Spacecraft operators long for precise data. If they could shrink the bubble of uncertainty around the location of spacecraft and orbital debris, they could spend less time analyzing possible collisions and less fuel maneuvering to avoid them. Spacecraft and debris tracking is a serious problem that is about to get worse as companies prepare to send hundreds or thousands of satellites into megaconstellations, said Paul Graziani, Analytical Graphics Inc. chief executive and co-founder. Commercial companies can help solve the problem by offering data to pinpoint the location of space objects more accurately than the information the U.S. government provides but often are frustrated by what they see as the military's reluctance to embrace commercial space situational awareness products, Graziani, told SpaceNews correspondent Debra Werner in an interview last week.
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