This study presents the application of satellite laser ranging (SLR) to orbit determination (OD) of high-Earth-orbit (HEO) satellites. Two HEO satellites are considered: the Quasi-Zenith Satellite-1 (QZS-1), a Japanese elliptical-inclinedgeosynchronous- orbit (EIGSO) satellite, and the Compass-G1, a Chinese geostationary-orbit (GEO) satellite. One week of normal point (NP) data were collected for each satellite to perform the OD based on the batch least-square process. Five SLR tracking stations successfully obtained 374 NPs for QZS-1 in eight days, whereas only two ground tracking stations could track Compass-G1, yielding 68 NPs in ten days. Two types of station bias estimation and a station data weighting strategy were utilized for the OD of QZS-1. The post-fit root-mean-square (RMS) residuals of the two week-long arcs were 11.98 cm and 10.77 cm when estimating the biases once in an arc (MBIAS). These residuals were decreased significantly to 2.40 cm and 3.60 cm by estimating the biases every pass (PBIAS). Then, the resultant OD precision was evaluated by the orbit overlap method, yielding three-dimensional errors of 55.013 m with MBIAS and 1.962 m with PBIAS for the overlap period of six days. For the OD of Compass-G1, no station weighting strategy was applied, and only MBIAS was utilized due to the lack of NPs. The post-fit RMS residuals of OD were 8.81 cm and 12.00 cm with 49 NPs and 47 NPs, respectively, and the corresponding threedimensional orbit overlap error for four days was 160.564 m. These results indicate that the amount of SLR tracking data is critical for obtaining precise OD of HEO satellites using SLR because additional parameters, such as station bias, are available for estimation with sufficient tracking data. Furthermore, the stand-alone SLR-based orbit solution is consistently attainable for HEO satellites if a target satellite is continuously trackable for a specific period.

We estimated the orbit of the Communication, Ocean and Meteorological Satellite (COMS), a Geostationary Earth Orbit (GEO) satellite, through data from actual optical observations using telescopes at the Sobaeksan Optical Astronomy Observatory (SOAO) of the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI), Optical Wide field Patrol (OWL) at KASI, and the Chungbuk National University Observatory (CNUO) from August 1, 2014, to January 13, 2015. The astrometric data of the satellite were extracted from the World Coordinate System (WCS) in the obtained images, and geometrically distorted errors were corrected. To handle the optically observed data, corrections were made for the observation time, light-travel time delay, shutter speed delay, and aberration. For final product, the sequential filter within the Orbit Determination Tool Kit (ODTK) was used for orbit estimation based on the results of optical observation. In addition, a comparative analysis was conducted between the precise orbit from the ephemeris of the COMS maintained by the satellite operator and the results of orbit estimation using optical observation. The orbits estimated in simulation agree with those estimated with actual optical observation data. The error in the results using optical observation data decreased with increasing number of observatories. Our results are useful for optimizing observation data for orbit estimation.

To protect and manage the Korean space assets including satellites, it is important to have precise positions and orbit information of each space objects. While Korea currently lacks optical observatories dedicated to satellite tracking, the Korea Astronomy and Space Science Institute (KASI) is planning to establish an optical observatory for the active generation of space information. However, due to geopolitical reasons, it is difficult to acquire an adequately sufficient number of optical satellite observatories in Korea. Against this backdrop, this study examined the possible locations for such observatories, and performed simulations to determine the differences in precision of optical orbit estimation results in relation to the relative baseline distance between observatories. To simulate more realistic conditions of optical observation, white noise was introduced to generate observation data, which was then used to investigate the effects of baseline distance between optical observatories and the simulated white noise. We generated the optical observations with white noise to simulate the actual observation, estimated the orbits with several combinations of observation data from the observatories of various baseline differences, and compared the estimated orbits to check the improvement of precision. As a result, the effect of the baseline distance in combined optical GEO satellite observation is obvious but small compared to the observation resolution limit of optical GEO observation.

In this study, we present preliminary results of precise orbit determination (POD) using satellite laser ranging (SLR) observations for International Laser Ranging Service (ILRS) Associate Analysis Center (AAC). Using SLR normal point observations of LAGEOS-1, LAGEOS-2, ETALON-1, and ETALON-2, the NASA/GSFC GEODYN II software are utilized for POD. Weekly-based orbit determination strategy is applied to process SLR observations and the post-fit residuals check, and external orbit comparison are performed for orbit accuracy assessment. The root mean square (RMS) value of differences between observations and computations after final iteration of estimation process is used for post-fit residuals check. The result of ILRS consolidated prediction format (CPF) is used for external orbit comparison. Additionally, we performed the precision analysis of each ILRS station by post-fit residuals. The post-fit residuals results show that the precisions of the orbits of LAGEOS-1 and LAGEOS-2 are 0.9 and 1.3 cm, and those of ETALON-1 and ETALON-2 are 2.5 and 1.9 cm, respectively. The orbit assessment results by ILRS CPF show that the radial accuracies of LAGEOS-1 and LAGEOS-2 are 4.0 cm and 5.3 cm, and the radial accuracies of ETALON-1 and ETALON-2 are 30.7 cm and 7.2 cm. These results of station precision analysis confirm that the result of this study is reasonable to have implications as preliminary results for administrating ILRS AAC.