Space Mining Bill Passes In Congress

The bill, a compromise between a previous Senate and House version, had recently passed the Senate and yesterday passed the House.

A legislation called the SPACE Act of 2015 (The US Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act), was passed by the US House of Representatives this week.

Opposing the bill were Reps. The Texas Senator serves as the chairman of the Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Science, Space, and Competitiveness, which oversees NASA. Work on the current bill was on for two years.

“The bill that we are considering today is a missed opportunity to enact sensible policies”, said Johnson. “It is a bill that, if enacted, will do harm to American taxpayers and to the long-term interests of the commercial space industry itself”. “NSS has been campaigning for the extension of the worldwide Space Station, and NSS is delighted to see that the CSLCA formally extends the ISS to 2024”. Bill Nelson of Florida and Patty Murray of Washington, and Republican Sens.

7It now goes to President Obama, who had suggested tweaks earlier in the process, but has not threatened a veto of the bipartisan bill.

Analysts dubbed the legislation an early attempt at setting a few of the rules for commercial space, but it’s filled with aspirational language that envisions the heavens teeming with human activities. With the US having essentially shut down the Shuttle program, astronauts now are ferried to the Space Station, for instance, on foreign rockets. Ted Cruz (R) of Texas, said the plan can revitalize industries a bit closer to home.

Another controversy is that according to global space treaties governments cannot lay claim to celestial bodies but private individuals could keep the stuff they find on them. After the end of the eight-year period, the government will step in with a full package of regulations, which are yet to be created.

President of the United States, Barack Obama, is anticipated to pass a critical space bill for the commercial space companies like Virgin Galactic andSpaceX, which comes under commercial spaceflight sector. He said that they were effectively after their first gusher. Comets, meanwhile, could provide water – made up of hydrogen and oxygen – needed to produce fuel. Bob Richards, co-founder and CEO of Moon Express, said that minerals and water discovered on the moon would be classified as a “space resource”, technically, as per Title IV of the SPACE Act, under which “space resource” is simply described as “an abiotic resource in situ in outer space”.

“This off-planet economy will forever change our lives for the better here on Earth”, said Chris Lewicki, the company’s president and chief engineer.