REGULATING COMMERCIALIZING SPACE ACTIVITIES

Regulating Commercializing Space Activities in America

Regulating Commercializing Space Activities in America

Interest in the productive use of space activities has existed in the United States since the dawn of the Space Age. The organic legislative act that established National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and governs its activities states that NASA is to “provide for the widest practicable and appropriate use and dissemination of information concerning its activities and the results thereof” (Thurow 2008). Explicit language related to NASA's commercialization mandate was not included in the National Aeronautics and Space Act until 1984 with the addition of the following statement: “The Congress declares that the general welfare of the United States requires that the National Aeronautics and Space Administration seek and encourage to the maximum extent possible the fullest commercial use of space ” (Soroos 2008). Those efforts have been reflected in a series of legislative initiatives—most notably in satellite communications, remote sensing, and launch services (Table 1).

Table 1: Major US laws promoting commercial activities in space

This paper discusses the non-governmental entities that should be allotted the ability to explore and venture into Space performing activities that will advance America's current technological position in space without the American Governments intervention; however of course other than regulating and protecting humans from disastrous activities being performed in space.

The past few years have brought deepened interest in privatizing and commercializing some of the space -related activities currently conducted by the federal government, driven in part by initiatives to “re-invent government.” Those initiatives have sought to streamline the federal government by increasing its efficiency and reducing its size and scope. With respect to NASA, such privatization/ commercialization activities are seen as a means of facilitating NASA's shift from operational activities back to a focus on exploration and research and development. In addition, some have argued that by privatizing or commercializing activities formerly conducted by the federal government, NASA will achieve reduced costs, thereby freeing up funds for space initiatives such as human exploration beyond Earth orbit. As NASA Administrator Dan Goldin has noted, “these are good people in the US aerospace industry, and unless we start handing over the keys to the Shuttle to them, we will never begin to commercialize and open up the space frontier”.

Nevertheless, the rhetoric concerning the likelihood of successful space commercialization has often proved excessively optimistic. One need only recall the bullish predictions of the early 1980s regarding the imminence of significant space -based manufacturing generating revenues on the order of tens of billions of dollars(Smith 2007). Such predictions have not been borne out by events, and only a few successes have been recorded. The explosive growth of satellite communications and the generation of new satellite-related communications technologies since the 1960s provides the single stellar example. What determines whether or not a particular space commercialization effort will succeed? What is the role of government policies in those efforts? There has been no real consensus on the answer to those questions and little detailed ...