Mark Dickinson, Inmarsat VP of satellite operations. Photo: Inmarsat.

The Space Data Association (SDA), an international non-profit association of satellite operators that supports the controlled, reliable and efficient sharing of space environment and Radio Frequency (RF) spectrum data, has elected Mark Dickson, vice president of satellite operations at Inmarsat, as its new chairman.

Dickinson succeeds the outgoing SDA chairman, Mark Rawlins, director of communication system operations at Eutelsat, who will continue as a director of the group.

The SDA has also announced that Jean-Luc Froeliger is joining as a director to represent Intelsat, replacing Mark Daniels.

The international commercial satellite operator community set up the SDA in 2009 to coordinate activity and safeguard space-based infrastructure in the space environment in which satellites are operating.

The SDA entered into a long-term agreement with Analytical Graphics last month to launch an upgraded Space Data Center (SDC) Space Traffic Management (STM) service. SDC 2.0 will be available to all members of the SDA, and has an independently generated catalogue of space objects which will grow to include objects larger than 20cm, both in and traversing the geostationary arc, allowing for transparent and actionable collision warnings. The service also features functionality to combat Radio Frequency Interference (RFI), including the construction of geolocation scenarios and a Carrier ID database.