NONREIMBURSABLE UMBRELLA INTERAGENCY AGREEMENT

BETWEEN

THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

AND THE DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

FOR SUSTAINABLE LAND IMAGING RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND OPERATIONS.

ARTICLE 1.AUTHORITY AND PARTIES

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration, located at 300 E Street SW, Washington, D.C. 20546 (hereinafter referred to as “NASA”) enters into this Interagency Agreement (hereinafter referred to as “IAA”) in accordance with the National Aeronautics and Space Act (51 U.S.C. § 20113) and the Economy Act, 31 U.S.C. § 1535. Department of the Interior, located at 1849 C Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20546 (hereinafter referred to as “DOI”), enters into this IAA in accordance with the Organic Act of the United States Geological Survey (hereinafter referred to as “USGS”), 43 U.S.C. § 31; 43 U.S.C. § 36c; Chapter 601, Title 51, “Land Remote Sensing Policy;” and Presidential Decision Directive NSTC-3. NASA and DOI may be individually referred to as a "Party" and collectively referred to as the "Parties."

ARTICLE 2.PURPOSE AND IMPLEMENTATION

This Umbrella IAA (hereinafter referred to as the “Umbrella IAA”) shall be for the purpose of collaboration between NASA and DOI on a Sustainable Land Imaging (SLI) program that enables the development of a multi-decade, spaceborne system that will provide users worldwide with high-quality, global, land-imaging measurements that are compatible with the existing 44-year record; that will address near-and longer-term issues of continuity risk; and that will evolve flexibly and responsibly through investment in, and introduction of, new sensor and system technologies. Under the SLI program, NASA and DOI will continue to work together to ensure sustained access to land remote-sensing observations for U.S. research and operational users. The plan reflects focused study and collaboration between NASA and DOI in developing program strategy and architecture, identifying user needs, and defining mission requirements. NASA will maintain responsibility for developing, launching and checking out space systems. DOI will be responsible for developing and maintaining associated ground systems (including satellite operation and mission data systems), operating the on-orbit spacecraft, and collecting, archiving, processing and distributing SLI systems data to users.

This Umbrella IAA supersedes the MOU between NASA and USGS Concerning Collaborative Programs, dated January 4, 2000. The Parties shall execute one (1) Annex Agreement (hereinafter referred to as the “Annex”) concurrently with this Umbrella IAA. The Parties may execute subsequent Annexes under this Umbrella IAA consistent with the purpose and terms of this Umbrella IAA. Each Annex will detail the specific purpose of the proposed activity, responsibilities, schedule and milestones, and any goods, services, facilities or equipment to be utilized under the task. This Umbrella IAA shall govern all Annexes executed hereunder; no Annex shall amend this Umbrella IAA. In the event of a conflict between the Umbrella IAA and any Annex concerning the meaning of its provisions, and the rights, obligations and remedies of the Parties, the Umbrella IAA is controlling.

ARTICLE 3.RESPONSIBILITIES

A. NASA will use reasonable efforts to:

  1. Lead and manage the overall Land Imaging System architecture design and development;
  2. Consistent with established processes, work with potential international partners to develop and execute agreements in the areas of space system architecture design or development ;
  3. Consistent with established processes, work with potential external (international or private sector) partners to develop and execute agreements for flight hardware development;
  4. Support ground system development and lead and manage mission operational readiness;
  5. Develop, integrate, and test any US Government (USG)-supplied spaceborne elements (spacecraft and instruments) and launch vehicle services for the Land Imaging program;
  6. Perform associated systems engineering and technical management functions;
  7. Launch any USG-supplied Land Imaging elements, perform on-orbit checkout and commissioning, and transition the spaceborne elements to the DOI for operations;
  8. Lead and manage pre-launch and orbital verification, calibration, validation and characterization of Land Imaging data through on-orbit commissioning and declaration of operational readiness;
  9. Maintain responsibility for instrument calibration and validation through mission handover;
  10. Support the calibration, validation and characterization of the instruments throughout the remaining mission lifecycle;
  11. Attend DOI Land Imaging System program management and technical reviews and other activities;
  12. Work jointly with the DOI on the integration of measurements from other sources, as necessary, in processing Land Imaging data, including possible assimilation of multiple observations into an integrated set of Land Imaging System data products;
  13. Provide for a single point of contact for Annex development and execution;
  14. Provide internal coordination of approvals for Annexes; and
  15. Provide support for projects undertaken in any Annex.

