National Space Council to ask industry for input on new space rules

AMOS 2022 — The National Space Council is planning to hold “learning sessions” with commercial industry to gather information on both new types of space missions and views about what space safety and sustainability rules might be required for those operations, according to Director of Commercial Space Policy Diane Howard.

The input, she told the Advanced Maui Optical and Space Surveillance (AMOS) conference on Thursday, will feed into the council’s work to develop a new framework of US government rules and regulations for space activities that either are novel or currently fall between the cracks — an interagency effort announced in August by Vice President Kamala Harris, who chairs the council. The effort is taking a “whole of government” approach, Howard stressed — involving multiple federal agencies including the Defense Department.