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	NASA and Pentagon Pledge Cooperation In Space But Provide Few Details By Brian Berger Space News Staff Writer posted: 05:00 pm ET 08 October 2002

WASHINGTON -- Senior NASA and Pentagon officials pledged further cooperation on space programs, but unveiled no major new programs or initiatives at an Oct

WASHINGTON -- Senior NASA and Pentagon officials pledged further cooperation on space programs, but unveiled no major new programs or initiatives at an Oct. 8 forum for space professionals.

Addressing a packed hall at the Reserve Officers Association here, the heads of NASA, U.S. Air Force Space Command, the U.S. National Reconnaissance Office, and U.S. Strategic Command articulated a rationale for increased cooperation for NASA and the military. Details of what form that cooperation might take were few, however.

NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe and Peter B. Teets, Under Secretary of the Air Force and Director of the National Reconnaissance Office, repeated earlier calls for NASA and the Air Force to cooperate on the development of technologies with both military and civilian uses.

O'Keefe and Teets affirmed a commitment for NASA and the Air Force to work cooperatively on propulsion, communications, and remote sensing technologies.

One effort singled out by Teets was space-based radar. The Air Force is pursuing development of a space-based radar system for tracking moving targets on the ground. NASA has flown space shuttle-based radar topography missions and has made a number of abortive attempts over the past decade to develop a free-flying radar imaging mission for scientific purposes.

Teets also said that the Air Force is interested in using NASA's Tracking and Data Relay Satellite (TDRS) system, a constellation of communication satellites NASA uses stay in touch with the space shuttle and international space station. Although Teets did not say what uses the Air Force would have for TDRS, the multiple satellite constellation has bandwidth to spare, something the military badly needs.

O'Keefe and Teets also announced that NASA and the Pentagon had renewed their commitment to a Partnership Council established in 1995 by then-NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin and Air Force Gen. Howell Estes, then commander of U.S. Space Command.

A Memorandum of Agreement signed Oct. 8 formally inducted two new members into the Partnership Council: U.S. Navy Admiral James O. Ellis, commander of U.S. Strategic Command, and Ronald Sega, the Pentagon's director of defense research and engineering.

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