International Laser Ranging Service

Satellites with Restricted Tracking Requirements

Some satellites in the list of missions supported by the ILRS must (or can) only be tracked by laser ranging under certain restrictions or conditions:

• Visibility restrictions:
  • GP-B
  • Radioastron
• Avoidance of optical sensor damage:
  • ALOS
  • ALOS-4
  • ICESat
  • ICEsat-2
  • Lomonosov
  • QPS-SAR-10
  • Sentinel-3A
  • Sentinel-3B
• Power reduction requirements:
  • LRO

The ILRS has developed a restricted tracking policy and characterized how ILRS stations can handle these restrictions.