The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a memorandum directing NASA to establish a unified time standard for the moon and other celestial bodies to advance the Biden administration’s National Cislunar Science and Technology Strategy.

Under the memorandum, NASA will work with departments of Commerce, Defense, State and Transportation to create a plan by December 2026 for the implementation of the Coordinated Lunar Time, the White House said Tuesday.

“A consistent definition of time among operators in space is critical to successful space situational awareness capabilities, navigation, and communications, all of which are foundational to enable interoperability across the U.S. government and with international partners,” said Steve Welby, deputy director for national security at OSTP.

According to the memorandum, a unified standard of time will be foundational to the U.S. government’s efforts to establish a sustainable Cislunar ecosystem with scalable position, navigation and timing infrastructure.

“Knowledge of time in distant operating regimes is fundamental to the scientific discovery, economic development, and international collaboration that form the basis of U.S. leadership in space,” the memo reads.

Time standardization will also theoretically enable the U.S. to boost interoperability with international partners, promote safe and sustainable operations and simplify space situational awareness for flight operations and safety.

The Department of Defense has introduced a strategy aimed at aligning DOD’s efforts to integrate commercial space platforms into the national security space architecture.

The 2024 Commercial Space Integration Strategy outlines four priorities that DOD will advance to maximize the potential benefits of integrating commercial space platforms, the department said Tuesday.

The priorities are ensuring access to commercial solutions across the spectrum of conflict; achieving integration prior to crisis; establishing the security conditions to integrate commercial space solutions; and supporting the development of new commercial space solutions for use by the joint force.

Under the first priority, for instance, DOD will use contracts and other agreements as ways to ensure access to commercial platforms across the spectrum of conflict and mission areas.

“Contracts and other agreements will address the cyber, data, and supply chain security requirements that commercial entities will need to meet to work with the Department. As necessary, contracts will enable prioritization of Department requirements and capability needs over other commercial clients in specific situations,” the document reads.

The strategy also lists four foundational principles — balance, interoperability, resilience and responsible conduct — that DOD intends to use to guide its decision-making process to ensure that commercial offerings are integrated into national security space architectures.