B. DOI will use reasonable efforts to:

  1. Define the needs of national and international users for a Land Imaging System and provide technical, managerial, and scientific support to NASA related to those needs throughout the space system development life-cycle;
  2. Support, under NASA leadership, the overall Land Imaging System architecture design and development;
  3. Lead and manage ground system development, including all pre- and post-launch activities related to development of the ground-based component of the Land Imaging System, in coordination with DOI data enterprise and geospatial systems program management. Such activities shall include, but not be limited to:
  4. Support mission operational readiness development;
  5. Support spacecraft & instruments/ground system integration and test;
  6. Support pre-launch and orbital verification, calibration, validation and characterization of Land Imaging System data through on-orbit commissioning and declaration of operational readiness;
  7. Lead and manage the calibration, validation, and characterization of the instruments following on-orbit acceptance throughout the remaining mission lifecycle;
  8. Following on-orbit check-out and commissioning, provide for operation of the spaceborne assets, as well as the downlink, ground processing, archiving, processing, and distribution of their data;
  9. Consistent with established processes, work with potential external (international or private sector) partners to establish cooperation in Land Imaging System data acquisition, data sharing, product development and distribution;
  10. During the system formulation and design processes, define and represent to NASA the needs and desires of the user communities, as well as provide unique expertise and guidance in the design of spacecraft and data operations, processing, and distribution methodologies and management approaches;
  11. Work jointly with NASA on the integration of measurements from multiple sources, development of a common set of Land Imaging data products, and data dissemination of a complete Land Imaging System;
  12. Maintain the national archive of Land Imaging System data;
  13. Attend NASA Land Imaging System program management and technical reviews and other activities;
  14. Provide for a single point of contact for Annex development and operations;
  15. Provide internal coordination of approvals for Annexes;
  16. Provide support for projects undertaken in any Annex.

C. Governance

The SLI is a high-visibility, high-value program for the Administration, requiring substantial investments of time, personnel, political capital, and budget from both NASA and DOI/USGS. Each agency has, over time, developed and refined its own efficient and effective decision-making and execution processes. This section defines the overall interagency governance approaches for the SLI program, and defines the set of formal interagency boards and committees that will enable the SLI collaboration to be planned, advocated for, and executed efficiently. The objectives of the governance approach are:

•to ensure consistent and efficient flow of information to Agency leaders;

•to provide forums for top-level program planning and coordinated advocacy and communication strategies with external and internal stakeholders;

•to align NASA and DOI initiatives and activities related to implementation of a Land Imaging System; and

•to ensure that program execution efficiently leverages the individual agencies’ decision-making processes to the greatest possible extent.

The governance approach defined here ensures that program-wide strategies are generated and coordinated at the highest levels in the agencies, while enabling existing, internal agency management/reporting/oversight processes to be used for execution wherever possible. The governance approach explicitly calls for the resolution at the lowest possible level of any disputes related to planning and design of the component missions and tasks that make up the SLI program. To these ends:

  1. The NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD) will be the senior NASA agency official responsible for NASA program oversight and issue resolution. The NASA portion of the overall program will be administered by the Director of the Earth Science Division (ESD) within SMD.
  1. The DOI Assistant Secretary for Water and Science will be the senior DOI agency official responsible for DOI program oversight and issue resolution. The DOI portion of the overall program will be administered by the Director of USGS.
  1. NASA and DOI will establish a Sustainable Land Imaging Joint Steering Group (SLI JSG) as the top-level steering board to integrate the efforts of the agencies involved in the SLI program. The membership of the SLI JSG will be as follows:

•DOI Assistant Secretary for Water and Science (co-chair);

•NASA Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (co-chair);

•Director of the NASA Earth Science Division (ESD);

•Director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS).

