  This paper demonstrates the development of ontology for satellite databases.
First, I create a computational ontology for the Union of Concerned Scientists
(UCS) Satellite Database (UCSSD for short), called the UCS Satellite Ontology
(or UCSSO). Second, in developing UCSSO I show that The Space Situational
Awareness Ontology (SSAO) (Rovetto and Kelso 2016)--an existing space domain
reference ontology--and related ontology work by the author (Rovetto 2015,
2016) can be used either (i) with a database-specific local ontology such as
UCSSO, or (ii) in its stead. In case (i), local ontologies such as UCSSO can
reuse SSAO terms, perform term mappings, or extend it. In case (ii), the
author's orbital space ontology work, such as the SSAO, is usable by the UCSSD
and organizations with other space object catalogs, as a reference ontology
suite providing a common semantically-rich domain model. The SSAO, UCSSO, and
the broader Orbital Space Environment Domain Ontology project is online at
http://purl.org/space-ontology and GitHub. This ontology effort aims, in part,
to provide accurate formal representations of the domain for various
applications. Ontology engineering has the potential to facilitate the sharing
and integration of satellite data from federated databases and sensors for
safer spaceflight.
