The Soyuz TMA-17 spacecraft approaches the International Space Station. Credit: NASA

If Florida hopes to hold onto space jobs, it will need to reach beyond U.S. borders, a new Obama administration policy suggests.

The National Space Policy, unveiled Monday, calls for significantly greater international cooperation in a wide range of civilian and national-security programs. Among the NSP's goals and precepts, the United States:

• "Recognizes the rights of all nations to access, use, and explore space for peaceful purposes, and for the benefit of all humanity."
• "Calls on all nations to share its commitment to act responsibly in space to help prevent mishaps, misperceptions and mistrust."
• "Will engage in expanded international cooperation in space activities, including space science and exploration; Earth observations, climate change research, and the sharing of environmental data; disaster mitigation and relief; and space surveillance for debris monitoring and awareness."
• "Will actively promote the purchase and use of U.S. commercial space goods and services within international cooperative agreements."
• "Will develop new and transformative technologies for more affordable human exploration beyond the Earth, seek partnerships with the private sector to enable commercial spaceflight capabilities for the transport of crew and cargo to and from the International Space Station, and begin human missions to new destinations by 2025."

"No longer are we racing against an adversary; in fact, one of our central goals is to promote peaceful cooperation and collaboration in space, which not only will ward off conflict, but will help to expand our capacity to operate in orbit and beyond," President Barack Obama said Monday.

In keeping with the president's previous pronouncements, NSP's intent is to open participation in U.S. space ventures to allies and other established spacefaring nations, such as China and Russia, and emerging powers including India and Brazil.

"There are so many new space powers trumpeting their successes. We want to make sure spacefaring nations don't cause problems with command and control," an industry source speaking on background told Sunshine State News Monday.

Rising costs of space exploration, as well as increased global competition, make collaboration the obvious option for NASA, said Jim Rendleman, deputy director of the Boulder, Colo.-based Secure World Foundation.

"When there are problems with jamming, radio frequency interference and space debris, we all lose," Rendleman said.

"It's far better to set up verifiable agreements to limit concerns. The global community benefits. Even the security community benefits. If you don't talk, you won't make progress," he said.

Frank DiBello, chairman of Space Florida, said, "Turning to international collaboration is a good thing, as long as we retain key technology areas.

"We're already on a path with the International Space Station for aggressive international outreach to both countries and companies. We want them to use Florida skills, assets and infrastructure," he added.

Citing two examples, DiBello cited micro-gravity research on the ISS and fostering partnerships with U.S. companies.

Still, others worry that sharing technology with nations such as China, North Korea and Iran will jeopardize U.S. security.

Critiquing Obama's earlier call for commercializing space ventures, U.S. Rep. Bill Posey, R-Rockledge, said at the time:

"At some point the president needs to take responsibility for his own administration’s decision to widen the space gap and cede America’s leadership in space, which is the modern-day military high ground," Posey said.