Image: Office of Space Commerce website (U.S. Government).
Dale Skran, NSS Chief Operating Officer, and David Huntsman, Board member of the Alliance for Space Development (co-founded by NSS and the Space Frontier Foundation), co-authored an opinion piece published in Space News on June 10.
The Outer Space Treaty requires nation-states to provide “authorization and continuing supervision” of the activities of their nationals in space. The National Space Council has asked federal agencies for their opinions on which agencies or departments should have this role for in-space activity.
Most of the input has centered around giving the additional authorization and continuing supervision role for all in-space activities to either the FAA or Department of Commerce. The authors argue that the FAA would be a bad fit for this role.
Personally I wonder what laws or treaties would need to be considered if I am to place a surveyors peg with my name on it upon Mars.
Congratulations to the authors for this well-reasoned article recommending that a fully funded Commerce Department take on emerging commercial space activities.