The JSG will meet at least on an annual basis to be apprised of the status of, and plans for, NASA and DOI Sustainable Land Imaging activities. Additional meetings of the SLI JSG can be called by either co-chair. The SLI JSG will ensure interagency access to consistent execution status information; it will also provide a discussion forum to enable overall program strategy generation and approval, as well as coordination of NASA and DOI engagement/advocacy strategies with external stakeholders including the Executive Office of the President and Congress on issues of budget and policy. All decisions of the SLI JSG will require NASA and DOI agreement and consensus. Only as a last resort, disputes that cannot be resolved at lower levels will be brought to the SLI JSG for resolution.

  1. The NASA ESD and the USGS will establish a Joint Committee for Cooperation in Land Science to communicate NASA and USGS respective scientific programs, initiatives and activities of common interest. The Joint Committee will be co-chaired by the Director of the NASA ESD and the Director of USGS and have membership composed of civil servants from the two agencies.
  1. The NASA ESD and the USGS will establish a separate JSG for each SLI flight project established under an Annex to this Umbrella IAA (e.g., Landsat 9 Project Annex). The flight project JSG will provide oversight of that project and resolve any disputes that cannot be resolved at lower levels. The flight project JSG will also serve as the steering committee for any system reviews affecting Level I requirements. The membership of the flight project JSGs will be as follows:

•Director of the NASA ESD (co-chair);

•Director of the USGS (co-chair);

•Director of the NASA Center directed with responsibility for executing the flight project/mission (e.g., the Goddard Space Flight Center for Landsat-9);

•NASA ESD Associate Director for Flight Programs;

•NASA ESD Associate Director for Science;

•NASA Program Manager for the Earth Systematic Missions (ESM) Program;

•Director of the USGS EROS Center;

•USGS Associate Director for Climate and Land Use Change;

•USGS Program Coordinator for Land Remote Sensing;

•USGS Program Coordinator for Land Change Science.

A separate charter will be developed for each flight project JSG under a specific flight project Annex to this Umbrella IAA.

  1. The GSFC Project Office and the USGS EROS Project Office for a specific flight project (e.g., Landsat 9) will develop a Project Implementation Agreement (PIA) that will govern the interagency collaboration at the NASA Project - USGS Project level.
  1. The NASA ESD Associate Director for Flight Projects and the USGS Associate Director for Climate and Land Use Change will conduct quarterly NASA-USGS Sustainable Land Imaging Roundtable discussions on topics of mutual interest that are not covered under the purview of the SLI JSG or the individual flight project JSGs.

Figure 1. NASA and DOI Organizations and JSG Relationships

ARTICLE 4.SCHEDULE AND MILESTONES

The planned major milestones for the activities defined in the "Responsibilities" Article are as follows:

NASA-DOI SLI JSG…………………………… / Annual Meetings
NASA-USGS Joint Committee for Cooperation in Land Science……………………………………. / Semi-annual Meetings
NASA-USGS Flight Project X JSG…………….. / Semi-annual Meetings
NASA-USGS SLI Round Table………………… / Quarterly Meetings

The Parties will execute one (1) Annex concurrently with this Umbrella Agreement. The initial Annex and any subsequent Annexes will be performed on the schedule and in accordance with the milestones set forth in each respective Annex.

