On May 13, 2014, the Departments of State and Commerce released a set of interim final rules that move many commercial satellites and related items from the U.S. Munitions List to the Commerce Control List. …
Revised Satellite Export Control Rules Published Read more »
On April 28, 2014, the Air Force began broadcasting civil navigation (CNAV) messages on all operational GPS satellites capable of transmitting the L2C and L5 signals. L2C and L5 are the first of several new …
Air Force Adds Navigation Data to Modernized Civil GPS Signals Read more »
On March 25, the Office of Space Commercialization co-chaired a meeting of the GPS-Galileo Working Group on Trade and Civil Applications in Munich, Germany. It was the fifth such meeting since the group’s establishment under …
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has completed its analysis of the data collected through its “Deep Dive” survey of the U.S. space industrial base. BIS has begun publishing publicly available reports …
Results of U.S. Space Industry “Deep Dive” Assessment Read more »
On January 12, 2014, the astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS) successfully captured the first Cygnus capsule launched as an operational, fixed-price cargo delivery service. Orbital, which developed the Cygnus spacecraft and its Antares …
On December 6, 2013, the Air Force decommissioned its Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload (CHIRP) mission after 27 months of successful operation. CHIRP launched in 2011 as a hosted payload on a commercial communications satellite and …
On November 21, President Obama signed an updated National Space Transportation Policy providing guidance to federal departments and agencies on the development and use of commercial and governmental space transportation systems. The goal of the …
President Issues New Space Transportation Policy Read more »
On September 29, 2013, the first Cygnus spacecraft berthed with the International Space Station (ISS), becoming the second new cargo delivery system to be demonstrated under NASA’s Commercial Orbital Transportation Services (COTS) program. It hauled …
New Commercial Capsule Reaches International Space Station Read more »
DOC’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) has released an assessment of the consumers of U.S. commercial electro-optical (EO) satellite imagery. The goal was to evaluate the current market behavior of these imagery consumers as …
Report on Consumers of Commercial Remote Sensing Imagery Read more »
The governments of the United States and Japan held their 10th plenary meeting in Tokyo, Japan, on July 24, 2013, to review and discuss cooperation in the civil use of GPS and the Quasi-Zenith Satellite …
2013 Joint Announcement on U.S.-Japan GPS Cooperation Read more »
Today, Colorado-based Surrey Satellite Technology US LLC (SST-US) announced that NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory has selected SST-US for the flight of the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC) payload. Under the agreement, SST-US will provide a …
NASA Awards Hosted Payload Contract for Deep Space Atomic Clock Demo Read more »
On May 24, 2013, the State and Commerce Departments published a pair of Proposed Rules to transfer certain satellites from the U.S. Munitions List (USML) to the Commerce Control List (CCL). This move was made possible by the 2013 National …
Proposed Changes to Satellite Export Controls Released for Public Comment Read more »
On April 21, 2013, U.S. space company Orbital conducted the first test flight of its Antares rocket with a simulated cargo capsule on top. Orbital is the second of two U.S. firms to successfully demonstrate …
In January 2013, the major two U.S. commercial remote sensing satellite firms, DigitalGlobe and GeoEye, completed their merger, retaining the DigitalGlobe name.
The governments of the United Kingdom and the United States today announced that they had reached a common understanding of intellectual property rights related to GPS and will work together to address broader global navigation …
Joint UK–U.S. Statement Regarding GPS Intellectual Property Read more »
On January 2, 2013, President Obama signed the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013. Section 1261 of the law repeals the 1999 legislation that placed satellites and related items under the strict rules …
Law Clears Way for Satellites to be Removed from U.S. Munitions List Read more »
The Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security released its report on the “National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s (NASA) Human Space Flight Industrial Base in the Post-Space Shuttle/Constellation Environment.” The report’s representative survey sample consists …
NASA has selected a proposal from the Smithsonian Astrophysical Observatory in Cambridge, Mass., to build the first space-based instrument to monitor major air pollutants across the North American continent hourly during daytime. The instrument, to …
Today, another SpaceX Dragon capsule delivered more cargo to the International Space Station. It was the first such delivery under NASA’s Commercial Resupply Services (CRS) program, bringing the Dragon out of demonstration mode and into …
Space Station Delivery Service Enters Operational Phase Read more »
Today, the Dragon space capsule developed and launched by SpaceX — a U.S. commercial space firm — successfully delivered approximately 1,000 pounds of cargo from NASA to the International Space Station. It was a historic …
First Commercial Resupply Mission Reaches International Space Station Read more »
On April 27, Eve Douglas of the Office of Space Commercialization will speak at a Space Enterprise Council forum on “The Importance of Commercial Remote Sensing to Economic and National Security.” The Capitol Hill event …
Douglas to Speak at Commercial Remote Sensing Forum Read more »
On April 18, the Departments of Defense and State released a report on space export control policy reform, recommending that many satellites and satellite components be transferred from the USML to the Commerce Control List …
Report on Satellite Export Control Policy Reform Read more »
In April 2012, NASA announced a $3 million contract with Space Systems/Loral to initiate the process of hosting the Laser Communications Relay Demonstration (LCRD) payload aboard a Loral commercial satellite. The agreement marks the first …
NASA Awards Hosted Payload Contract for Laser Communications Demo Read more »
On February 14, 2012, the FCC announced that, based on NTIA’s recommendation, “the Commission will not lift the prohibition” on LightSquared’s terrestrial network operations. NTIA delivered its recommendation to the FCC earlier that day after …