Commerce and DOD Reach Space Agreement

The Commerce Department and the DOD have signed a memorandum of agreement on basic space situational awareness (SSA), space traffic management (STM), and civil and commercial coordination, said an emailed news release Friday. “The agreement defines how the two departments will work cooperatively to implement the National Space Council’s Space Policy Directive 3,” which “seeks to advance SSA and STM science and technology; provide federally-supported basic SSA data and STM services to the public; and improve SSA data interoperability to enable greater SSA data sharing,” the release said. The MOA was also signed by Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy John Plumb, and the leadership of the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command. Commerce and DOD “recognize the need for new approaches to coordinate and manage space activities in an accessible and meaningful way for the private sector will help maintain U.S. economic leadership in space,” the release said.