Emerging Space Businesses Seen Driving Need for Regulatory Changes
Rethinking how the FAA authorizes rocket launches and staying competitive internationally with nations increasingly becoming space regulation specialists are on the nation’s long to-do list to promote the growing private sector interest in space, regulatory experts said at a Nebraska College of Law space law conference Friday.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Communications Daily is required reading for senior executives at top telecom corporations, law firms, lobbying organizations, associations and government agencies (including the FCC). Join them today!
The U.S. is facing “tremendous difficulty” licensing and regulating all the emerging space applica- tions, as other countries are specializing on setting up rules targeting one market or industry, such as Luxembourg’s focus on space mining or some Asian nations focusing on space situational awareness, said PeterMarquez, principal at space consulting firm Andart Global. “They’re picking a specific battle; the U.S. is trying to fight all the battles,” he said. “It’s not an enviable position.”
Gabriel Swiney, State Department international space law advisory attorney, said the patchwork of regulatory regimes that cover traditional activities doesn’t work well covering newly contemplated activities. He said minus the regulatory tools to approve such activities, agencies too often will be forced to deny them. Swiney said a variety of issues will emerge over the next decade that will require some kind of regulatory response, such as liability and determining fault when a commercial actor damages another’s operations.
Given the constantly developing space tech, there needs to be ongoing mandatory review of export controls, said Mike Gold, FAA Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee chairman. He said there’s a growing “space station gap” threat given the U.S.’ current dependence on Russian launch capabil- ities for the International Space Station. But there are regulatory hurdles to boosting American presence in low earth orbit via private space stations, he said.
SpaceX hopes to see a performance-based approach to regulating launch and re-entry that’s ag- nostic on the launch vehicles, letting launch operators get a license that covers multiple launch sites or multiple vehicles, said Caryn Schenewerk, government affairs director. Modifications to NOAA remote sensing rules regime, and progress on FCC commercial space launch spectrum notice of inquiry, are also needed, she said.
Asked about the two commercial space bills before Congress—the Senate’s Space Frontier Act (S-3277) and the House’s American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act (HR-2809)—speakers said the biggest priority needs to be passage soon of some compromise bill that at least addresses areas of common ground. “No decision would be the worst possible decision,” Marquez said.
There was a back and forth on strengths and weaknesses of the Outer Space Treaty’s Article VI, mandating government authorization and continuing supervision of private activity in space. “Continuing supervision ... is dangerous language,” leading to potentially onerous requirements, Gold said, adding one problem is no federal consensus on how to read that language. Swiney replied that two of the biggest space industry bugaboos are the export control and remote sensing rules, which aren’t the result of international law but of U.S policy. “Keep in mind where your real problem lies,” he said.