Us Congress Senate Bill SB933 Latest Draft

                            II 
119THCONGRESS 
1
STSESSION S. 933 
To authorize programs for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 
for fiscal year 2025, and for other purposes. 
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 
MARCH11 (legislative day, MARCH10), 2025 
Mr. C
RUZ(for himself, Ms. CANTWELL, Mr. MORAN, Mr. PETERS, Mr. 
S
CHMITT, Mr. LUJA´N, and Ms. DUCKWORTH) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
Science, and Transportation 
A BILL 
To authorize programs for the National Aeronautics and 
Space Administration for fiscal year 2025, 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; TABLE OF CONTENTS. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘NASA Transition Authorization Act of 2025’’. 5
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 6
this Act is as follows: 7
Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents. 
Sec. 2. Definitions. 
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TITLE I—AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS 
Sec. 101. Authorization of NASA for fiscal year 2025. 
TITLE II—EXPLORATION 
Sec. 201. Continuity of purpose for space exploration. 
Sec. 202. Artemis program. 
Sec. 203. Reaffirmation of the Space Launch System. 
Sec. 204. Human-rated lunar landing capabilities. 
Sec. 205. Advanced spacesuit capabilities. 
TITLE III—SPACE OPERATIONS 
Sec. 301. Maximizing United States presence in low-Earth orbit. 
Sec. 302. Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development Program. 
Sec. 303. Transition to a commercially led low-Earth orbit economy. 
Sec. 304. Nongovernmental missions on the International Space Station. 
Sec. 305. Brief on suborbital crew missions. 
Sec. 306. Lunar communications. 
Sec. 307. Celestial time standardization. 
TITLE IV—SPACE TECHNOLOGY 
Sec. 401. Space Technology Mission Directorate. 
Sec. 402. SBIR phase II flexibility. 
Sec. 403. Sense of Congress on cryogenic fluid valve technology review. 
TITLE V—AERONAUTICS 
Sec. 501. Definitions. 
Sec. 502. Hypersonic research. 
Sec. 503. Advanced materials and manufacturing technology. 
Sec. 504. Unmanned aircraft system and advanced air mobility. 
Sec. 505. Advanced capabilities for emergency response operations. 
Sec. 506. Hydrogen aviation. 
Sec. 507. High-performance chase aircraft. 
Sec. 508. Collaboration with academia. 
TITLE VI—SCIENCE 
Sec. 601. Maintaining a balanced science portfolio. 
Sec. 602. Implementation of science mission cost caps. 
Sec. 603. Reexamination of decadal surveys. 
Sec. 604. Landsat. 
Sec. 605. Commercial satellite data. 
Sec. 606. Planetary science portfolio. 
Sec. 607. Planetary defense. 
Sec. 608. Lunar discovery and exploration. 
Sec. 609. Commercial lunar payload services. 
Sec. 610. Planetary and lunar operations. 
Sec. 611. Mars sample return. 
Sec. 612. Heliophysics research. 
Sec. 613. Geospace dynamics constellation. 
Sec. 614. Nancy Grace Roman Telescope. 
Sec. 615. Chandra X-ray Observatory. 
TITLE VII—STEM EDUCATION 
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Sec. 701. National space grant college and fellowship program. 
Sec. 702. Skilled technical workforce education outreach. 
TITLE VIII—NASA POLICY 
Sec. 801. NASA advisory council. 
Sec. 802. NASA assessment of early cost estimates. 
Sec. 803. Authority for production contracts following other transaction proto-
type projects. 
Sec. 804. Role of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration in com-
mercial space activities. 
Sec. 805. Restriction on Federal funds relating to certain Chinese space and 
scientific activities. 
Sec. 806. Findings relating to contract flexibility. 
Sec. 807. GAO report. 
Sec. 808. NASA public-private talent program. 
Sec. 809. Mentoring. 
Sec. 810. Drinking water well replacement for Chincoteague, Virginia. 
Sec. 811. Passenger carrier use for astronaut transportation. 
Sec. 812. Rule of construction. 
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS. 
