OSC, Australian Space Agency Sign Statement of Intent for SSA Cooperation

Today at the International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2024) in Milan, Italy, the the Office of Space Commerce and Australian Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent to cooperate on matters related to space situational awareness (SSA). The two agencies will collaborate to improve space object re-entry monitoring and prediction.

The full statement is below.

Joint Statement of Intent
Between the U.S. Office of Space Commerce
And the Australian Space Agency
For Cooperation on Space Situational Awareness

Recognizing the long history of successful space cooperation between the United States of America and Australia for over 60 years;

Considering the U.S. Office of Space Commerce development of the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) to provide space situational awareness information and services to support spaceflight safety and space sustainability;

Considering the Australian Space Agency’s Civil Space Monitoring Pathfinder project to further understand Australia’s role in Space Situational Awareness and Space Traffic Management;

Acknowledging the key role of international coordination in further developing and improving Space Situational Awareness capabilities;

Recognizing the importance of reliable information and reliable re-entry monitoring and prediction services as a component of Space Situational Awareness; and

Noting the potential for the use of non-traditional information sources, including publicly available weather radar information and infrasound and seismic sensors, to provide useful information for detecting and improving understanding of space object re-entry.

The U.S. Office of Space Commerce and the Australian Space Agency (hereinafter as referred to individually as “agency” or collectively as “agencies”) intend to expand their existing bilateral cooperation in civil space situational awareness by exploring opportunities to collaborate on the use of all potential data sources (traditional and non-traditional) to improve space object re-entry monitoring and prediction.

Consistent with this intent, the agencies intend to collaborate on an initial joint study involving the exchange and analysis of publicly available data to evaluate the utility of such data for space object re-entry monitoring and prediction and to identify next steps for any potential more formal framework for cooperation. Each agency will pay its own costs for and incidental to this initial study.

This Statement of Intent does not create legal obligations between the agencies and does not commit either agency to enter into any subsequent arrangements or agreements for the conduct of cooperative activities in civil space situational awareness. Any proposed formal and enduring framework for cooperation on space situational awareness between the agencies or proposed cooperative activities will be subject to the respective agency’s internal approval processes.