Increasing reliance on and commercial interest in outer space means space "demands a new status" and should be designated critical infrastructure, Space Foundation CEO Tom Zelibor said Thursday in a webinar. Such a declaration would allow mobilizing policy and programs that better integrate it into resilience planning and coordination, helping safeguard the growing space economy, he said. There might have been a premature rush by space companies to go public via special purpose acquisition companies, said Jeffrey Manber, Voyager Space president-international and space stations. As many are falling short of expectations in their performance, their stock prices are down, and that could turn off a generation of investors to space, he said. He said there needs to be attention about whether sanctions on Russia could hinder its ability to maintain its International Space Station commitments. Congress is leaning toward keeping the ISS operational at least through 2030, but "I don't believe it's up to Congress," he said. U.S. export policy is unduly hampering commercial space operators, said Kari Bingen, Center for Strategic and International Studies senior fellow. She said operators will need access to international markets to help ensure commercial space isn't overly reliant on government contracts.
Russia export controls and sanctions
The use of export controls and sanctions on Russia has surged since the country's invasion of Crimea in 2014, and especially its invasion of Ukraine in in February 2022. Similar export controls and sanctions have been imposed by U.S. allies, including the EU, U.K. and Japan. The following is a listing of recent articles in Export Compliance Daily on export controls and sanctions imposed on Russia:
The idea of a voluntary moratorium on destructive anti-satellite (ASAT) testing has growing momentum internationally, with 10 nations so far having followed the U.S.' moratorium announced in April (see 2204190057), Secure World Foundation Program Planning Director Brian Weeden said Wednesday. In a webinar, Weeden said that support also was shown in more than 150 nations voting in December at the U.N. General Assembly for a moratorium. One hurdle to adoption by nations like Russia, China and India -- all of which developed and tested destructive ASAT capabilities -- is that they're developing those capabilities for different reasons, so no one argument works for all of them, Weeden said. Another challenge is defining what a space weapon is, since a light-detection and ranging sensor on a satellite for docking purposes also could be employed as a weapon. How to verify compliance with a voluntary moratorium or treaty is also an open question, he said.
A new satellite network will ensure secure communications for EU government bodies, emergency services and EU delegations globally after the European Parliament approved the Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite constellation. Europe's first multi-orbital satellite constellation has a budget of 2.4 billion euros ($2.6 billion) and will be operational in 2024. It will "ensure the EU's strategic autonomy in the field of secure government communications, in a context where cyber security threats are becoming increasingly important, especially following Russia's war against Ukraine," Parliament said Tuesday. Its negotiations with governments resulted in stronger environmental and sustainability provisions that reduce space debris proliferation and light pollution and require carbon footprint compensation to offset emissions. The agreement now needs final approval from administrations.
The Kansas House Legislative Modernization Committee passed by voice vote Monday a bill to codify an executive order from Gov. Laura Kelly (D) banning TikTok on state-owned devices and networks.
Documents show Facebook knew as early as 2018 that hundreds of thousands of developers across China, Russia, North Korea and Iran had access to user data that could potentially be used in espionage, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., and ranking member Marco Rubio, R-Fla., wrote Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday. The documents were released as part of ongoing litigation against Meta on the Cambridge Analytica scandal, they said. According to newly released documents, Facebook told Congress in 2018 that it gave access to application programming interfaces to device-makers in China, including Huawei, OPPO and TCL: “In the wake of those disclosures, Facebook met repeatedly with the staffs of both senators and the Senate Intelligence Committee to discuss access to this data and what controls Facebook was putting in place to protect user data in the future.” Internal documentation shows access extended to some 90,000 developers in China, 42,000 developers in Russia and thousands of developers in Iran and North Korea. “We have grave concerns about the extent to which this access could have enabled foreign intelligence service activity, ranging from foreign malign influence to targeting and counter-intelligence activity,” they wrote. Meta said in a statement Tuesday: "These documents are an artifact from a different product at a different time. Many years ago, we made substantive changes to our platform, shutting down developers’ access to key types of data on Facebook while reviewing and approving all apps that request access to sensitive information."
American Doreen Bogdan-Martin's election as ITU secretary-general was critical to the future of secure communications, FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel said Tuesday in a speech at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. CSIS plans to release a paper Friday on “The Strategic Imperative of U.S. Leadership in Next-Generation Networks: Lessons from Europe’s Stumbles and Implications for the Future of Free-Market Democracies,” which Rosenworcel hailed Tuesday.
The omnibus spending package includes a provision that establishes a national standard for the FTC and states verifying high-volume third party sellers on online platforms, the House Commerce Committee confirmed Tuesday. Chairman Frank Pallone, D-N.J., and House Consumer Protection Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., welcomed a provision that allows consumers to obtain “basic identification and contact information for certain sellers.” Schakowsky authored the provision with House Consumer Protection Subcommittee ranking member Gus Bilirakis, R-Fla. Another provision in the package directs the FTC to report on “cross-border complaints received that involve ransomware or other cyber-related attacks committed” by certain foreign entities, focusing specifically on Russia, China, North Korea and Iran. Schakowsky and Bilirakis authored the language.
Senate Republicans welcomed bipartisan legislation Tuesday that would ban TikTok from operating in the U.S. Democrats were less enthusiastic, though Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s willing to explore the idea.
The FCC should go after insurance companies that buy sales leads from robocallers and users of spoofed numbers, said communications attorney Arthur Belendiuk, of Smithwick and Belendiuk, in a complaint filed on his own behalf Monday in docket 20-195. “Starting as early as 8 a.m. and continuing into the evening hours, Complainant is barraged with a steady stream of unwanted telephone calls on both his mobile telephone and office telephone number, seven days a week,” said Belendiuk. The FCC “has the statutory authority to eliminate this scourge on American consumers,” said the complaint, comparing robocalls to “a plague of locusts” and calling for a forfeiture of $500 million for each company involved.
National competition going on now to dominate in-space manufacturing and for asteroid and lunar resources will determine what nation is likely to dominate the balance of power there for the next century, said American Foreign Policy Council Senior Fellow Peter Garretson at a Hudson Institute event Tuesday. "This is not some piece of policy to be left for later," Garretson said. He said, along with dominating space commodity production and space infrastructure, the U.S. needs to ensure as many partners as possible are using that infrastructure system. The U.S. and China will likely be the main rivals for space dominance, with India being a later arrival, Garretson said. He said Russia, France and Germany will likely follow the norms established by those space powers. The U.S.' lack of a national plan to develop space-based solar energy generation is "negligent and irresponsible," especially given how numerous other nations, including China and various U.S. allies, have their own space solar programs. Other Congressional space priorities also should include making commercial development of space a national policy, Garretson said. He said the national cislunar strategy put out last week by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy references economic development multiple times; commercial development isn't part of the national space policy or in NASA's charter; and it's unclear whether Commerce or NASA would be the lead in those commercial development efforts. Congress also needs to accelerate development of space infrastructure perhaps through designating a public corporation to finance and build that infrastructure, and create space infrastructure bonds, Garretson said. There also should be a space commodities exchange and space commodities futures exchange, he said. The estimated value of mineral resources in the solar system "is truly vast" and easily dwarfs projections of the space economy being anywhere from $1 trillion to $3 trillion by 2040, Garretson said.