U.S. Space Force completes deployment of surveillance sensors via Japan

The U.S. Space Force has completed the deployment of two space-surveillance sensors through the Quasi-Zenith Satellite System-Hosted Payload (QZSS-HP) program. The second sensor was launched on August 10 via a Japanese H3 rocket aboard the Quasi-Zenith Satellite 7 (QZS-7).

This bilateral partnership between the United States and Japan, established under a 2020 agreement, utilizes Japanese host satellites and launch systems to field U.S. military payloads. The space domain awareness payload was designed and built by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory.

Operated by Mission Delta 2, the sensors are positioned in geosynchronous orbit over the Indo-Pacific region. Data from these sensors is fed in near real-time into the U.S. Space Surveillance Network to help detect, track, and characterize satellites and other objects in orbit. This deployment follows the first sensor launch on February 2, 2025, aboard the QZS-6 satellite.