I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 2600
To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-
tration to establish a program to identify, evaluate, acquire, and dissemi-
nate commercial Earth remote sensing data and imagery in order to
satisfy the scientific, operational, and educational requirements of the
Administration, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
APRIL2, 2025
Mr. H
URDof Colorado (for himself and Ms. BONAMICI) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and
Technology
A BILL
To require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics
and Space Administration to establish a program to iden-
tify, evaluate, acquire, and disseminate commercial Earth
remote sensing data and imagery in order to satisfy
the scientific, operational, and educational requirements
of the Administration, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
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•HR 2600 IH
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Accessing Satellite Ca-2
pabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act’’ or the ‘‘AS-3
CEND Act’’. 4
SEC. 2. COMMERCIAL SATELLITE DATA. 5
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-6
ings: 7
(1) Section 60501 of title 51, United States 8
Code, states that the goal for the Earth Science pro-9
gram of the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-10
istration (referred to in this section as ‘‘NASA’’) 11
shall be to pursue a program of Earth observations, 12
research, and applications activities to better under-13
stand the Earth, how it supports life, and how 14
human activities affect its ability to do so in the fu-15
ture. 16
(2) Section 50115 of title 51, United States 17
Code, states that the Administrator of NASA shall, 18
to the extent possible and while satisfying the sci-19
entific or educational requirements of NASA, and 20
where appropriate, of other Federal agencies and 21
scientific researchers, acquire, where cost effective, 22
space-based and airborne commercial Earth remote 23
sensing data, services, distribution, and applications 24
from a commercial provider. 25
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•HR 2600 IH
(3) The Administrator of NASA established the 1
Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Pilot Pro-2
gram in 2019 to identify, validate, and acquire from 3
commercial sources data that support the Earth 4
science research and application goals. 5
(4) The Administrator of NASA has— 6
(A) determined that the pilot program de-7
scribed in paragraph (3) has been a success, as 8
described in the final evaluation entitled ‘‘Com-9
mercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program 10
Pilot Evaluation Report’’ issued in 2020; 11
(B) established a formal process for evalu-12
ating and onboarding new commercial vendors 13
in such pilot program; 14
(C) increased the number of commercial 15
vendors and commercial data products available 16
through such pilot program; and 17
(D) expanded procurement arrangements 18
with commercial vendors to broaden user access 19
to provide commercial Earth remote sensing 20
data and imagery to federally funded research-21
ers. 22
(b) C
OMMERCIALSATELLITEDATAACQUISITION 23
P
ROGRAM.— 24
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•HR 2600 IH
(1) IN GENERAL.—Chapter 603 of title 51, 1
United States Code, is amended by adding at the 2
end the following: 3
‘‘§ 60307. Commercial satellite data acquisition pro-4
gram 5
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator shall estab-6
lish within the Earth Science Division of the Science Mis-7
sion Directorate a program to acquire and disseminate 8
cost-effective and appropriate commercial Earth remote 9
sensing data and imagery in order to satisfy the scientific, 10
operational, and educational requirements of the Adminis-11
tration, and where appropriate, of other Federal agencies 12
and scientific researchers to augment or complement the 13
suite of Earth observations acquired by the Administra-14
tion, other United States Government agencies, and inter-15
national partners. 16
‘‘(b) D
ATAPUBLICATION ANDTRANSPARENCY.—The 17
terms and conditions of commercial Earth remote sensing 18
data and imagery acquisitions under the program de-19
scribed in subsection (a) shall not prevent— 20
‘‘(1) the publication of commercial data or im-21
agery for scientific purposes; or 22
‘‘(2) the publication of information that is de-23
rived from, incorporates, or enhances the original 24
commercial data or imagery of a vendor. 25
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‘‘(c) AUTHORIZATION.—In carrying out the program 1
under this section, the Administrator may— 2
‘‘(1) procure commercial Earth remote sensing 3
data and imagery from commercial vendors to ad-4
vance scientific research and applications in accord-5
ance with subsection (a); and 6
‘‘(2) establish or modify end-use license terms 7
and conditions to allow for the widest-possible use of 8
procured commercial Earth remote sensing data and 9
imagery by individuals other than NASA-funded 10
users, consistent with the goals of the program. 11
‘‘(d) U
NITEDSTATESVENDORS.—Commercial Earth 12
remote sensing data and imagery referred to in sub-13
sections (a) and (c) shall, to the maximum extent prac-14
ticable, be procured from United States vendors. 15
‘‘(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 16
date of the enactment of this section and annually there-17
after, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on 18
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 19
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 20
House of Representatives a report that includes the fol-21
lowing information regarding the agreements, vendors, li-22
cense terms, and uses of commercial Earth remote sensing 23
data and imagery under this section: 24
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‘‘(1)(A) In the case of the initial report, a list 1
of all agreements that are providing commercial 2
Earth remote sensing data and imagery to NASA as 3
of the date of the report. 4
‘‘(B) For each subsequent report, a list of all 5
agreements that have provided commercial Earth re-6
mote sensing data and imagery to NASA during the 7
reporting period. 8
‘‘(2) A description of the end-use license terms 9
and conditions for each such vendor. 10
‘‘(3) A description of the manner in which each 11
such agreement is advancing scientific research and 12
applications, including priorities recommended by 13
the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 14
and Medicine decadal surveys. 15
‘‘(4) Information specifying whether the Admin-16
istrator has entered into an agreement with a com-17
mercial vendor or a Federal agency that permits the 18
use of data and imagery by Federal Government em-19
ployees, contractors, or non-Federal users.’’. 20
(d) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 21
for chapter 603 of title 51, United States Code, is amend-22
ed by adding at the end the following new item: 23
‘‘60307. Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition Program.’’.
Æ
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