WASHINGTON \u2014 The Office of Space Commerce has rolled out its proposal for a \u201clight touch\u201d approach to mission authorization, the latest attempt in a long-running effort to regulate new commercial space applications.<\/p>\n
The office released its draft mission authorization proposal<\/a> late March 24. The White House had directed the Commerce Department in a commercial space policy executive order in August<\/a> to develop that proposal within five months.<\/p>\n The proposal is intended to address a gap in oversight of so-called \u201cnovel space activities,\u201d such as satellite servicing, orbital debris removal and lunar missions, that are not currently regulated by agencies like the Federal Aviation Administration or Federal Communications Commission. The Outer Space Treaty requires member states to perform authorization and continuing supervision of space activities by their nationals.<\/p>\n Such emerging applications \u201coften face a \u2018no\u2019 by default due to unclear regulations,\u201d said Taylor Jordan, director of the Office of Space Commerce, or OSC, in a March 25 speech at the Satellite 2026 conference. \u201cWe are working on a framework that allows the government to say \u2018yes\u2019 to innovative space activities that don\u2019t fit into traditional offices.\u201d<\/p>\n The 13-page proposal outlines a voluntary system whereby companies can seek a \u201cSpace Commerce Certification\u201d from OSC. \u201cThrough an OSC-run interagency review process, OSC would articulate specific, light-touch requirements for novel space activities,\u201d the document states.<\/p>\n Under the proposal, companies would submit applications to OSC, which would perform \u201cbasic due diligence\u201d while coordinating an interagency review. Those other agencies would have no more than 30 days to raise any objections.<\/p>\n The office would have 120 days to issue a certification or deny the application. The process would operate under what the proposal calls a \u201cpresumption of approval,\u201d where the office would grant the application within that 120 days unless there is a valid reason to deny it.<\/p>\n The proposal recommends building the requirements for the certification incrementally. \u201cWe literally want to sit across the table with the first companies and say, \u2018What should we require you to do? What should the requirements be for a mission like yours?\u2019\u201d said Gabriel Swiney, director of OSC\u2019s policy, advocacy and international division, during another conference panel March 25.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s pretty light touch. It\u2019s pretty rapid,\u201d he said of that regulatory process. \u201cIt\u2019s not going to be anything near what you see in some existing regulatory agencies, particularly the FCC.\u201d<\/p>\n The certification would not replace the need to obtain launch, remote sensing or communications licenses, but Swiney said those agencies could accept the certification in place of some of their licensing requirements, such as compliance with orbital debris mitigation rules.<\/p>\n The space community has been debating mission authorization concepts for more than a decade. Near the end of the Obama administration, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy proposed that the FAA\u2019s Office of Commercial Space Transportation handle mission authorization. The first Trump administration, though, moved toward giving it to OSC.<\/p>\n In 2023, the Biden administration\u2019s National Space Council proposed splitting mission authorization responsibilities between the FAA and OSC<\/a> but faced opposition from some in Congress and industry. A House bill around the same time would have given mission authorization to OSC<\/a> but failed to pass.<\/p>\n \u201cIndustry has been asking \u2014 I would say almost begging \u2014 for a solution to this,\u201d Swiney said of mission authorization, \u201cfor well over a decade.\u201d<\/p>\n Initial industry reaction to the proposal has been positive. \u201cFor years, the space industry has discussed the uncertainty facing companies seeking government approval of new activities in space,\u201d Dave Cavossa, president of the Commercial Space Federation, said in a statement. \u201cBy providing a predictable and repeatable pathway to launch, this proposal will help the administration meet and exceed its goal to attract at least $50 billion of new investment in American space markets.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA commonsense certification regime will be critical to the future of commercial space activities. I applaud the Trump administration for prioritizing what is a nuanced but incredibly important issue, and for assigning the primary responsibility to the entity that is most capable of successful implementation, the Department of Commerce Office of Space Commerce,\u201d Mike Gold, president of Redwire Space, told SpaceNews.<\/p>\n He said the final version of the proposal should include hard deadlines and transparency in the review process, and ensure that treaty obligations are met \u201cin a benign and pro-growth fashion.\u201d<\/p>\n OSC is seeking feedback on the mission authorization proposal but did not give a deadline for that feedback or for turning the proposal into a final policy.<\/p>\n Amber McIntyre, senior director of civil space at the Aerospace Industries Association, said at the conference panel that her organization\u2019s member companies had provided input to OSC as it drafted the proposal.<\/p>\n Those companies are \u201cfollowing this closely and really want to be a part of every iteration and every review of this positive policy moving forward,\u201d she said. \u201cThey want to make sure that the barriers for entry are removed. They want to make sure that processes are as streamlined as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON \u2014 The Office of Space Commerce has rolled out its proposal for a \u201clight touch\u201d approach to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366091,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[61,60,164975,164976,163198,82,1935,247],"class_list":["post-366090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-space","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-mission-authorization","tag-office-of-space-commerce","tag-satellite-conference","tag-science","tag-sn","tag-space"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366090","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366090"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366090\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366091"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366090"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366090"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366090"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}