Space Safety Programme


The Space Safety Programme, formerly the Space Situational Awareness programme, is an initiative by the European Space Agency (ESA) to monitor hazards from space, determine their risk, make this data available to the appropriate authorities, and where possible, mitigate the threat. The programme focuses on 3 areas: space weather forecasting and nowcasting, asteroid impact prediction and impact avoidance|prevention], and space debris mitigation. S2P is being implemented as an optional ESA programme with financial participation by 14 Member States.

History

The programme started in 2009 and its mandate was extended until 2019. The second phase of the programme received €46.5 million for the 2013–2016 period. The original SSA Programme was designed to support Europe's independent space access and utilization through the timely and accurate information delivery regarding the space environment, particularly hazards to both in-orbit and ground infrastructure. In 2019 it evolved into the present Space Safety Programme with an expanded focus, also including missions and activities to mitigate and prevent dangers from space.
At the ESA ministerial council in 2025, member states committed to a budget of €955 million for S2P over the following three years, increasing the budget by 30%. These funds were even higher than what the programme requested and covered all plans outlined in the proposal published before the council. In 2025, IAU approved the naming of 10 asteroids after people and places connected with ESA's planetary defense projects.

Structure

The programme is split into three "Cornerstones" managing major missions and six "COSMIC" areas managing small missions and other aspects of the programme:

Space Weather Cornerstone

S2P's space weather projects are monitoring the activity of the Sun, the solar wind, and Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere, and thermosphere, that can affect spaceborne and ground-based infrastructure or endanger human life or health. This data is processed and made available freely via the Space Weather Service Network. The upcoming deep-space mission Vigil, designed to observe the Sun from the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L5, will contribute to this monitoring system, allowing for timely warnings.

Planetary Defence Cornerstone

Planetary Defence at ESA focuses on detecting natural objects, such as asteroids and comets, which can potentially impact Earth, gathering observations from telescopes around the world and plotting their path through the sky to calculate the impact risk. Another area of the Cornerstone's activity is coordinating the response to a possible impactor with the international community through groups such as the International Asteroid Warning Network and the Space Mission Planning Advisory Group. The European asteroid observation network is coordinated by the S2P's Near-Earth Object Coordination Centre (NEOCC).
In October 2024, ESA launched the Hera mission, a follow-up to NASA's Double [Asteroid Redirection Test|DART mission] which performed the first kinetic impact test of Planetary Defence on 26 September 2022. Hera will rendezvous with the impacted Didymos binary asteroid system in 2026 to study the crater formed, the dust plume released, and more. S2P is working on two other asteroid exploration missions, the Hera-derived Ramses and the smaller CubeSat-type Satis. S2P is also developing the asteroid-detecting space telescope named NEOMIR that will be placed in the Sun–Earth Lagrange point L1.

ADRIOS Cornerstone

The Active Debris Removal & In-Orbit Servicing Cornerstone supports development of technologies for space debris removal and On-orbit [satellite servicing|on-orbit servicing of satellites] for sustainable use of space. The ADRIOS Cornerstone is developing the CApTure Payload Bay and RISE missions.
Space debris projects at ESA are tracking active and inactive satellites and space debris to better understand the debris environment, providing data, analysis, and advice to spacecraft engineers to perform collision avoidance manoeuvres, as well as developing a system of automated collision avoidance. The space debris office also works with the international community on norms and standards for the sustainable future of space.
Clean Space projects aim for systematically considering the entire life-cycle of space activities, from the early stages of conceptual design to the mission's end of life and beyond, to removal of space debris. ESA Clean Space includes EcoDesign, management of end-of-life, developing technologies to prevent the creation of future debris, in-orbit servicing/active debris removal, removing spacecraft from orbit, and demonstrating in-orbit servicing of spacecraft.

COSMIC areas

The "COSMIC" areas aim to develop and support:
Earth-orbiting space weather missions like SWING, Aurora-C, and SWORD will form the Distributed Space Weather Sensor System complementing the deep-space observations by Vigil.
ESA is building the Flyeye network of automated ground-based telescopes to scan the sky every night for Near Earth Object (NEO) detection. The first telescope, built on Sicily, had its first light in 2025.
The Draco mission will study the process of satellite breakup during uncontrolled atmospheric reentry. The first mission to remove a piece of space debris from orbit will be the ESA-commissioned ClearSpace-1. ESA is also testing laser-based technologies for precise tracking, and possibly also remote deflection, of space debris at Izaña-1 and Izaña-2 laser-ranging stations at Teide Observatory on Tenerife.

