Abstract:
This work examines the critical role of data integrity in ensuring flight safety for space traffic coordination and management. Data integrity is defined as the combined assurance of data security and data quality across the full lifecycle of space data, including creation, transmission, ingestion, normalization, fusion, and archival. The study presents a layered framework for Space Traffic Coordination in which authoritative data from spacecraft operators, SSA service providers, and environmental models are standardized, curated, and comparatively evaluated prior to safety-of-flight assessments. A classification of space object information into processing levels is introduced, ranging from a priori and operator-provided data to inferred and derived products such as orbit lifetime and maneuver system status. The analysis reviews CCSDS standards relevant to conjunction assessment, maneuver coordination, reentry, radio-frequency interference, and catalog management, highlighting their importance for interoperability and transparency. Gaps in current standards are identified, particularly the lack of built-in error detection, correction, and cybersecurity mechanisms, which implicitly assume a trusted infrastructure. The work concludes that robust data integrity practices—combining standardized data messages, quality control, comparative evaluation, and secure transmission—are foundational to decision-quality flight safety and effective space traffic management.
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Oltrogge, D.L., “Data Integrity Aspects of Flight Safety”, DoD/NIST CyberSecurity Forum, 16 Jun 2022.
