch vehicle from the Yoshinobu Launch Complex at the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s Tanegashima Space Center in Japan on February 2. This is the first bilateral U.S. Japan cooperative space effort focused on national security, and the first of two launches as part of the JAXA Quasi-Zenith Satellite System Hosted Payload program.

The satellite will be operated by Space Operations Command’s Mission Delta 2, which conducts Space Domain Awareness operations to identify, characterize, and exploit opportunities and mitigate vulnerabilities in the national security space terrain on behalf of the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command. The satellite will deliver near real time data to the Space Surveillance Network bolstering the U.S. Department of Defense understanding of the Geosynchronous Orbit regime above the Indo-Pacific region.

The QZSS-HP program encompasses the integration, launch and operations of two U.S. payloads hosted on Japanese satellites. In preparation for launch, USSF and Massachusetts Institute of Technology Lincoln Laboratory teams have worked side-by-side with the NSPS and Mitsubishi Electric Corporation teams in Japan over the past two years to integrate and test the first hosted payload alongside its Japanese QZS-6 host.

The strategic partnership between the USSF and Japan's National Space Policy Secretariat originated through a December 2020 international agreement to jointly execute the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System-Hosted Payload program. The mission’s second payload aboard QZS-7 is on track for launch in early FY2026.