The head of a commercial space trade group is confident President Barack Obama will sign into law the commercial space launch bill that passed the House the evening of Nov. 16.
Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) President Eric Stallmer said Nov. 16 in an email after the vote that he “absolutely” believed Obama would sign the bill as the White House is “very supportive” of it. The bill now arrives on the president’s desk, where he has 10 days, not including Sundays, to decide whether to sign the bill or send it back to the House for changes. The White House did not return a request for comment by press time Nov. 17.
The Senate-passed substitute amendment to H.R. 2262 renamed the legislation the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness bill and merged agreed-upon provisions based on previously passed bills in the Senate and House. The bill passed the Senate on November 10.
Though the bill passed unanimously by voice vote, one key lawmaker had concerns about the bill. House Science, Space and Technology (SST) Ranking Member Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) said Nov. 17 via a spokeswoman the bill takes a “fundamentally unbalanced” approach to the issues facing the commercial space launch industry and is heavily skewed towards industry’s desires.
Johnson said her concerns include the bill prohibiting the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) from proposing any passenger safety regulations for eight years and requiring spaceflight passengers to waive liability against launch providers and other parties, which Johnson said negatively affects the rights of individuals on important safety matters. This, she said, means that spaceflight passengers have to waive their rights to sue the launch provider and related parties for claims, even if there is negligence involved.
Johnson also said she was concerned with how the bill imposes a new federal jurisdiction on states without a single congressional hearing to see if there would be unintended consequences. The bill also contains a provision on space resource exploration and utilization that, ostensibly, would enable the development of a commercial asteroid mining and exploitation industry, Johnson said. She said though Democratic committee members see great potential in commercial space resource utilization, they are opposed to its inclusion on the grounds that it is premature and raises numerous unresolved legal, policy and constitutional issues.
The bill directs the Transportation Secretary to evaluate the methodology used to calculate the maximum probable loss and, if necessary, develop a plan to update that methodology to ensure that the federal government is not exposed to greater costs than intended and that launch companies are not required to purchase more insurance coverage than necessary. The bill also extends indemnification for commercial launches from Dec. 31, 2016, to Sept. 30, 2025.
The bill provides a four-year extension of the International Space Station (ISS) until at least 2024 by directing the NASA administrator to take all necessary steps to ensure ISS remains a viable and productive facility capable of utilization, according to a statement from House SST Committee.
The bill also provides an extension of the regulatory learning period through Sept. 30, 2023, so that the commercial space sector can continue to mature and innovate before the Transportation Department transitions to a regulatory approach.
Commercial space advocates were generally supportive of the bill.