ISO TC20/SC13 - Space Data and Information Transfer Systems Charter

The Charter was originally approved in 1982. It was updated in May 1999 and again in September 2004.

Preamble

CCSDS Recommendations are routinely submitted to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) for adoption as international standards. In 1990, the CCSDS entered into a cooperative arrangement with Sub-Committee 13 under Technical Committee 20 of ISO. Under this arrangement, CCSDS-developed Recommendations are advanced to ISO TC20/SC13 where they are progressed, via the normal ISO procedures of review and voting, into ISO/CCSDS Standards. These documents retain the CCSDS format, but are appended with an ISO cover sheet and control number. ISO TC20/SC13 normally meets every six months in conjunction with the CCSDS Management Council meetings.

Purposes

The purposes of ISO/TC20/SC13 are as follows:

1. Is an international forum, which addresses the standardization needs of organizations and personnel involved with data and information transfer and exchange standards for civil space applications.
2. Recognizes that technical documents appropriate for international data systems standardization purposes have been developed by other organizations and will utilize these existing documents if they have demonstrated their suitability by wide international acceptance. SC 13 will avoid developing new international standards when adequate standards exist.
3. Promote international cooperation and progress in civil space applications by encouraging, supporting, and proposing national and international missions; and seeking and initiating new concepts for international cooperative projects and missions. This includes spacecraft missions, ground based radio science, and space and ground tracking networks.
4. Develops both the technical and the institutional framework for international interoperability to facilitate appropriate cross-support opportunities of space data systems.
5. Promote opportunities for partnership in space applications, including space and ground tracking networks and data sharing, between industrialized countries and the developing countries.
6. Acts as an international information exchange mechanism for data, programs and plans pertaining to space applications and space/ground tracking networks.