During 2310 the Astronomy Service was known as the Light-Year Array, and existed solely to oversee the deployment of hundreds of S1 series starship based telescopes within a light-year of the Hawking System with the end goal of developing the largest telescopic array ever built. This office would also be responsible for developing the technologies to combine the stellar observations into usable information as well as budgeting out time on the Array to the various groups interested in interstellar observations.

After the New Years Revolution, the group would officially fall under the Magnetic Assembly. In late 2321 as the conflict with the American Union progressed it was determined that additional large-scale sensor projects would need to be carried out to defend the Hawking System against possible threats. The Magnetic Assembly has carried with it an inbuilt distrust of the military, but needed to find a way to balance the needs of their new Provisional Fleet with the Hawking System at large. The determination was made to carry out the large scale projects requested by the Provisional Fleet, but to then place those projects under control of the newly formed Astronomy Service, a civilian organization that would be responsible for managing those large systems. The service itself was created from the already existing Light-Year Array organization, with the Assembly simply expanding it to encompass the new projects.