1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
DMINISTRATOR.—The term ‘‘Adminis-3
trator’’ means the Administrator of the National 4
Aeronautics and Space Administration. 5
(2) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -6
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-7
gress’’ means— 8
(A) the Committee on Commerce, Science, 9
and Transportation of the Senate; and 10
(B) the Committee on Science, Space, and 11
Technology of the House of Representatives. 12
(3) C
ISLUNAR SPACE.—The term ‘‘cislunar 13
space’’ means the region of space beyond low-Earth 14
orbit out to and including the region around the sur-15
face of the Moon. 16
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(4) COMMERCIAL PROVIDER .—The term ‘‘com-1
mercial provider’’ means any person providing space 2
services or space-related capabilities, primary control 3
of which is held by persons other than the Federal 4
Government, a State or local government, or a for-5
eign government. 6
(5) C
ONTINUOUS HUMAN PRESENCE ; CONTIN-7
UOUS PRESENCE.—The terms ‘‘continuous human 8
presence’’ and ‘‘continuous presence’’ mean the 9
maintenance by the United States of the presence, 10
in low-Earth orbit on 1 or more space stations on 11
a permanent, on-going basis, of not fewer than— 12
(A) 1 government astronaut; or 13
(B) 1 astronaut sponsored by the United 14
States Government. 15
(6) D
EEP SPACE.—The term ‘‘deep space’’ 16
means the region of space beyond low-Earth orbit 17
that includes cislunar space. 18
(7) G
OVERNMENT ASTRONAUT .—The term 19
‘‘government astronaut’’ has the meaning given such 20
term in section 50902 of title 51, United States 21
Code. 22
(8) ISS.—The term ‘‘ISS’’ means the Inter-23
national Space Station. 24
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(9) LOW-EARTH ORBIT.—The term ‘‘low-Earth 1
orbit’’ means the area encompassing Earth-centered 2
orbits at an altitude not more than 1,200 miles 3
(2,000 kilometers). 4
(10) NASA.—The term ‘‘NASA’’ means the 5
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. 6
(11) O
RION.—The term ‘‘Orion’’ means the 7
multipurpose crew vehicle described in section 303 of 8
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 9
Authorization Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 18323). 10
(12) S
PACE LAUNCH SYSTEM .—The term 11
‘‘Space Launch System’’ means the Space Launch 12
System authorized under section 302 of the National 13
Aeronautics and Space Administration Authorization 14
Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 18322). 15
TITLE I—AUTHORIZATION OF 16
APPROPRIATIONS 17
SEC. 101. AUTHORIZATION OF NASA FOR FISCAL YEAR 2025. 18
For fiscal year 2025, there is authorized to be appro-19
priated to NASA $25,507,540,000 as follows: 20
(1) For the Exploration Systems Development 21
Mission Directorate, $7,648,200,000. 22
(2) For the Space Operations Mission Direc-23
torate, $4,473,500,000. 24
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(3) For the Space Technology Mission Direc-1
torate, $1,181,800,000. 2
(4) For the Science Mission Directorate, 3
$7,575,700,000. 4
(5) For the Aeronautics Research Mission Di-5
rectorate, $965,800,000. 6
(6) For the Office of STEM Engagement, 7
$143,500,000. 8
(7) For Safety, Security, and Mission Services, 9
$3,044,440,000. 10
(8) For Construction and Environmental Com-11
pliance and Restoration, $424,100,000. 12
(9) For Inspector General, $50,500,000. 13
TITLE II—EXPLORATION 14
SEC. 201. CONTINUITY OF PURPOSE FOR SPACE EXPLO-15
RATION. 16
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-17
ings: 18
(1) NASA continues to make progress in devel-19
oping and testing the Space Launch System, Orion, 20
and associated ground systems, including through 21
the successful completion of the Artemis I mission in 22
November 2022 and through continued preparations 23
for the Artemis II crewed flight demonstration mis-24
sion. 25
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(2) The number of spacefaring countries is in-1
creasing, and foreign countries have expanded activi-2
ties for space exploration efforts, including efforts to 3
explore and use the Moon through human and 4
robotic missions. 5
(3) A strong and ambitious space exploration 6
program conducted with international and commer-7
cial partners is important to maintaining United 8
States leadership in space and enhancing United 9
States international competitiveness. 10
(4) Clear mission objectives that tie to concrete, 11
long-term programmatic goals provide a measure to 12
ensure accountability, enhance public support for ex-13
ploration missions, and provide a clear signal of 14
commitment to both international and domestic 15
partners. 16
(b) C
ONTINUITY OF EXISTINGCAPABILITIES AND 17
P
ROGRAMS.— 18
(1) As part of the human exploration activities 19
of the Administration, including progress on Artemis 20
missions and activities, the Administrator shall con-21
