Stories about space regulations and policy, and what they mean for companies.
The Trump administration must engage China in orbit, opening a line for communication in case of emergencies such as deconflicting potential collisions in orbit, according to a report released Tuesday by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Amid the mile-a-minute news cycle that is 2025 so far, we can’t blame you if you’ve missed some of the space action on Capitol Hill. So here are five things we’ve been watching over the past week.
Trump directed the US to rapidly beef up its space-based missile defense capabilities to keep pace with advancing space-based missile tech from adversaries.
The council will work with lawmakers to help shape policy in a way that benefits the commercial sector on topics from acquisition to licensing to spectrum.
“I think that’s the best way to go where the action is as opposed to where the bureaucrats work.”
Howard Lutnick, Trump’s nominee to serve as secretary of commerce, committed to supporting the commercial space sector in his confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
Regulators must find ways to balance safety and national security concerns surrounding nuclear systems and materials with the mandate for America to lead in space and the drive for a thriving commercial space economy, especially as nuclear technology becomes safer and less risky thanks to new advancements.
“If I was at a large established prime that’s 20+ years or older, I would be in the war room thinking about how the hell we’re going to deal with this,” one space industry source told Payload. “They have a clear preference for the Andurils of the world.”
Finland’s addition to the group signals its commitment to the West’s strategy of beefing up its defense posture in space.
“We will pursue our manifest destiny into the stars, launching American astronauts to plant the Stars and Stripes on the planet Mars.”
After more than a year of review, there’s no concrete plan to retrieve scientific samples from Mars.
