The Interagency Operations Advisory Group (IOAG) A decade of leadership in International Space Cooperation

Kurzfassung

In June of 1999 the space operations leadership of seven space agencies met at European Space Agency (ESA) Headquarters to discuss steps which could be taken to facilitate international space operations strategic planning, including interoperability, which would result in more effective and efficient utilization of combined agency resources. Out of that first International Operations Plenary (IOP-1) the Interagency Operations Advisory Group (IOAG) was chartered. The IOAG -1 was held in February, 2000 and continues to meet at least annually to this day. In its first decade of operation the IOAG has increased its membership to 11 space agencies and established active strategic liaisons with 4 other international stakeholder organizations. It has enabled international cross support for many missions through establishment and implementation of preferred: standards; services; radio frequencies; and architectures for international space operations and cross support. The work of the IOAG in advocating these preferred approaches and communicating critical information on government space agency space communications service capabilities has contributed greatly to a significant increase in international space communications cross support over the last decade. Recently this effort has expanded to include information on commercial and academic based providers. Looking to the future, the group is pro-actively defining the future of space operations architectures through strategic engagement with its members and other international stakeholder groups involving robotic and human exploration architectures, data systems technologies and standards, space radio frequency management and positioning navigation and timing communities. The paper will describe the first decade of the IOAG’s activities, its ccomplishments and its challenges in architecting the international space operations cross support systems of today and the future.