Congress Focusing on Orbital Debris, but No Legislative Action Imminent
Congress is paying increased attention to orbital debris, but it’s not close to legislative action about it, said Capitol Hill committee staffers Thursday at the FAA annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference in Washington. They said action on space situational awareness (SSA) and space traffic coordination (STC) will be a priority for the 117th session.
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With the FCC and FAA both working on orbital debris, Senate Commerce wants to make sure all federal rules are synchronized and consistent, said staffer Joel Graham. Contradictions "make it hard for industry," he said.
Congress is interested in debris issues, but it's still wrestling with fundamental questions about what types of debris can be tackled now, how does it advance technology to deal with the breadth of debris, and promotion of the debris removal industry, said Senate Commerce professional staffer Richard-Duane Chambers. "We have a little bit of a ways to go" on deciding steps, he said, adding lawmakers will look at financial issues and regulatory and tech options. Coming up with an incentive structure to deal with debris "is incredibly important," Graham said.
Several also cited the reauthorizations of NASA and the FAA as major legislative priorities in coming months. The Space Preservation and Conjunction Emergency Act, included in the Senate-passed U.S. Innovation and Competition Act (S-1260), would reaffirm the space traffic management policy directive issued by the White House in 2018 and shore up Commerce's legislative authority to be lead federal agency on SSA, said Graham. Hunter Presti, aviation staff director for the House Transportation Committee, said legislation likely will be introduced to clarify the National Transportation Safety Board's authority to investigate commercial space transportation accidents. He said whatever final rule NTSB proposes will be "significantly better" than what the agency initially proposed in its NPRM.
Given the breadth of different space activities being proposed by commercial operators, there might be a need for a coordinating agency that looks at how federal oversight can be balanced with industry needs, said Graham. It's not clear what agency would be right for that role, he said.
The fundamental question of what type of space activities might not require regulation is still to be hammered out, said House Space Subcommittee Senior Policy Adviser Tom Hammond: "Light touch is great but deciding ... where it should be no-touch is equally important."
With launch and reentry windows "getting tighter" and operating in space becoming "more precarious" due to growing debris, the need is growing for implementation of some form of STC, said National Space Council Executive Secretary Chirag Parikh. He said Commerce's request for information this week about the commercial availability of SSA data will likely be followed by a request for proposals on buying such data to be used in its forthcoming SSA open architecture data repository. The repository would be a big step toward space sustainability policy implementation, but focus is also needed on issues such as implementation of open standards and practices for global STC, Parikh said. He said agencies -- particularly the FAA and State Department -- have been talking to other nations, promoting the U.S.' space transportation regulatory framework in an attempt to ensure consistency of requirements internationally.