Technology Transition

In the latest installment of DARPA’s new podcast series, Voices from DARPA, Lindsay Millard discusses the Agency’s Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) program, a key component in the nation’s ability to detect and track space debris and other objects to determine if they will collide with orbiting satellites or impact the Earth.

At a mountaintop event in New Mexico today, DARPA is marking the formal transition of its Space Surveillance Telescope (SST) from an Agency-led design and construction program to ownership and operation by U.S. Air Force Space Command (AFSPC), which has announced plans to operate the telescope in Australia jointly with the Australian government. Taking place at SST’s high-altitude perch at White Sands Missile Range, the event will include remarks by DARPA Deputy Director Steven Walker and senior AFSPC and Royal Australian Air Force leadership.

DARPA yesterday handed over the Space Surveillance Telescope (SST)—the most sophisticated instrument of its kind ever developed—to U.S. Air Force Space Command at a mountaintop ceremony in New Mexico. The event marked the formal transition of SST from an Agency-led design and construction program to ownership and operation by the Air Force, which has announced plans to operate the telescope in Australia jointly with the Australian government.