---
title: "Space Domain Awareness Analyst"
description: "Tracks satellites and space debris, predicts close approaches between objects in orbit, and warns operators so collisions can be avoided."
canonical: "https://nuecareer.com/careers/space-domain-awareness-analyst"
last-updated: "2026-10-09T10:57:55.138Z"
---

# Space Domain Awareness Analyst

**Category:** Architecture and Engineering · **SOC code:** 17-3021 · **O\*NET-SOC code:** 17-3021.00

Tracks satellites and space debris, predicts close approaches between objects in orbit, and warns operators so collisions can be avoided.

Also advertised as: Space Situational Awareness Analyst; SSA Analyst; Space Surveillance Analyst; Space Traffic Analyst; Orbital Safety Analyst.

## At a glance

- **Median annual wage:** $82,890 (BLS OEWS, May 2025)
- **Median hourly wage:** $39.85/hr
- **Wage range (10th–90th percentile):** $59,050 to $125,160, with the middle half between $67,680 and $111,280
- **Total US employment:** 11,280
- **Typical entry education:** Associate's
- **Preparation required:** Some preparation — O\*NET rates this "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed"
- **Projected growth:** +11.9% over 2025–2035 (BLS EP, 2025–2035)
- **Annual job openings:** 1,100 openings a year
- **AI-resilience score:** 30/100 — a NueCareer heuristic over O\*NET work activities and context, not a BLS or O\*NET figure

## Pay

National wage distribution, BLS OEWS, May 2025, across 11,280 US jobs.

| Percentile | Annual wage |
| --- | --- |
| 10th | $59,050 |
| 25th | $67,680 |
| 50th (median) | $82,890 |
| 75th | $111,280 |
| 90th | $125,160 |
| Mean (average) | $91,310 |

### Pay by state

The 15 highest-paying states, by median annual wage. The cost-of-living-adjusted column divides the state median by that state's BEA Regional Price Parity, so the columns answer different questions: the first is what the job pays there, the second is what that pay buys there.

| State | Median annual wage | Cost-of-living adjusted | Employment |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| WA | $125,160 | $116,958 | 1,590 |
| AK | $105,780 | $103,342 | 40 |
| NV | $102,980 | $103,002 | 50 |
| CA | $99,000 | $89,415 | 1,560 |
| CO | $98,990 | $96,058 | 660 |
| MD | $91,820 | $87,482 | 200 |
| OR | $81,100 | $78,463 | 120 |
| VA | $81,040 | $80,155 | 270 |
| MA | $79,420 | $75,097 | 30 |
| CT | $79,410 | $76,643 | 70 |
| OH | $79,310 | $85,487 | 900 |
| FL | $78,560 | $75,967 | 770 |
| KS | $78,350 | $86,990 | 580 |
| TX | $78,350 | $80,726 | 950 |
| UT | $76,680 | $77,561 | 400 |

9 more states with published wage data are omitted here. The full table for all 24 states is at https://nuecareer.com/careers/space-domain-awareness-analyst/salary-by-state, or as JSON at https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/space-domain-awareness-analyst.

## Outlook

BLS projects employment to move from 11,600 in the 2025–2035 base year to 12,900 by the end of the cycle — a gain of 1,400 jobs, or +11.9%. Much faster than average: 11.9% against 3.5% projected for all occupations over the same cycle. About 1,100 openings a year are expected on average, counting openings from growth as well as from workers leaving the occupation permanently. Source: BLS EP, 2025–2035.

## How to get in

- **Typical entry education:** Associate's degree (BLS Employment Projections).
- **Preparation level:** Some preparation — O\*NET's preparation band for this occupation is "Job Zone Three: Medium Preparation Needed".
- **Related work experience typically required:** None.
- **Typical on-the-job training:** None.

