Whoopsy: someone almost forgot to renew the US-Australia Space Vehicle Tracking and Communications Facilities Treaty |
First 2 of 8 paragraphs shown Or did they? As they had no problems organising a US-Australia, CSIRO and NASA party to celebrate the extension on 25 February. Late filing was the reason given as why it was not debated in Parliement; and why only a one paragraph was in the public domain, described as " Report 109: Treaty tabled on 2 February 2010." No debate: The current agreement ended on 26 February and the exchange of notes was only tabled in parliament on 2 February. Kelvin Thomson (Wills, Australian Labor Party said this was not democratic. The CSIRO and NASA jointly operate three facilities in Australia: the Canberra deep space tracking station at Tidbinbilla in the ACT and the tracking and data relay satellite ranging system facilities in Alice Springs in the Northern Territory and Dongara in Western Australia. The tracking station, which is one of only three such facilities in the world—the others being Madrid in Spain and Goldstone in the United States are responsible for "providing a two-way communications link for the guidance and control of robotic spacecraft in deep space and for the relay of images and data". ...Log in to read rest of Article or image. |