The Briefing · Real · United States Space Force, Vandenberg
The office that clears lasers for the sky
The Laser Clearinghouse is a small team at Vandenberg Space Force Base in California; when the base described its work in 2016 it sat inside the Joint Space Operations Center. United States Department of Defense laser programmes must register with it for any activity that enters space; other programmes may register too. A programme submits where the laser is, when it will fire and where it will point, and the Clearinghouse computes the time windows when it is cleared to fire. The aim is that laser energy fired above the horizon does not illuminate satellites by accident.
In the novel a satellite can only be reached through a clear pass over a laser terminal.