Canberra is to become the latest outpost of a global network to monitor satellites and space junk.
It will join the Falcon Telescope Network, which will eventually number 12 telescopes, computer-linked to the US Air Force Academy's Center for Space Situational Awareness Research (CSSAR).
Canberra's Falcon telescope is housed in a curious clamshell observatory on defence land adjacent to the Australian Defence Force Academy and a University of NSW satellite campus.
This is the second Falcon telescope in the southern hemisphere - the other is in Chile.
More are in the US, while others are to be located in Europe, South Africa and Hawaii.
UNSW said this network of robotically operated 20-inch telescopes could monitor satellites and fast-moving space debris around the world 24 hours a day.
"From these observations scientists can determine the wellbeing of a satellite and track the objects that can be travelling at speeds of tens of thousands of kilometres per hour," UNSW said in a statement.
In Canberra for the opening on Thursday will be CSSAR director Dr Francis Chun, who said this data was of great interest to the US military.
"We want to know what's out there, who's out there and what are they're doing," he said in an article on the US Air Force website. "If something changes, what does that mean? Is it a threat? We always need awareness of the battlespace and in this case, it happens to be space."
Dr Chun said the network would also be used for astronomy research and for science, engineering and mathematics education for students in Australia and other countries, who could access the telescopes through the computer network.
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