tinue development of space exploration elements pur-22
suant to section 10811 of the National Aeronautics 23
and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 24
(Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 20302). 25
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(2) The Administrator shall leverage the private 1
sector for logistical services to the extent practical, 2
consistent with the Moon to Mars architecture re-3
quirements and in accordance with section 50131 of 4
title 51, United States Code. 5
(3) Congress reaffirms the sense of Congress to 6
maintain continuity of purpose as described in sec-7
tion 201 of the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-8
ministration Transition Authorization Act of 2017 9
(Public Law 115–10; 131 Stat. 21). 10
SEC. 202. ARTEMIS PROGRAM. 11
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-12
ings: 13
(1) Exploration of outer space, including explo-14
ration of the lunar surface and cislunar space, pro-15
vides benefits and economic opportunity, including 16
by inspiring future generations and expanding the 17
science, technology, engineering, and mathematics 18
workforce needed to sustain United States leader-19
ship in science, space, and technology. 20
(2) The lunar south pole is home to shadowed 21
craters that may contain water ice and other 22
volatiles. Understanding the nature of lunar polar 23
volatiles, such as water ice, would advance science 24
related to the origin and evolution of volatiles in the 25
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inner solar system and could facilitate the long-term 1
future of space exploration. Water ice lunar re-2
sources have the potential to become an enabling 3
component of future space exploration missions 4
throughout the solar system, including crewed mis-5
sions to Mars. 6
(3) Other countries have demonstrated techno-7
logical advances and successful robotic missions for 8
lunar exploration and have announced credible plans 9
for long-term human exploration of the Moon that 10
include the intent to establish lunar bases. 11
(4) United States leadership of and measurable 12
progress on the exploration of deep space is essential 13
for guiding development of norms related to oper-14
ations on and around the Moon and for other space 15
destinations. 16
(5) It is in the national interest of the United 17
States to hold a leadership role in discussions of fu-18
ture norms governing activities in space, including 19
those on the lunar surface and in cislunar space. 20
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—In carrying out activities to 21
enable Artemis missions under the Moon to Mars Program 22
set forth in section 10811 of the National Aeronautics and 23
Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 (Public 24
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Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 20302 note), the Administrator 1
shall— 2
(1) use relevant elements set forth in section 3
10811(b)(2)(B) of the National Aeronautics and 4
Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 5
(Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 20302 note); 6
(2) continue to ensure that the elements under 7
paragraph (1) enable the human exploration of 8
Mars, consistent with section 10811(b)(2)(C)(i) of 9
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 10
Authorization Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–167; 51 11
U.S.C. 20302 note); 12
(3) engage with international partners, as ap-13
propriate, in a manner that is consistent with sec-14
tion 10811(b)(2)(C) the National Aeronautics and 15
Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 16
(Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 20302 note), and 17
that increases redundancy, efficiency, and cost sav-18
ings; and 19
(4) leverage capabilities provided by United 20
States commercial providers, as appropriate and 21
practicable. 22
(c) U
NITEDSTATESCOMMERCIALPROVIDERCAPA-23
BILITIES INSUPPORT OF LUNAREXPLORATIONEF-24
FORTS.—The Administrator may enter into agreements 25
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with United States commercial providers or engage in pub-1
lic-private partnerships to procure capabilities and services 2
to support the human exploration of the Moon or cislunar 3
space. 4
SEC. 203. REAFFIRMATION OF THE SPACE LAUNCH SYS-5
TEM. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Congress reaffirms— 7
(1) support for the full development of capabili-8
ties of the Space Launch System as set forth in sec-9
tion 302(c) of the National Aeronautics and Space 10
Administration Authorization Act of 2010 (42 11
U.S.C. 18322(c)); and 12
(2) its commitment to the flight rate of the in-13
tegrated Space Launch System and Orion crew vehi-14
cle missions set forth in section 10812(b) of the Na-15
tional Aeronautics and Space Administration Au-16
