If you want to carry out a commercial space mission, like, say, mining asteroids, you’ll have to fill out some paperwork.
The application process could be substantially reformed under the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, which is expected to pass the House Tuesday night, but the paperwork aspect will, of course, remain.
Your application to conduct commercial space activities will require much of the information that you’d encounter in current paperwork, such as your name, address, contact information, planned launch date and location, details of the space object’s shape, size, and its functions.
But under the new bill, you’d also have to attest that your space object is (to paraphrase the bill’s language) A) not a nuclear weapon or a weapon of mass destruction, B) will not carry a nuclear weapon or weapon of mass destruction, and C) will not be operated or used for testing of any weapon on a celestial body.
(I don’t know about you, but my weekend plans are shot.)
Those requirements are intended to ensure compliance with the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which resolved at the time that “the moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all States Parties to the Treaty exclusively for peaceful purposes,” expressly forbidding the presence of nuclear weapons in orbit and the installation of weapons on celestial bodies.
Alarmingly, House Science, Space, and Technology committee chairman Lamar Smith said during the legislation’s markup last June that there is “no assurance of Outer Space Treaty compliance” under the current commercial space oversight regime, which governs the work done by SpaceX, Blue Origins and others.
Still, odds are that if you tried to launch a nuclear weapon into space under the current system, some government agency or another would stop you. Today’s federal regulations related to nuclear materials are not intended to ensure Outer Space Treaty compliance, but are in reference to launch safety reviews. Supporters of the bill say there is a gap in the United States’s commercial space activities regulatory framework, specifically in questions of compliance with international treaties.
The bill seeks to close that gap by codifying the expectations laid out in the Outer Space Treaty.
Critics say it doesn’t go far enough to make sure American companies are actually complying with international rules. In fact, the bill directs the Powers That Be to take applicants at their word when they say their space objects aren’t nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction, unless clear contradictory evidence exists that indicates otherwise. In those cases, the burden of proof will rest on the government, not on the private sector. And in an effort to expedite the approval process, the bill sets a 90-day time limit for applications to be either approved or rejected. Notably, if the government fails to respond within the 90-day time frame, applications would be “approved without condition.”
The bill also streamlines the delegation of responsibilities in the commercial space licensing system.
Under current law, the FAA handles issues of launch and reentry, the FCC approves radio communications between the spacecraft and its handlers on the ground, and NOAA oversees remote sensing (or satellite) operations. The legislation would shift much of that responsibility to an expanded version of the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce — currently staffed by just four people. Proponents argue the reorganization will encourage innovation and free enterprise.
While the bill reflects some of the recommendations of the National Space Council, its odds in the Senate are undecided.
“Years of uncertainty over which government agency has the responsibility to authorize and supervise commercial space activity has created a chilling effect in the industry, hindering capital formation and innovation,” new NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement last summer, when the bill was introduced and he was still a member of Congress.
The bill was written “to provide a clear, transparent process to meet Outer Space Treaty obligations while ensuring America is open for business in space,” Bridenstine added.
