The Australian Parliament’s Joint Standing Committee on Treaties (JSCOT) is to consider the Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA), which would allow U.S. launches from Australia.
U.S. and Australian officials signed the agreement last Oct. 26 at the State Department in Washington, D.C.
The Australian Space Agency said that the TSA “establishes a binding legal and technical framework for the protection of U.S. space launch technology in Australia to prevent unauthorized access to the technology.”
The 2021 AUKUS partnership among the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom is to lead to defense technology collaboration, and TSA looks to be a key space supplement to AUKUS, as the U.S. and its allies try to counter China.
TSA would add U.S. launches from Australian pads, such as the Arnhem Space Center.
Australian and U.S. “collaboration on space launch technology is outside the scope of the TSA,” the Australian Space Agency said. “Australian companies will need to seek relevant U.S. export control licenses and permits to collaborate on and transfer U.S. space launch technology.”
The JSCOT is to make a parliamentary recommendation on TSA approval by July 3.