thorization Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–167; 51 17
U.S.C. 20301 note). 18
(b) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the 19
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 20
provide the appropriate committees of Congress with a 21
briefing on NASA’s progress towards achieving the flight 22
rate referred to in subsection (a)(2) and the expected 23
launch of the integrated Space Launch System and Orion 24
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crew vehicle missions after which such cadence shall be 1
achieved. 2
SEC. 204. HUMAN-RATED LUNAR LANDING CAPABILITIES. 3
(a) R
EAFFIRMATION.—Congress reaffirms that the 4
Moon to Mars program set forth in section 10811 of the 5
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Author-6
ization Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 7
20302 note) shall include human-rated lunar landing sys-8
tems. 9
(b) H
UMAN-RATEDLUNARLANDINGCAPABILI-10
TIES.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator shall 12
support the development and demonstration of, and 13
shall obtain, human-rated lunar landing capabilities 14
to further the goals of the human exploration road-15
map under section 432 of the National Aeronautics 16
and Space Administration Transition Authorization 17
Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–10; 51 U.S.C. 20302 18
note) and the Moon to Mars Program set forth in 19
section 10811 of the National Aeronautics and 20
Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 21
(Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 20302 note). 22
(2) R
ELEVANT REQUIREMENTS .—The Adminis-23
trator shall ensure that such human-rated lunar 24
landing capabilities meet all relevant requirements, 25
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including requirements of the Moon to Mars pro-1
gram, and for human-rating and certification. 2
(3) U
NITED STATES COMMERCIAL PROVIDER .— 3
Any commercial provider from which the Adminis-4
trator obtains human-rated lunar landing capabili-5
ties must be a United States commercial provider. 6
(4) D
UTIES OF ADMINISTRATOR .—In carrying 7
out paragraph (1)— 8
(A) the Administrator may include 9
uncrewed lunar landing services; and 10
(B) the Administrator shall, subject to the 11
availability of appropriations for such purpose, 12
seek to obtain capabilities from not fewer than 13
2 commercial providers. 14
SEC. 205. ADVANCED SPACESUIT CAPABILITIES. 15
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 16
(1) Space suits and associated extravehicular 17
activity (EVA) technologies are critical exploration 18
technologies that are necessary for future human 19
deep space exploration efforts, including crewed mis-20
sions to the Moon. 21
(2) The NASA civil service workforce at the 22
Johnson Space Center provides unique capabilities 23
to design, integrate, and validate Space Suits and 24
associated EVA technologies. 25
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(3) Maintaining a strong NASA core com-1
petency in the design, development, manufacture, 2
and operation of space suits and related technologies 3
allows NASA to be an informed purchaser of com-4
petitively awarded commercial space suits and sub-5
components. 6
(4) According to a 2018 NASA Office of In-7
spector General (OIG) report, current EVAs space 8
suits, the Extravehicular Mobility Units (EMUs), 9
were developed in the late 1970s, are reaching the 10
end of their useful life, have experienced multiple 11
maintenance issues that threaten astronaut lives, 12
and no longer accommodate the varying sizes of a 13
diverse astronaut corps. 14
(5) The same NASA OIG report found that 15
‘‘manufacturers of several critical suit components, 16
including the very fibers of the suits, have now gone 17
out of business’’, which further reinforces the impor-18
tance of NASA’s role in maintaining a space suit 19
core competency and limiting the risk posed by out-20
sourcing key national capabilities. 21
(6) The private sector currently is developing 22
space suit capabilities. 23
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(7) Testing space suits and related technologies 1
on the International Space Station could reduce risk 2
and improve safety of such suits and technologies. 3
(b) R
EQUIREMENT.—The Administrator shall obtain 4
advanced spacesuit capabilities necessary to achieve the 5
goals of NASA’s human spaceflight exploration programs. 6
(c) E
LIGIBILITY.—Any commercial provider from 7
which the Administrator obtains advanced spaceflight ca-8
pabilities shall be a United States commercial provider. 9
(d) P
RESERVINGSPACESUITEXPERTISE.— 10
(1) In carrying out subsection (b), NASA shall 11
maintain the internal expertise necessary to develop 12
space suits for both extravehicular activity and sur-13
face operations, including through partnerships with 14
the private sector. 15
