[co-author: Ashley Mills]
On November 14, 2022, the U.S. National Space Council (NSC) hosted the first of two listening sessions on in-space authorization and supervision policy. In this listening session, NSC encouraged participants to share information about their novel space missions, including experiences and opinions about obtaining government authorizations for their activities.
Sixteen parties (see below) discussed ongoing space projects and planned activities. Each speaker that discussed the authorization process emphasized the need for streamlined licensing processes, regulatory flexibility to keep pace with emerging technologies, clear lines of responsibility between each federal agency, and Congress to assign a “regulatory home” for certain in-space activities that no federal agency currently has express authority to regulate. Specific recommendations included –
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restraining federal agencies from regulating outside their congressionally mandated authority;
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repurposing NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS)1 model to help companies demonstrate space-based solar power collection and delivery at a systems level;
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establishing a Beyond Earth Working Group to report on ways to encourage human migration beyond Earth’s orbit;
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developing risk thresholds for in-space activity and penalties for operators that exceed those thresholds;
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regulating proactively the space nuclear industry to encourage development and innovation; and
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clarifying how commercial orbital debris remediation missions are authorized and supervised.
The next listening session is Monday, November 21, 2022 at 1:00 pm Eastern.2 This session will focus on approaches for in-space activity authorization and supervision. Interested parties must email a request to speak to mbx.nspc.iasp@ovp.eop.gov by Friday, November 18, 2022 at 11:59 pm Eastern. Speakers will have three minutes to present at the listening session and are also eligible for a 20-minute one-on-one meeting with NSC representatives to explore these issues further after the Thanksgiving holiday. Parties that do not speak in a listening session are not eligible for a one-on-one meeting. Interested parties can also submit comments to the NSC’s docket.
Speaker List
Joseph Anderson – SpaceLogistics
Tushar Savalia – Savalia Consulting
Jonathan Groff – Gravitics
Luc Riesbeck – Astroscale
Kevin O’Connell – Space Economy Rising
Isaiah Wonnenberg – Commercial Spaceflight Federation
Trevor Hehn (unaffiliated)
Valentin Eder – Space Analyses GmbH
William Kowalski – Atomos
Jacklyn Wiley – Zeno Power
Clark Thomas – National Space Society
Dr. Mary Lynne Dittmar – Axiom Space
Steven Wolfe – Beyond Earth Institute
Emmanuel Urquieta – Translational Research Institute for Space Health
Bill Beckman – Boeing
John Graves – Intuitive Machines
1/ Through the COTS program, NASA allocated $500 million over five years to support the development and demonstration of commercial cargo and human transportation capabilities to meet International Space Station needs.
2/ See generally Notice of In-space Authorization and Supervision Policy Listening Sessions; Request for Comments, 87 Fed. Reg. 62846 (Oct. 17, 2022).
[View source.]
