President Donald Trump signed a policy directive on Thursday to pursue sweeping regulatory reforms that the administration says would encourage commercial space innovation.
The directive follows four recommendations of the National Space Council and gives Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao until February 2019 to review space launch and re-entry licensing process and make changes where the regulatory regime is inefficient, costly, and burdensome to private enterprise. It specifies areas of the licensing process that should receive specific attention during the reform process, including the possibility of requiring just one license for all forms of commercial space launch and re-entry.
The National Space Council will have a hand in the review, as the directive orders Chao to coordinate with the newly revived group of officials and experts.
Trump’s directive also tackles the Commerce Department’s role in space licensing, ordering it to come up with a bill within 120 days that would “encourage expansion of the licensing of commercial remote sensing activities.” Remote sensing licensing—better-known as satellite technology—is currently approved by the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
It also addresses other areas noted by the National Space Council in February, including radio frequency approvals. The National Space Council offered four recommendations in February:
The directive jibes with a recently passed House bill that would consolidate commercial space licensing into a more streamlined process under fewer government agencies.