(2) The Johnson Space Center shall continue to 16
manage NASA’s spacesuit and extravehicular activ-17
ity programs. 18
(e) B
RIEFING.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 20
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-21
ministrator shall provide the appropriate committees 22
of Congress with a briefing on NASA’s plans for— 23
(A) in-space testing of advanced spacesuit 24
capabilities, including— 25
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(i) space suit tests that shall be con-1
ducted in microgravity in low-Earth orbit; 2
and 3
(ii) space suit tests that shall be con-4
ducted on the International Space Station 5
before decommissioning of the Inter-6
national Space Station; 7
(B) transitioning from existing spacesuits 8
in use on the International Space Station to use 9
of advanced spacesuit capabilities; 10
(C) future use of advanced spacesuit capa-11
bilities by government astronauts with any non-12
governmental platform in low-Earth orbit that 13
is certified for use by the Administration for 14
government astronauts; and 15
(D) disposition of retired spacesuits used 16
on the Space Shuttle or the International Space 17
Station. 18
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The briefing required by 19
paragraph (1) shall include— 20
(A) a detailed justification of compliance 21
with section 30301 of title 51, United States 22
Code; and 23
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(B) a detailed certification and justifica-1
tion of compliance with section 50503 of title 2
51, United States Code. 3
TITLE III—SPACE OPERATIONS 4
SEC. 301. MAXIMIZING UNITED STATES PRESENCE IN LOW- 5
EARTH ORBIT. 6
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-7
gress that— 8
(1) it is in the national and economic security, 9
foreign policy, and scientific interests of the United 10
States to maintain a continuous presence in low- 11
Earth orbit; 12
(2) low-Earth orbit include a mix of crewed and 13
uncrewed capabilities; 14
(3) low-Earth orbit should be used to advance 15
human space exploration, scientific discoveries, and 16
United States economic competitiveness and com-17
mercial participation; and 18
(4) until the date on which a commercial low- 19
Earth orbit destination capability achieves an initial 20
operating capability, it is in the national and eco-21
nomic security, foreign policy, and scientific interests 22
of the United States to maintain and support the 23
International Space Station in the same effective 24
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manner that has made the International Space Sta-1
tion successful for many years. 2
(b) C
ONTINUOUS HUMANPRESENCEREQUIRE-3
MENT.—The Administrator shall maintain the capability 4
for a continuous human presence to advance human space 5
exploration, scientific discoveries, international coopera-6
tion and United States economic competitiveness and com-7
mercial participation in low-Earth orbit through and be-8
yond the useful life of the International Space Station. 9
(c) C
OMMERCIALLOW-EARTHORBITDEVELOPMENT 10
P
ROGRAM.— 11
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator may es-12
tablish, within the Space Operations Mission Direc-13
torate, a Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development 14
Program for the purpose of procuring, from 1 or 15
more United States commercial providers, services to 16
support activities described in subsection (b) in low- 17
Earth orbit, as appropriate and practicable. 18
(2) C
ONSOLIDATION.—In establishing a pro-19
gram under paragraph (1), the Administrator may, 20
as appropriate and practicable, consolidate programs 21
of other National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-22
tration centers that support such activities. 23
(d) P
ROPERSUPPORT.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—To adequately maintain the 1
effective use of the International Space Station, the 2
Administrator shall, subject to the availability of ap-3
propriations, seek to maintain the same average 4
number and frequency of commercial crew and cargo 5
flights, tempo of operations and crew size, and re-6
search throughput until such time as 1 or more com-7
mercial space stations is capable of providing serv-8
ices to the National Aeronautics and Space Adminis-9
tration. 10
(2) M
ANAGED TRANSITION.— 11
(A) I
N GENERAL.—When 1 or more com-12
mercial space stations is capable of providing 13
services to the National Aeronautics and Space 14
Administration, the Administrator shall begin 15
the process of an orderly, managed transition of 16
operations from the International Space Station 17
to commercial providers in such a way as to 18
maintain a continuous human presence. 19
(B) M
IXED PORTFOLIO.—In transitioning 20
operations under subparagraph (A), the Admin-21
istrator shall seek to maintain the same average 22
number and frequency of commercial crew and 23
cargo flights to, and tempo of operations and 24
