Shared Standards are a Vital Part of Future Space Exploration

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine: 

I am in agreement with Director General Rogozin and Roscosmos that shared standards are a vital part of future space exploration. Specifically, one of the core principles of the Artemis Accords is interoperability. Via the Accords, the U.S. is proactively asking any partner nations that join us on the Artemis journey to focus on shared standards that will not just include docking, but data formatting and transfer, communications, navigation, environmental control and life support, and numerous other important systems and operations. The U.S. and its commercial and international partners look forward to working with the international community to ensure that interoperability and shared standards are the cornerstone of future space architectures, including the Gateway and other aspects of the Artemis program.

Additionally, we also believe in continuing the multilateral approach that has been successfully established by the International Space Station (ISS). The ISS has not only advanced technology, but helped us to learn how to effectively work together with a variety of cultures and countries. This is why we’re using the Intergovernmental Agreement (the IGA) which is the ISS’s legal framework for Gateway. The Gateway partners are agreeing to leverage the IGA for the outpost’s operations through a series of MOUs with participating nations. In order to build as broad a coalition as possible, we shared a draft of the proposed Gateway MOU with Roscosmos in November of last year, and we remain open and interested in receiving their feedback on the document and our general approach of utilizing the ISS’s IGA for the Gateway.