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Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman listens to a briefing about 15th Space Surveillance Squadron operations and Ground-Based Optical Sensor System upgrades during a Maui Space Surveillance Complex site visit in Maui, Hawaii, Sept. 16, 2025. The 15th SPSS serves as the U.S. Space Force’s center of excellence for ground-based optical space domain awareness, combining operations and research to develop, deliver and operate advanced SDA capabilities in support of warfighter needs. “Awareness in the domain is foundational to every other effort in space. Space domain awareness is truly a team sport, one critically reliant on technology as a force enabler that must be supported by commercial collaboration, integrated training and coalition operations,” said Saltzman. SDA is critical to space superiority, enabling the protection of vital space-based assets, providing timely intelligence for national security objectives and ensuring the continued sustainable use of the increasingly congested and contested space domain. The U.S. Space Force is indispensable to joint force lethality and posture for execution in a contested, degraded and operationally limited environment by providing capabilities that are enabled by SDA. (U.S. Air Force photo by 1st Lt. Laura Anderson)