II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 428
To promote space situational awareness and space traffic coordination and
to modify the functions and leadership of the Office of Space Commerce,
and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. C
ORNYN(for himself, Mr. PETERS, Mr. WICKER, Mrs. BLACKBURN, Mr.
H
ICKENLOOPER, Mr. KELLY, Mr. SCHMITT, and Mr. LUJA´N) introduced
the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee
on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To promote space situational awareness and space traffic
coordination and to modify the functions and leadership
of the Office of Space Commerce, 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
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Situational Awareness 4
of Flying Elements in Orbit Act’’ or the ‘‘SAFE Orbit 5
Act’’. 6
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SEC. 2. SPACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS AND SPACE TRAF-1
FIC COORDINATION. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary of Commerce shall 3
facilitate safe operations in space and encourage the devel-4
opment of commercial space capabilities by acquiring and 5
disseminating unclassified data, analytics, information, 6
and services on space activities. 7
(b) I
MMUNITY.—The United States, any agencies and 8
instrumentalities thereof, and any individuals, firms, cor-9
porations, and other persons acting for the United States 10
Government, including nongovernmental entities, shall be 11
immune from any suit in any court for any cause of action 12
arising from the provision or receipt of space situational 13
awareness services or information, whether or not pro-14
vided in accordance with this section, or any related action 15
or omission. 16
(c) A
CQUISITION OFDATA.—The Assistant Secretary 17
of Commerce for Space Commerce (established under sec-18
tion 50702(b) of title 51, United States Code, as amended 19
by section 3) is authorized to acquire— 20
(1) data, analytics, information, and services, 21
including with respect to— 22
(A) location tracking data; 23
(B) positional and orbit determination in-24
formation; and 25
(C) conjunction data messages; and 26
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(2) such other data, analytics, information, and 1
services as the Secretary of Commerce determines 2
necessary to avoid collisions of space objects. 3
(d) D
ATABASE ONSATELLITELOCATION ANDBE-4
HAVIOR.—The Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Space 5
Commerce shall provide access for the public, at no 6
charge, a fully updated, unclassified database of informa-7
tion concerning space objects and behavior that includes— 8
(1) the data and information acquired under 9
subsection (c), except to the extent that such data 10
or information is classified or a trade secret (as de-11
fined in section 1839 of title 18, United States 12
Code); and 13
(2) the provision of basic space situational 14
awareness services and space traffic coordination 15
based on the data referred to in paragraph (1), in-16
cluding basic analytics, tracking calculations, and 17
conjunction data messages. 18
(e) B
ASICSPACESITUATIONALAWARENESSSERV-19
ICES.—The Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Space 20
Commerce— 21
(1) shall provide to satellite operators, at no 22
charge, basic space situational awareness services, 23
including the data, analytics, information, and serv-24
ices described in subsection (c); 25
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(2) in carrying out paragraph (1), may not 1
compete with private sector space situational aware-2
ness products, to the maximum extent practicable; 3
and 4
(3) not less frequently than every 3 years, shall 5
review the basic space situational awareness services 6
described in paragraph (1) to ensure that such serv-7
ices provided by the Federal Government do not 8
compete with space situational awareness services of-9
fered by the private sector. 10
(f) R
EQUIREMENTS FOR DATAACQUISITION AND 11
D
ISSEMINATION.—In acquiring data, analytics, informa-12
tion, and services under subsection (c) and disseminating 13
data, analytics, information, and services under sub-14
sections (d) and (e), the Assistant Secretary of Commerce 15
for Space Commerce shall— 16
(1) leverage commercial capabilities to the max-17
imum extent practicable; 18
(2) prioritize the acquisition of data, analytics, 19
information, and services from commercial industry 20
located in or licensed in the United States to supple-21
ment data collected by United States Government 22
agencies, including the Department of Defense and 23
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration; 24
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(3) appropriately protect proprietary data, in-1
formation, and systems of firms located in the 2
United States, including by using appropriate infra-3
structure and cybersecurity measures, including 4
measures set forth in the most recent version of the 5
Cybersecurity Framework, or successor document, 6
maintained by the National Institute of Standards 7
and Technology; 8
(4) facilitate the development of standardization 9
and consistency in data reporting, in collaboration 10
with satellite owners and operators, commercial 11
space situational awareness data and service pro-12
viders, the academic community, nonprofit organiza-13
tions, and the Director of the National Institute of 14
Standards and Technology; and 15
(5) encourage foreign governments to partici-16
pate in unclassified data sharing arrangements for 17
space situational awareness and space traffic coordi-18
nation. 19
(g) O
THERTRANSACTIONAUTHORITY.—In carrying 20
out the activities required by this section, the Secretary 21
of Commerce shall enter into such contracts, leases, coop-22
erative agreements, or other transactions as may be nec-23
essary. 24
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(h) SPACEOBJECTDEFINED.—In this section, the 1
term ‘‘space object’’ means any object launched into space, 2
or created in space, robotically or by humans, including 3
an object’s component parts. 4
SEC. 3. OFFICE OF SPACE COMMERCE. 5
(a) D
EFINITIONS.— 6
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 50701 of title 51, 7
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 8
‘‘§ 50701. Definitions 9
‘‘In this chapter: 10
‘‘(1) A
SSISTANT SECRETARY .—The term ‘As-11
sistant Secretary’ means the Assistant Secretary of 12
Commerce for Space Commerce. 13
‘‘(2) B
UREAU.—The term ‘Bureau’ means the 14
Bureau of Space Commerce established under sec-15
tion 50702. 16
‘‘(3) O
RBITAL DEBRIS.—The term ‘orbital de-17
bris’— 18
‘‘(A) means— 19
‘‘(i) any human-made space object or-20
biting Earth that— 21
‘‘(I) no longer serves an intended 22
purpose; 23
‘‘(II) has reached the end of its 24
mission; or 25
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‘‘(III) is incapable of safe maneu-1
ver or operation; and 2
‘‘(ii) a rocket body and other hard-3
ware left in orbit as a result of normal 4
launch and operational activities; and 5
‘‘(B) includes fragmentation debris pro-6
duced by failure or collision of human-made 7
space objects. 8
‘‘(4) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ means 9
the Secretary of Commerce. 10
‘‘(5) S
PACE OBJECT.—The term ‘space object’ 11
means any object launched into space or created in 12
space robotically or by humans, including the compo-13
nent parts of such an object. 14
‘‘(6) S
PACE SITUATIONAL AWARENESS .—The 15
term ‘space situational awareness’ means— 16
‘‘(A) the identification, characterization, 17
tracking, and the predicted movement and be-18
havior of space objects and orbital debris; and 19
‘‘(B) the understanding of the space oper-20
ational environment. 21
‘‘(7) S
PACE TRAFFIC COORDINATION .—The 22
term ‘space traffic coordination’ means the planning, 23
assessment, and coordination of activities to enhance 24
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the safety, stability, and sustainability of operations 1
in the space environment.’’. 2
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of sec-3
tions for chapter 507 of title 51, United States 4
Code, is amended by striking the item relating to 5
section 50701 and inserting the following: 6
‘‘50701. Definitions.’’.
(b) TRANSITION OF OFFICE TOBUREAU.—Sub-7
section (a) of section 50702 of title 51, United States 8
Code, is amended by inserting before the period at the 9
end the following: ‘‘, which, not later than 5 years after 10
the date of the enactment of this Act, shall be elevated 11
by the Secretary of Commerce from an office within the 12
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to a 13
bureau reporting directly to the Office of the Secretary 14
of Commerce’’. 15
(c) A
DDITIONALFUNCTIONS OF BUREAU.—Sub-16
section (c) of such section is amended— 17
(1) in paragraph (4), by striking ‘‘; and’’ and 18
inserting a semicolon; 19
(2) in paragraph (5), by striking the period at 20
the end and inserting ‘‘; and’’; and 21
(3) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(6) to perform space situational awareness and 23
space traffic management duties pursuant to the 24
SAFE Orbit Act.’’. 25
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(d) ASSISTANTSECRETARY OF COMMERCE FOR 1
S
PACECOMMERCE.— 2
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Subsection (b) of such sec-3
tion is amended to read as follows: 4
‘‘(b) A
SSISTANTSECRETARY.—The Bureau shall be 5
headed by the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Space 6
Commerce, who shall— 7
‘‘(1) be appointed by the President, by and with 8
the advice and consent of the Senate; 9
‘‘(2) report directly to the Secretary of Com-10
merce; and 11
‘‘(3) have a rate of pay that is equal to the rate 12
payable for level IV of the Executive Schedule under 13
section 5315 of title 5.’’. 14
(2) C
ONFORMING AMENDMENTS .— 15
(A) Section 50702(d) of title 51, United 16
States Code, is amended— 17
(i) in the subsection heading, by strik-18
ing ‘‘D
IRECTOR’’ and inserting ‘‘ASSIST-19
ANTSECRETARY’’; and 20
(ii) in the matter preceding paragraph 21
(1), by striking ‘‘Director’’ and inserting 22
‘‘Assistant Secretary’’. 23
(B) Section 5315 of title 5, United States 24
Code, is amended by striking ‘‘Assistant Secre-25
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taries of Commerce (11)’’ and inserting ‘‘As-1
sistant Secretaries of Commerce (12)’’. 2
(3) R
EFERENCES.—On and after the date of 3
the enactment of this Act, any reference in any law 4
or regulation to the Director of the Office of Space 5
Commerce shall be deemed to be a reference to the 6
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Space Com-7
merce. 8
(e) T
RANSITIONREPORT.— 9
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 10
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary 11
of Commerce shall submit to the appropriate com-12
mittees of Congress a report that sets forth transi-13
tion and continuity of operations plans for the func-14
tional and administrative transfer of the Office of 15
Space Commerce from the National Oceanic and At-16
mospheric Administration to a bureau reporting to 17
the Office of the Secretary of Commerce. 18
(2) G
OAL.—The goal of transition and con-19
tinuity of operations planning shall be to minimize 20
the cost and administrative burden of establishing 21
the Bureau of Space Commerce while maximizing 22
the efficiency and effectiveness of the functions and 23
responsibilities of the Bureau of Space Commerce, in 24
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accordance with this section and the amendments 1
made by this section. 2
(3) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CONGRESS 3
DEFINED.—In this subsection, the term ‘‘appro-4
priate committees of Congress’’ means— 5
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 6
and Transportation and the Committee on Ap-7
propriations of the Senate; and 8
(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and 9
Technology and the Committee on Appropria-10
tions of the House of Representatives. 11
Æ
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