Space-based space surveillance with the space-based visible

Space surveillance is the activity of keeping a current catalog of informat ion on manufactured, Earth-bound resident space objects. Some necessary fun ctions to perform this task are search and detection, acquisition and track ing, tasking and scheduling, and data reduction and processing. The Midcour se Space Experiment satellite, launched 24 April 1996, carries the Space-Ba sed Visible sensor package designed for conducting space surveillance from a space platform. Other contributions to this issue discuss Space-Based Vis ible operations, data reduction, and accuracy. The Space-Based Visible prov ides high-accuracy angle measurements (right ascension and declination). Ba sed on these data, space-based space surveillance catalog maintenance can b e demonstrated. To this end, orbits are calculated based on ground-based da ta, space-based data, and various combinations of these data. From these re sults a number of surveillance functions can be demonstrated, for example, compatibility and fusion of space-based and ground-based metric (position) data. When an independent, high-accuracy orbit is available, an assessment of the orbit accuracy is made. In other cases, differences between the orbi ts are computed. In addition, access to the complete geosynchronous belt an d catalog maintenance for geosynchronous satellites will be demonstrated. E ffectiveness of space-based space surveillance data is assessed.