For the future of human spaceflight, NASA and the United States Space Force have joined forces.
As the Agency advances its Artemis mission, which seeks to get humans back to the lunar surface by 2024, NASA is also focusing on its partnership with the newly minted Space Force, which was established in December 2019.
A memorandum of understanding (MOU) between NASA and the U.S. Space Force was announced by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine and U.S. Space Force Director of Space Operations Gen. John 'Jay' Raymond on Sept. 22.
This agreement officially bands the two entities in collaboration with regard to "human spaceflight, U.S. space policy, space transportation, standards and best practices for safe operations in space, scientific research and planetary defense," NASA said in a statement.
NASA focuses on the discovery, research, and technology while the Space Force is a military initiative. But although the two have very distinct missions and overall priorities, they share the same sector, working in the same atmosphere. So there's a lot of overlaps and synergies.
NASA and the military have a long relationship that goes back to the late 1950s; their collaboration has legitimacy. The stability, development, and technological progress of the nation are underpinned by a secure, stable, and accessible space domain. As NASA ventures deeper into the cosmos for the good of all, the Space Force looks forward to future collaboration.
Although NASA does not dabble in military power and defense, in the U.S., Bridenstine explained, the agency, particularly now with this partnership, is an important part of national power, which involves political, intelligence, military, and economic forces.
This is really a tool of diplomacy for the country, but if space is not secure, NASA can't do any of those things. And that's why developing the Space Force was necessary, and that's why it's important for NASA to collaborate with the Space Force, Bridenstine said.
In "securing" space, NASA seeks to make its foreign partners, with the help of the U.S. Space Force, commit to specific standards of conduct that will eventually conserve space for mankind.
The organization and the military branch seek to stick to the Outer Space Treaty through this MOU, but take it even further by collaboratively establishing these standards such that, as enterprises and space agencies strive to conduct their own space programs, they take into account what are the norms of behavior that all nations need to conform within order to be able to sustain space for a longer period.
