Commercial Space: Federal Regulation, Oversight, and Utilization

Abstract

U.S. industry has always been involved in spaceflight. Contractors for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) built the spacecraft that took astronauts to the Moon. Contractors build reconnaissance satellites for the Department of Defense (DOD) and weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Increasingly, though, space is becoming commercial. A majority of U.S. satellites are now commercially owned, providing commercial services, and launched by commercial launch providers. Congressional and public interest in space is also becoming more focused on commercial activities, such as companies developing reusable rockets or collecting business data with fleets of small Earth-imaging satellites. Multiple federal agencies regulate the commercial space industry, based on statutory authorities that were enacted separately and have evolved over time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licenses commercial launch and reentry vehicles (i.e., rockets and spaceplanes) as well as commercial spaceports. NOAA licenses commercial Earth remote sensing satellites. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses commercial satellite communications. The Departments of Commerce and State license exports of space technology. In response to industry concerns about the complexity of this regulatory framework, the Administration and Congress have made several reform proposals, including Space Policy Directive-2, Streamlining Regulations on Commercial Use of Space (SPD-2, issued in May 2018); the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act (H.R. 2809, passed by the House in April 2018); and the Space Frontier Act of 2018 (S. 3277, ordered to be reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in August 2018).

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Nov 29, 2018
Accession Number
AD1170088

Entities

People

  • Daniel Morgan

Organizations

  • Library of Congress

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Artificial Satellites
  • Commerce
  • Congress
  • Department Of State
  • Earth Orbits
  • Geosynchronous Satellites
  • Law
  • Low Earth Orbits
  • National Security
  • Space Debris
  • Space Objects
  • Space Situational Awareness
  • Space Systems
  • Space Transportation
  • Spacecraft
  • United States Government

Readers

  • Aerospace Engineering.
  • Government Contracting/Procurement.

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Satellites