House Takes Up Commercial Space Legislation Today

A bill focused on the private space-flight industry and sponsored by Bakersfield Congressman Kevin McCarthy has passed unanimously in the House. Sole blessings from congress helped private space companies, which deals with commercial spacecrafts to avoid a brief oversight from the Federal Aviation Administration again. According to SpaceNews, space policy experts predict President Obama will sign it into law. They argued against a number of the bill’s provisions, including one that adds spaceflight participants to cross-waivers of liability now required between launch service providers and its customers. “Our nation must continue to provide a framework in which the American people can innovate and create private commercial, scientific, and cultural enterprises that can extend our reach throughout the cosmos”. House of Representatives accepted amended version of H.R. 2262, the U.S. Commercial space launch Competitiveness Act after short discussion, which was a reflection of last discussions from May 2015.

“By removing the regulatory unknowns that suppress and repel investment, this bill unleashes and incentivizes the creativity that leads to unknown breakthroughs in innovation, ” said Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, quoted by the source. He and his House counterpart, House Science, Space, and Technology Committee chairman Rep. Lamar Smith, R-Texas, shepherded the bill that had broad, bi-partisan support through the legislative process.

The measure significantly overhauls rules governing the still-maturing commercial space industry for the first time in more than a decade. This legislation is critical for our future in space. The House vote arrives after getting consent from the Senate, through unanimous approval. One section even directs the US government to develop a plan to handle “orbital traffic management” for all of the space traffic that’s expected. Milestone 18 of the NSS Space Settlement Roadmap calls for the exploration, utilization, and settlement of the asteroids (http://www.nss.org/settlement/roadmap/RoadmapPart6.html). The act stalls regulatory oversight for the commercial space industry while increasing the rights for asteroid mining companies. Explicitly, it also states that the act does not hide any allegations of property rights on various solar bodies or asteroids. It addresses the regulation of the commercial space industry as well as the continuation of the worldwide Space Station.