ABSTRACT
This chapter turns to the transatlantic dimension of the processes studied in the volume. For years, the U.S. military has maintained the most advanced space surveillance system in the world, monitoring the status of human-made objects in space, and providing data and information to spacecraft operators around the world to help avoid collisions in space. In October 2019, the U.S. military announced that it would adopt the term “Space Domain Awareness (SDA)” in place of the previously used – and broadly accepted – term “Space Situational Awareness” (SSA). This change was designed to reflect the shift in focus from space as a benign environment to space as a warfighting domain, corresponding with the creation of U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) and U.S. Space Force. This chapter examines how both the rhetoric and the substantive approach to SSA/SDA has shifted in recent years, treating this as an illustrative case study of the trend toward militarization in recent U.S. space activities.
