In the next few years, given the increasing crowding of low orbits, the space monitoring and surveillance capacity will be increasingly important and the Italian Air Force, in the context of the National Defense, presents itself as a leading player to play the role of service provider of a capacity of Space Situational Awareness (SSA), which will also affect sectors such as the Space Weather and Space Traffic Management. The SSA will be superimposed on the defense capacity of the airspace, a priority institutional activity among those assigned to the Blue Army. The space monitoring and surveillance capability is a further demonstration of the skills of the Air Force in the space and aerospace domain.
In the recent case of Tiangong, the forecasts of re-entry, updated with increasing frequency as the event approaches, have been provided by the ASI, on the basis of predictions by various national institutions, including the Air Force, through the fundamental contribution of the Operational Center of Space Surveillance and Tracking (SST), set up in the 2015 on the Sea Practice area at the facilities of the Experimental Flight Department and currently operated by the staff of the Aerospace Engineering Group (GIAS). The Operating Center, active in h24 service during the last days before the event, conducted a national SST architecture experimentation campaign to support the Civil Protection by providing re-entry predictions. Fundamental for the tracking Tiangong revealed the sensors located at the Polygon Interforze of Salto di Quirra and at the Polygon of Capo San Lorenzo and the military optical telescope MiTe of Pratica di Mare managed by the GIAS. The availability of measures tracking by the aforementioned sensors, together with the calculation capabilities of the Sea Practice Operating Center, they have made it possible to obtain very accurate estimates of the estimated time of return, also thanks to the close link of cooperation with the Joint Space Operations Center (JSpOC) American dislocated at the Vandenberg air base.