crew size and research throughput in, low- 25
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Earth orbit, managed across a portfolio that in-1
cludes the International Space Station and 1 or 2
more commercial space stations. 3
(3) D
E-ORBIT VEHICLE.— 4
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 5
shall develop a de-orbit vehicle for the eventual 6
decommissioning of the International Space 7
Station. 8
(B) A
NNUAL REPORT.—Not less frequently 9
than annually until the date on which the ISS 10
is decommissioned, the Administrator shall in-11
clude, in the budget justification materials sub-12
mitted to Congress in support of the budget of 13
the President for a fiscal year pursuant to sec-14
tion 1105 of title 31, United States Code, a re-15
port that— 16
(i) contains a description of the an-17
nual and lifecycle costs for activities re-18
lated to the de-orbit of the International 19
Space Station; and 20
(ii) describes the manner in which 21
such costs are shared among ISS partners. 22
(e) W
AIVER.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator may 24
waive the application of subsections (b) and (d) if 25
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the Administrator determines that technical issues 1
exist that prohibit the continued safe and effective 2
operation of the International Space Station, includ-3
ing issues with crew and cargo flights. 4
(2) N
OTIFICATION.—The Administrator shall 5
notify the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 6
Transportation of the Senate and the Committee on 7
Science, Space, and Technology of the House of 8
Representatives of the exercise of a waiver authority 9
under paragraph (1). 10
SEC. 302. COMMERCIAL LOW-EARTH ORBIT DEVELOPMENT 11
PROGRAM. 12
(a) C
ONTINUOUSCREWPRESENCE ANDACTIVITY.— 13
The Administrator shall use commercial low-Earth orbit 14
destinations to ensure the continuous presence of United 15
States Government crew to advance human space explo-16
ration, scientific discoveries, and United States economic 17
competitiveness and commercial participation in low-Earth 18
orbit. 19
(b) S
UPPORT AND FUNDING.—The Administrator, 20
subject to the availability of appropriations, shall support 21
and fund the Commercial Low-Earth Orbit Development 22
Program to provide a commercially supported follow-on 23
capability to the International Space Station. 24
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(c) DEVELOPMENT OF COMMERCIALLOW-EARTH 1
O
RBITDESTINATIONS.— 2
(1) S
OLICITATION.— 3
(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 4
shall issue a solicitation using full and open 5
competition to identify commercial entities ca-6
pable of providing services to the National Aer-7
onautics and Space Administration on commer-8
cial destinations in low-Earth orbit. 9
(B) R
EQUIREMENTS.—Not later than April 10
30, 2025, the Administrator shall release a doc-11
ument outlining the requirements for a com-12
mercial destination in low-Earth orbit to facili-13
tate the development of a request for proposal 14
for services to be provided to National Aero-15
nautics and Space Administration. 16
(C) F
INAL REQUEST FOR PROPOSAL .—Not 17
later than September 30, 2025, the Adminis-18
trator shall make available the final request for 19
proposal to solicit industry proposals for such 20
services. 21
(2) S
ELECTION.— 22
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than March 23
31, 2026, the Administrator shall select from 24
among commercial entities that submit a pro-25
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posal in response to the solicitation under para-1
graph (1), subject to the availability of meri-2
torious proposals and appropriations, 2 or more 3
commercial low-Earth orbit destinations to be 4
developed, with the goal of establishing, not 5
later than December 31, 2030, not fewer than 6
1 such destination capable of— 7
(i) providing safe, efficient, and reli-8
able operations for continuous human pres-9
ence in low-Earth orbit; and 10
(ii) offering such services to the Na-11
tional Aeronautics and Space Administra-12
tion. 13
(B) U
SE OF FUNDS.—Funds provided by 14
the Administrator to the Commercial Low- 15
Earth Orbit Development Program shall be 16
used to support the selection described in sub-17
paragraph (A). 18
(d) T
RANSITIONPERIOD.—The Administrator may 19
not de-orbit the International Space Station until the date 20
on which a commercial low-Earth orbit destination space 21
station has reached initial operational capability in low- 22
Earth orbit, in accordance with the managed transition 23
process described in section 301(d)(2). 24
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(e) WAIVER.—The Administrator may waive the ap-1
plication of subsection (d) if— 2
(1) the Administrator determines that technical 3
issues exist that prohibit the safe and effective oper-4
ation of the International Space Station; or 5