Space missions

2020s

Hera, launched October 2024 – European asteroid probe aimed at studying the effects of a NEO's impact created by NASA's DART mission using 65803 Didymos's moon as a targetDraco, launching in 2027 – small space capsule monitoring the breakup and demise processes of a re-entering satelliteSWING, launching in 2027 – ionosphere monitoring missionPRELUDE, launching in 2027 – in-orbit demonstration of space manoeuvres and relative navigation technologies for active debris removal

2030s

Aurora-D & Aurora-C, first launch planned for 2030 – a demonstrator satellite and a satellite constellation for Auroral oval monitoringSAILOR, launch planned for 2030 – space debris monitoring satellites using solar sail-like foils as impact detectorsVisdoms-S, launch planned for 2030 – optical observation of space debrisSatis, launch planned for 2030 – cubesat mission to an asteroidCAT , launch planned for 2030 – joint ESA-AEE mission to test a standardised docking interface for satellite removalErase, launch planned for 2030 – removal of a large satelliteVigil, launch planned for 2031 – space weather mission to the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L5Ecostars, launch planned for 2031 – Ecodesign technologies testCircular Economy I, launch planned for 2031 – in-orbit refurbishment missionLEMO demonstrator, launch planned for 2032 – cis-lunar debris monitoring missionPrecision Asteroid Nudging, launch planned for 2032 – ion-beam asteroid deflection testSword, launch planned for 2032 – two satellites in GTO-like orbit monitoring Earth's radiation beltsNEOMIR, launch planned for 2030s – asteroid-detecting space telescope in the Sun-Earth Lagrange point L1Shield, launch planned for 2030s – CME advanced warning missionEncore, launch planned for 2030s – mission life extension

Former SSA programme (2009–2019)

Space weather segment

The main objective of the space weather segment was to detect and forecast of space weather events, avoid adverse effect on European space assets and ground-based infrastructure. To achieve that, the segment focused on delivery of real-time space weather information, forecasts and warnings, supported by a data archive, applications and services. Assets available for the segment consisted of multiple ground-based and spaceborne sensors monitoring the Sun, solar wind and Earth's magnetosphere, ionosphere and thermosphere. These included the PROBA2 satellite and the Kanzelhoehe Solar Observatory. The segment was jointly coordinated by the SWE Data Centre located at the ESTRACK Redu Station and the SSA Space Weather Coordination Centre, both in Belgium.

Near-Earth object segment

The near-Earth object segment aimed to deliver monitoring and warning of potential Earth impactors and tracking of newly discovered objects. The segment's assets consisted of a mixture of professional and amateur telescopes, including the OGS Telescope, that were supported by tracking databases. The plans were to create a fully integrated system supporting alerts for civil authorities, including the Flyeye telescope planned for completion in 2020. The segment was operated by the SSA NEO Coordination Centre located at the ESA Centre for Earth Observation, Italy.

Space surveillance and tracking segment

The SST segment's primary goal was the detection, cataloguing and orbit prediction of objects orbiting the Earth. It was part of an effort to avoid collisions between orbiting satellites and debris, provide safe reentries, detect on-orbit explosions, assist missions at launch, deployment and end-of-life and overall reduce cost of space access. The segment relied on existing European radar and optical systems. Some of its assets were existing radio and optical telescopes, serving a secondary role for tracking space debris.
The radar-based SST assets were split into two categories: surveillance and tracking systems. SSA SST radar systems included:
SSA SST optical surveillance and tracking assets included:
As part of the SSA Programme new, dedicated surveillance radar supported by optical sensors systems were planned to be developed. The segment was coordinated by the Space Surveillance Test & Validation Centre located at the ESAC in Spain. Close approaches of Near-Earth objects and near earth asteroids were reported by ESA through the space situational awareness center.

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