WASHINGTON
—
With
skyrocketing
space
traffic
increasing
the
risks
of
accidental
collisions
and
misunderstandings
that
could
lead
to
military
conflicts,
a
new
UN
group
is
meeting
in
Vienna,
Austria
to
try
and
hash
out
practical
information
sharing
measures
among
nations.
The
Expert
Group
on
Space
Situational
Awareness
(EG
SSA)
was
initiated
under
the
Science
and
Technical
subcommittee
of
the
Committee
on
the
Peaceful
Uses
of
Outer
Space
(COPUOS)
last
July
by
the
United
Arab
Emirates,
which
is
serving
as
the
chair.
While
the
group
has
held
two
virtual
“intercessionals”
to
kick
start
the
discussions,
the
subcommittee’s
annual
session
Feb.
2-13
represents
the
first
time
group
members
have
met
in
person.
In
a
written
statement
Feb.
6,
Ryan
Guglietta,
the
US
State
Department
representative
to
the
meeting,
welcomed
the
EG
SSA,
calling
it
“an
unprecedented
opportunity
for
Member
States
to
convene
their
government
and
private
sector
technical
experts
to
have
substantive
discussions
on
how
to
improve
spaceflight
safety.
“We
are
optimistic
that
the
group
can
deliver
practical,
tangible
outcomes
that
help
all
actors
in
space
communicate
better
and
avoid
collisions,”
he
added.
The
US
delegation
to
the
talks
is
being
led
by
NASA
and
the
State
Department’s
Permanent
Mission
to
International
Organizations
in
Vienna,
a
State
Department
official
told
Breaking
Defense
in
an
email.
“The
United
States
supported
the
UAE’s
efforts
to
create
the
SSA
Expert
Group
in
2025
with
a
goal
of
improving
how
foreign
countries
share
SSA-related
data
and
enhance
the
safety
of
U.S.
government
and
commercial
space
objects,
particularly
as
a
wide
number
of
countries
become
active
in
space,”
the
spokesperson
said.
And
while
the
spokesperson
didn’t
elaborate
which
specific
countries
the
US
hopes
to
engage,
other
government
officials
said
that
China
is
at
the
top
of
the
list.
The
Pentagon
for
years
has
notified
Beijing
about
China’s
potential
on-orbit
conjunctions
using
data
from
US
Space
Command’s
(SPACECOM)
Space
Surveillance
Network
of
radars
and
ground-
and
space-based
sensors.
Those
notifications
—
which
include
information
similar
to
that
provided
to
US
commercial
operators
—
are
provided
via
email
to
the
Beijing
Institute
of
Telecommunications
and
Tracking
Technology
(BITTT),
a
research
unit
of
the
PLA’s
Aerospace
Forces.
BITTT
is
the
official
Chinese
government
point
of
contact
for
its
domestic
operators
with
regard
to
issues
of
space
safety,
including
collision
avoidance.
In
the
past,
SPACECOM
rarely,
if
ever,
got
any
kind
of
response
from
BITTT,
a
SPACECOM
spokesperson
previously
told
Breaking
Defense.
For
example,
back
in
February
2022,
in
response
to
questions
from
Breaking
Defense
about
Chinese
allegations
that
two
SpaceX
Starlink
satellites
the
previous
December
had
nearly
rammed
China’s
Tiangong
space
station,
a
SPACECOM
spokesperson
bemoaned
the
fact
that
there
was
no
direct
communication
from
Beijing
about
the
potential
collisions.
“The
U.S.
Government
has
repeatedly
sought
to
improve
bilateral
sharing
of
spaceflight
information
with
the
PRC
for
nearly
a
decade.
The
USG
has
also
consistently
urged
the
PRC
to
utilize
its
designated
points
of
contact
for
concerns
relating
to
human
spaceflight
safety
and
emergency
collision
avoidance
support,”
the
spokesperson
said
at
the
time.
However,
according
to
the
US
government
and
industry
officials,
over
the
past
year
Beijing
has
begun
reaching
out
about
potential
on-orbit
crashes.
In
the
most
public
example,
in
October
the
China
National
Space
Agency
for
the
first
time
initiated
contact
with
NASA
about
a
possible
crash
between
satellites
owned
by
the
two
space
agencies
and
offered
to
move
its
satellite.
The
communications
pathway
has
been
smoothed
in
part
by
a
US
government
effort
last
year
to
craft
cross-agency
guidelines
for
communicating
about
SSA
issues,
slating
BITTT
as
the
main
channel.
As
one
official
said,
that
helped
“get
our
act
together”
so
that
the
Chinese
were
not
confused
by
contacts
from
multiple
US
sources.
Further,
the
interagency
group
in
August
2025
issued
to
US
commercial
operators
a
similar
set
of
best
practices
for
mitigating
potential
on-orbit
collisions
with
China.
The
guidance,
obtained
by
Breaking
Defense,
explains
when
and
how
operators
should
contact
BITTT
following
a
SPACECOM
notification
about
possible
crash
with
a
Chinese
satellite,
as
well
as
when
an
operator
simply
wants
to
discuss
safety
precautions
and/or
maneuvers
about
its
birds
in
the
vicinity
of
Chinese
spacecraft.
The
thaw
in
bilateral
SSA
relations
could
help
foster
the
UN
negotiations,
which
according
to
the
working
group’s
agenda
include
discussions
of
“enhanced
global
operational
coordination
on
SSA
data
systems
and
harmonization
of
data
formats
across
global
SSA
systems”
and
the
creation
of
forums
for
regular
information
exchanges.
“In
past
dialogue
and
research
work
around
US/China
space
safety
coordination,
I
have
found
that
Chinese
stakeholders
perceive
a
stronger
need
for
government
policy
structure
to
enable
them
to
engage
directly
on
space
safety,”
said
Ian
Christensen,
senior
director
of
private
sector
programs
at
the
Secure
World
Foundation.
“While
the
Expert
Group
is
a
truly
multilateral
process,
and
not
in
my
view
primarily
about
the
US-China
relationship,
I’m
hopeful
it
will
contribute
to
the
political
conditions
necessary
to
see
further
improvements
in
space
safety
information
sharing
between
those
two
countries,”
he
added.
The
group
is
expected
to
hold
a
series
of
meetings,
both
virtual
and
in
person,
between
now
and
the
COPUOS
plenary
meeting
in
2028
when
its
results
are
due.
The
committee’s
annual
plenaries
are
usually
held
in
May
or
June.