ARTICLE 5.FINANCIAL OBLIGATIONS

There will be no transfer of funds between the Parties under this Agreement Umbrella IAA and each Party will fund its own participation. All activities under or pursuant to this Agreement Umbrella IAA are subject to the availability of funds, and no provision of this Agreement Umbrella IAA shall be interpreted to require obligation or payment of funds in violation of the Anti-Deficiency Act (31 U.S.C. § 1341).

ARTICLE 6.PRIORITY OF USE

Any schedule or milestone in this Umbrella IAA is estimated based upon the Parties’ current understanding of the projected availability of its respective goods, services, facilities, or equipment. In the event that either Party’s projected availability changes, NASA or DOI, respectively, shall be given reasonable notice of that change, so that the schedule and milestones may be adjusted accordingly. The Parties agree that NASA’s and DOI’s use of its own goods, services, facilities, or equipment shall have priority over the use planned in this Umbrella IAA.

ARTICLE 7.LIABILITY AND RISK OF LOSS

The Code of Federal Regulations (14 C.F.R. § 1266.104) establishes a cross-waiver of liability between the parties to agreements for science or space exploration activities unrelated to the International Space Station which involve a launch, and requires that such cross-waiver be flowed down to the parties’ related entities. In furtherance of this requirement, the Parties agree to ensure that their respective applicable Related Entities are subject to the cross-waiver as set forth in 14 C.F.R. § 1266.104.

ARTICLE 8.INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS - DATA RIGHTS

NASA and DOI agree that the information and data exchanged in furtherance of the activities under this Umbrella IAA will be exchanged without use and disclosure restrictions unless required by national security regulations (e.g., classified information) or as otherwise provided in this Umbrella IAA or agreed to by NASA and DOI for specifically identified information or data (e.g., information or data specifically marked with a restrictive notice).

ARTICLE 9.INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS - HANDLING OF DATA

A. In the performance of this Umbrella IAA, NASA or DOI (as “Disclosing Party”) may provide the other Party (as “Receiving Party”) with:

  1. Data of third parties that the Disclosing Party has agreed to handle under protective arrangements or is required to protect under the Trade Secrets Act (18 U.S.C. § 1905) (“Third Party Proprietary Data”), or
  2. Government data, including software, the use and dissemination of which, the Disclosing Party intends to control (“Controlled Government Data”).

B. All Third Party Proprietary Data and Controlled Government Data provided by Disclosing Party to Receiving Party shall be marked by Disclosing Party with a restrictive notice and protected by Receiving Party in accordance with this Article.

C. Identification of Data:

  1. Third Party Proprietary Data and Controlled Government Data shall be identified in the Annex under which it will be provided.
  2. NASA software and related Data shall be identified in the Annex under which it will be used, and provided under a separate Software Usage Agreement (SUA). DOI shall use and protect the related data in accordance with this clause.
  3. DOI software and related Data shall be identified in the Annex under which it will be used, and provided under a separate Software Usage Agreement (SUA). NASA shall use and protect the related data in accordance with this clause.

D. For Data with a restrictive notice and Data identified in this Umbrella IAA or an accompanying funding document, Receiving Party shall:

  1. Use, disclose, or reproduce the Data only as necessary under this Umbrella IAA;
  2. Safeguard the Data from unauthorized use and disclosure;
  3. Allow access to the Data only to its employees and any related entity requiring access under this Umbrella IAA;
  4. Except as otherwise indicated in D.3., preclude disclosure outside Receiving Party’s organization;
  5. Notify its employees with access about their obligations under this Article and ensure their compliance, and notify any related entity with access about their obligations under this Article; and
  6. Dispose of the Data as Disclosing Party directs.

E. If the Parties exchange Data having a notice deemed ambiguous or unauthorized by the receiving Party, it should tell the providing Party. If the notice indicates a restriction, the receiving Party must protect the Data under this Article unless otherwise directed in writing by the providing Party.

F. Notwithstanding any restrictions provided in this Article, the Parties are not restricted in the use, disclosure, or reproduction of Data provided under this Agreement Umbrella Agreement that is: