The National Space Surveillance and Tracking Programme (S3T) was created in response to the need in Europe for Space Situational Awareness to provide collision avoidance, re-entry prediction and fragmentation analysis services.
The civilian component of the programme is managed by the Centre for Technological Development and Innovation (CDTI), while the military component is managed by the Ministry of Defence. In addition, the European Space Agency (ESA) is responsible for managing technical aspects and tenders associated with the programme.