(2) a commercial system is capable of providing 6
safe, efficient, and reliable operations for National 7
Aeronautics and Space Administration missions, in-8
cluding not fewer than 2 mission-related flights. 9
SEC. 303. TRANSITION TO A COMMERCIALLY LED LOW- 10
EARTH ORBIT ECONOMY. 11
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-12
gress that— 13
(1) the transition from the International Space 14
Station to commercial destinations to support a con-15
tinuous human presence in low-Earth orbit is in the 16
national and economic security interests of the 17
United States; and 18
(2) the United States should— 19
(A) facilitate partnerships between the 20
Federal Government, international partners, 21
and the commercial space sector, including 22
through the purchase of commercial low-Earth 23
orbit services, to ensure the evolution of an eco-24
system with private sector development of new 25
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technologies, hardware, processes, capabilities, 1
and other commercial low-Earth orbit service 2
offerings; and 3
(B) continue to consider private sector pro-4
posals that further the development of the low- 5
Earth orbit economy in which the National Aer-6
onautics and Space Administration is one of 7
many customers. 8
(b) A
UTHORIZATION.—The Administrator shall au-9
thorize activities on the International Space Station and 10
within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 11
that develop infrastructure, hardware, processes, capabili-12
ties, technologies, and personnel to enable the development 13
of commercial low-Earth orbit destinations and a United 14
States-led low-Earth orbit economy. 15
(c) C
OMMERCIALACTIVITIES.—The Administrator 16
may permit the use of the International Space Station, 17
in a manner consistent with the policy and purposes of 18
the Administration under section 20102 of title 51, United 19
States Code— 20
(1) to carry out the activities described in sub-21
section (b); and 22
(2) to conduct— 23
(A) science and technology research with 24
commercial applications; and 25
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(B) marketing and sponsorship of services 1
and products on a cost-reimbursable basis. 2
(d) R
EPORTS.—Section 50111 of title 51, United 3
States Code, is amended by striking subsection (c) and 4
inserting the following: 5
‘‘(c) L
OW-EARTHORBITTRANSITIONPLAN.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator, in co-7
ordination with the ISS management entity (as de-8
fined in section 2 of the National Aeronautics and 9
Space Administration Transition Authorization Act 10
of 2017 (Public Law 115–10)), the commercial low- 11
Earth orbit management entity, the commercial crew 12
management entity, International Space Station 13
partners, and the scientific user community shall de-14
velop a plan to transition from the current regime 15
that relies heavily on Administration sponsorship to 16
a regime where the United States Government is one 17
of many customers of a low-Earth orbit nongovern-18
mental human space flight enterprise. 19
‘‘(2) B
RIEFING.—Not later than April 1, 2025, 20
and annually thereafter until the date on which the 21
International Space Station has de-orbited and not 22
fewer than 1 commercial destination supports a con-23
tinuous presence in low-Earth orbit, the Adminis-24
trator shall provide the Committee on Commerce, 25
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Science, and Transportation of the Senate and the 1
Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 2
House of Representatives with a briefing that in-3
cludes— 4
‘‘(A) an evaluation of the service life of the 5
International Space Station through 2030, as a 6
unique scientific, commercial, and space explo-7
ration-related facility, including— 8
‘‘(i) the cost associated with extending 9
the service life of the International Space 10
Station through 2030; 11
‘‘(ii) an assessment of the technical 12
limiting factors of the service life of the 13
International Space Station; and 14
‘‘(iii) such other information as may 15
be necessary to fully describe the justifica-16
tion for and feasibility of extending the 17
service life of the International Space Sta-18
tion, including the potential scientific or 19
technological benefits to the Federal Gov-20
ernment, the public, or academic or com-21
mercial entities; 22
‘‘(B) an identification of barriers to the de-23
velopment and commercialization of the low- 24
Earth orbit economy, including potential policy, 25
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regulatory frameworks, research security proto-1
cols, and intellectual property and data protec-2
tion laws, that could prohibit— 3
‘‘(i) commercial research and develop-4
ment on the International Space Station; 5
or 6
‘‘(ii) expansion of a userbase, other 7
than the Administration, for commercial 8
