The squadron commanded the United States Space Surveillance Network to detect, track, identify and catalog positional data for all human-made objects in Earth orbit.

[citation needed] The roots of the squadron can be traced to 1961, when the Space Detection and Tracking System Center at opened at Ent Air Force Base, Colorado.

The center brought together Air Force and Navy systems designed to track objects in space in all directions, not merely Soviet missiles launched over the North Pole.

[1] The 1st Command and Control Squadron provided collision avoidance support during each shuttle mission as well as maintaining an extensive satellite catalog (the "SATCAT" or "Box score").

The unit moved to Vandenberg Air Force Base, California in 2007 to better coordinate activities with the Joint Space Operations Center, it lost over 150 years of expert civilian experience.