### Education people in this job actually hold

O\*NET surveys incumbents, so this distribution describes who is in the job today and can differ from the BLS entry requirement above.

| Education level | Share of workers |
| --- | --- |
| Post-Secondary Certificate | 39.2% |
| Associate's Degree or other 2-year degree | 33.2% |
| High School Diploma or the equivalent (such as a GED) | 19.7% |
| Bachelor's Degree | 7.9% |

## What the work involves

- Process radar and optical tracking observations of space objects
- Maintain orbital catalogs of satellites and debris
- Screen satellites for predicted close approaches
- Calculate collision probabilities and assess risk
- Send conjunction warnings to satellite operators
- Characterize satellite maneuvers and unusual behavior
- Support launch and reentry safety analysis

## Skills and knowledge

### Essential skills

- Critical Thinking — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Reading Comprehension — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Active Listening — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Speaking — importance 3.6 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Writing — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Science — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Monitoring — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Transferable skills

These are the skills that carry into other occupations, and they drive the related-occupation and career-change rankings on this site.

- Operations Monitoring — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Quality Control Analysis — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Complex Problem Solving — importance 3.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Troubleshooting — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Judgment and Decision Making — importance 3.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Time Management — importance 3.1 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Operation and Control — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Repairing — importance 3.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Knowledge areas

- Mechanical — importance 4.5 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Engineering and Technology — importance 4.3 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Mathematics — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Production and Processing — importance 3.8 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Customer and Personal Service — importance 3.7 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- English Language — importance 3.4 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

### Abilities

- Oral Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Written Comprehension — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Oral Expression — importance 4.0 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Problem Sensitivity — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Deductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale
- Inductive Reasoning — importance 3.9 on the O\*NET 1–5 importance scale

## Who it suits

O\*NET rates every occupation on the six Holland (RIASEC) interest areas, on a 1–7 scale. This occupation's strongest areas are Realistic (R), Investigative (I), Conventional (C).

| Interest area | Score (1–7) |
| --- | --- |
| R — Realistic | 6.47 |
| I — Investigative | 5.52 |
| C — Conventional | 5.48 |
| E — Enterprising | 1.44 |
| A — Artistic | 1.00 |
| S — Social | 1.00 |

### Personality fit

These scores are **derived by NueCareer**, not published by any government agency: they are cosine similarities between a personality type's trait profile and this occupation's O\*NET interest and work-style ratings, expressed 0–100. Treat them as a starting point for exploration, not as evidence that a type belongs in a job.

| Type | Fit score (0–100) |
| --- | --- |
| ISTJ | 94.2 |
| ISTP | 82.7 |
| INTJ | 79.7 |
| ISFJ | 71.0 |
| ESTJ | 71.0 |

Best-fitting types: ISTJ.

## Related occupations

O\*NET's primary related occupations, in its own ranked order.

- [Aerospace Engineering and Operations Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aerospace-engineering-and-operations-technologist-and-technician) — median $82,890
- [Calibration Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/calibration-technologist-and-technician) — median $67,820
- [Avionics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/avionics-technician) — median $82,280
- [Electro-Mechanical and Mechatronics Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electro-mechanical-and-mechatronics-technologist-and-technician) — median $73,900
- [Mechanical Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/mechanical-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $74,510
- [Automotive Engineering Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/automotive-engineering-technician) — median $74,510
- [Robotics Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/robotics-technician) — median $73,900
- [Electrical and Electronics Repairer, Commercial and Industrial Equipment](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronics-repairer-commercial-and-industrial-equipment) — median $74,090
- [Electrical and Electronic Engineering Technologist and Technician](https://nuecareer.com/careers/electrical-and-electronic-engineering-technologist-and-technician) — median $78,190
- [Aircraft Mechanic](https://nuecareer.com/careers/aircraft-mechanic) — median $79,870

## Sources

- **O\*NET** — O\*NET 31.0 Database, August 2026. https://www.onetcenter.org/database.html
- **BLS OEWS** — BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025. https://www.bls.gov/oes/
- **BLS EP** — BLS Employment Projections, Table 1.2, 2025–2035. https://www.bls.gov/emp/
- **BEA RPP** — BEA Regional Price Parities by State, 2024. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area

---

This bank includes information from the O\*NET 31.0 Database by the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (USDOL/ETA). Used under the CC BY 4.0 license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). O\*NET® is a trademark of USDOL/ETA. NueCareer has transformed the data by joining it to BLS wage and projection data and deriving facet, personality-fit and AI-resilience scores. BLS and BEA data are public domain (17 U.S.C. §105).

O\*NET content is used under [CC BY 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). How these figures are sourced and derived: https://nuecareer.com/careers/methodology

JSON representation of this page: https://nuecareer.com/api/v1/careers/space-domain-awareness-analyst