II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 434
To establish the Commercial Space Activity Advisory Committee, and for
other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY5, 2025
Mr. P
ETERS(for himself and Mr. WICKER) introduced the following bill;
which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce,
Science, and Transportation
A BILL
To establish the Commercial Space Activity Advisory
Committee, 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 ‘‘Space Commerce Advi-4
sory Committee Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 6
In this Act: 7
(1) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 8
the Secretary of Commerce, acting through the Of-9
fice of Space Commerce. 10
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(2) SPACE OBJECT.—The term ‘‘space ob-1
ject’’— 2
(A) means— 3
(i) a human-made object located in 4
outer space, including on the Moon or 5
other celestial bodies, with or without 6
human occupants, that was launched from 7
Earth, such as a satellite or a spacecraft, 8
including component parts of the object; 9
and 10
(ii) all items carried on such object 11
that are intended for use in outer space 12
outside of, and independent of, the oper-13
ation of such object; 14
(B) includes any human-made object that 15
is— 16
(i) manufactured or assembled in 17
outer space; and 18
(ii) intended for operations in outer 19
space other than, and independent of, the 20
operations of such object in which the 21
manufacturing or assembly occurred; and 22
(C) does not include— 23
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(i) an article aboard a space object 1
that is only intended for use inside the 2
space object; 3
(ii) an article manufactured or proc-4
essed in outer space that is a material; or 5
(iii) an article intended for use outside 6
a space object as part of the authorized op-7
erations of the space object. 8
(3) S
TATE.—The term ‘‘State’’ means each of 9
the several States of the United States, the District 10
of Columbia, the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, the 11
United States Virgin Islands, Guam, American 12
Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana 13
Islands, and any other commonwealth, territory, or 14
possession of the United States. 15
(4) U
NITED STATES ENTITY .—The term 16
‘‘United States entity’’ means— 17
(A) an individual who is a national of the 18
United States (as defined in section 101(a) of 19
the Immigration and Nationality Act (8 U.S.C. 20
1101(a))); and 21
(B) a nongovernmental entity organized or 22
existing under, and subject to, the laws of the 23
United States or a State. 24
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SEC. 3. COMMERCIAL SPACE ACTIVITY ADVISORY COM-1
MITTEE. 2
(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—Not later than 180 days after 3
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall 4
establish a Commercial Space Activity Advisory Com-5
mittee (in this section referred to as the ‘‘Committee’’). 6
(b) M
EMBERSHIP.— 7
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Committee shall be 8
composed of 15 members appointed by the Sec-9
retary. 10
(2) Q
UALIFICATIONS.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Committee shall be 12
composed of representatives from a variety of 13
space policy, engineering, technical, science, 14
legal, and finance fields who have significant 15
experience in the commercial space industry. 16
(B) L
IMITATION.— 17
(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided 18
in clause (i), the Secretary may not ap-19
point as a member of the Committee any 20
employee or official of the Federal Govern-21
ment. 22
(ii) E
XCEPTION.—The Secretary may 23
appoint as a member of the Committee a 24
special government employee (as defined in 25
section 202(a) of title 18, United States 26
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Code) who serves on 1 or more other Fed-1
eral advisory committees. 2
(3) T
ERM.—Each individual appointed as a 3
member of the Committee— 4
(A) shall be appointed for a term of 4 5
years; and 6
(B) during the 2-year period beginning on 7
the date on which such term ends, may not 8
serve as a member of the Committee. 9
(c) D
UTIES.—The duties of the Committee shall be— 10
(1) to advise on the status and recent develop-11
ments of nongovernmental space activities; 12
(2) to provide to the Secretary and Congress 13
recommendations on the manner in which the 14
United States may facilitate and promote a robust 15
and innovative commercial sector that is investing 16
in, developing, and operating space objects; 17
(3) to identify any challenge faced by the 18
United States commercial sector relating to— 19
(A) international obligations of the United 20
States relevant to commercial space sector ac-21
tivities in outer space; 22
(B) export controls that affect the com-23
mercial space sector; 24
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(C) harmful interference with commercial 1
space sector activities in outer space; and 2
(D) access to adequate, predictable, and 3
reliable radio frequency spectrum; 4
(4) to review existing best practices for United 5
States entities to avoid— 6
(A) the harmful contamination of the 7
Moon and other celestial bodies; and 8
(B) adverse changes in the environment of 9
the Earth resulting from the introduction of ex-10
traterrestrial matter; and 11
(5) to provide information, advice, and rec-12
ommendations on matters relating to— 13
(A) United States commercial space sector 14
activities in outer space; and 15
(B) other commercial space sector activi-16
ties, as the Committee considers necessary. 17
(d) T
ERMINATION.—The Committee shall terminate 18
on the date that is 10 years after the date on which the 19
Committee is established. 20
Æ
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