Australia-US Deal Could Cut Approvals Time for Space Missions

NASA astronaut and Artemis II mission specialist Christina Koch peers out of one of the Orion spacecraft’s main cabin windows, looking back at Earth, as the crew travels towards the Moon on April 4, 2026. NASA’s Artemis II mission will take Wiseman, Glover, Koch, and Hansen on a 10-day journey around the Moon and back aboard their Orion spacecraft. NASA via Getty Images

Australian government officials have told a federal parliamentary committee that a new space cooperation treaty with the United States would slash the time needed to approve joint missions from as long as two years to almost none.

It would also allow for projects like the construction of NASA’s lunar rover to U.S. rocket launches from Australian territory.

The Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) held a public hearing in Canberra to examine the Framework Agreement between the U.S. and Australian governments on aeronautics and use of airspace.

The agreement was signed on Sept. 30, 2025, at the International Astronautical Congress in Sydney by then-Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy and Australian Space Agency head Enrico Palermo.

Luke Phillips, director of international partnerships at the Australian Space Agency and the agreement’s lead negotiator, told the parliamentary committee that space activities currently require separate treaty-level agreements, a process that can take up to two years to conclude before work can begin.

The framework agreement instead establishes a single legal basis under which future projects can proceed through non-binding, project-specific arrangements that will not need to go through Australia’s treaty-making process each time, he explained.

Phillips said the agreement underpins an existing collaboration to build an Australian-made lunar rover for NASA’s Artemis programme, funded through the federal government’s $150 million Moon to Mars initiative.

NASA said in 2021 that the rover, developed by an Australian consortium, would collect lunar regolith (the loose layer of rock, dust, and soil on its surface) to support NASA’s oxygen-extraction technology, and could fly to the Moon as early as 2026.

NASA launched three rockets from the Arnhem Space Centre in the Northern Territory in 2022, which marked the first time the U.S. agency had launched rockets from Australia since 1995.

Phillips also confirmed Australia is negotiating a similar framework agreement with the European Space Agency, expected to conclude “in the coming months,” alongside existing space partnerships with India, Japan and the United Kingdom. The United States has comparable framework agreements with more than a dozen countries, including Canada and France.

Questioned by Claire Clutterham, the MP for Sturt, about sovereignty and “sensitive technology” referenced in the agreement’s national interest statement, Phillips said the term covers dual-use technologies with both civil and potential military applications, and that information-sharing on such technology would be handled under provisions in the agreement rather than excluded outright.

Alison Penfold, the member for Lyne, pressed officials on privacy safeguards for farmers, referencing concerns that satellites could be used for surveillance.

Phillips said all activity under the agreement would have to comply with existing Australian law and policy, and that the agreement contained no additional privacy safeguards specific to agricultural land beyond that requirement.

Committee members also asked about orbital debris.

Christopher De Luis, general manager of the Office of the Space Regulator, said Australia manages debris risk domestically through the Space (Launches and Returns) Act, a licensing scheme, and that international debris-mitigation standards are negotiated primarily through the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, of which Australia is a member.

The European Space Agency’s 2025 Space Environment Report found roughly 40,000 objects are now tracked in orbit, including about 11,000 active payloads, with an estimated 1.2 million untracked fragments larger than one centimetre capable of causing catastrophic damage to spacecraft.

The CSIRO’s Mark Cheung and the Bureau of Meteorology’s Kristin Reeson told the committee their agencies would use the framework to expand Earth observation, remote sensing and space-weather monitoring work, with the Bureau currently relying on data from 30 satellites operated by other countries to produce forecasts and warnings.

Phillips told the committee the agreement does not commit Australia to any specific programme and preserves the country’s “sovereignty and decision-making authority,” with each future project remaining subject to separate Australian government decisions.

We had a problem loading this article. Please enable javascript or use a different browser. If the issue persists, please visit our help center.

Source link