It comes as UK Space Command seeks to become “a more intelligent customer”. 

UK Space Command and the Defence Science Technology Laboratory (Dstl) have launched a request for information (RFI) to understand the availability of historical space domain awareness (SDA) data. 

Published on 26 January, the RFI aims to help the authorities gain an understanding of current market capabilities, on behalf of the National Space Operations Centre (NSpOC). 

NSpOC was established by UK Space Command and the UK Space Agency in 2024 and is now striving to “become a more intelligent customer” when it comes to future SDA defence capabilities. 

DSEI Gateway reached out to the MoD and the UK Space Command to ask exactly how this will be achieved, and whether a tender for data sets would follow the RFI. The MoD was unable to provide these details, noting that this information is considered sensitive.  

Those looking to answer the call will need to submit a form available on the Ministry of Defence’s (MoD) Defence Sourcing Portal by 2 March.  

Besides informing future acquisitions, the RFI will help support the development of machine learning techniques regarding the characterisation and tracking of space objects., according to the RFI. Particularly regarding objects in cislunar orbit – the region between the Earth and Moon. 

Companies responding to the RFI are asked to provide a high-level description of the historical data sets they have access to, with information around how it has been quality controlled. 

They will also need to outline any limitations of the data and confirm its intellectual property status. 

Further to this, a draft paper, provided as part of the RFI, states that the data sets will need to be detailed enough to “capture the patterns of life of individual objects, while being representative of the variety of object types in orbit”.