destinations in low-Earth orbit; 9
‘‘(C) the steps the Administration is taking 10
to eliminate barriers described in subparagraph 11
(B); 12
‘‘(D) an identification of the necessary ac-13
tions and an estimate of the costs to de-orbit 14
the International Space Station at the end of 15
its service life; 16
‘‘(E) the status of the actions identified 17
under subparagraph (D); 18
‘‘(F) the impact on the Commercial Low- 19
Earth Orbit Development Program, the Moon 20
to Mars program, and any other human explo-21
ration program of extending the service life of 22
International Space Station beyond 2030; 23
‘‘(G) a summary of the status of the tran-24
sition from the International Space Station to 25
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commercial destinations in low-Earth orbit, in-1
cluding— 2
‘‘(i) the status of the prospects for ac-3
complishing future mission requirements, 4
space exploration objectives, recommenda-5
tions and schedules under the current Na-6
tional Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 7
and Medicine Decadal Survey on Biological 8
and Physical Sciences in Space, and other 9
research objectives to maintain United 10
States leadership in scientific and commer-11
cial discovery on future commercially led 12
low-Earth orbit platforms or migration of 13
such objectives to cis-lunar space (as de-14
fined in section 2 of the National Aero-15
nautics and Space Administration Transi-16
tion Authorization Act of 2017 (Public 17
Law 115–10); 18
‘‘(ii) a description of the commercial 19
low-Earth orbit destination services pro-20
curement strategy, including status of the 21
commercial low-Earth orbit destination 22
procurement timeline and the schedule for 23
attaining operational capacity of such des-24
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tinations after contract awards are made; 1
and 2
‘‘(iii) a description and schedule of 3
major milestones and the manner in which 4
such milestones relate to de-orbiting the 5
International Space Station; and 6
‘‘(H) an evaluation of the functions, roles, 7
and responsibilities for management and oper-8
ation of the Commercial Low-Earth Orbit De-9
velopment Program, including an identification 10
of— 11
‘‘(i) such functions, roles, and respon-12
sibilities the Federal Government could re-13
tain during and at the end of the transi-14
tion from the International Space Station 15
to commercial destinations; 16
‘‘(ii) such functions, roles, and respon-17
sibilities that would be transferred to the 18
commercial space sector; 19
‘‘(iii) the metrics that would indicate 20
the readiness and ability of the commercial 21
space sector to assume the functions, roles, 22
and responsibilities identified under clause 23
(ii); and 24
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‘‘(iv) any legislative changes, and any 1
changes to any agreement or other docu-2
ment, necessary to enable the mission re-3
quirements, objectives, steps identified 4
under subparagraph (C), and recommenda-5
tions and schedules described in subpara-6
graph (G)(i). 7
‘‘(3) L
OW-EARTH ORBIT DEFINED .—In this 8
subsection, the term ‘low-Earth orbit’ means the 9
area encompassing Earth-centered orbits at an alti-10
tude not more than 1,200 miles (2,000 kilo-11
meters).’’. 12
SEC. 304. NONGOVERNMENTAL MISSIONS ON THE INTER-13
NATIONAL SPACE STATION. 14
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-15
gress that— 16
(1) nongovernmental missions involving crew or 17
spaceflight participants on the International Space 18
Station carried out, as appropriate, pursuant to 19
NASA policies and procedures, and Federal Govern-20
ment laws and regulations, can provide lessons and 21
learning experiences for both government and non-22
government entities to inform the development of fu-23
ture commercial low-Earth orbit platforms and a 24
low-Earth orbit economy; and 25
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(2) the Administrator should share lessons 1
learned from nongovernmental missions on the 2
International Space Station to advance the commer-3
cial human spaceflight industry, to promote the safe-4
ty of future commercial low-Earth orbit platforms, 5
and to inform the evolution of policies guiding such 6
activities in low-Earth orbit. 7
(b) N
ONGOVERNMENTAL MISSIONS ON THEISS.— 8
The Administrator may enter into 1 or more agreements 9
to enable 1 or more United States commercial providers 10
to conduct nongovernmental missions on the International 11
Space Station pursuant to NASA policies and procedures, 12
and Federal government laws and regulations. 13
(c) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section, the terms ‘‘crew’’ 14
and ‘‘spaceflight participant’’ have the meanings given 15
such terms in section 50902 of title 51, United States 16
Code. 17
SEC. 305. BRIEF ON SUBORBITAL CREW MISSIONS. 18
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-19
ment of this Act, the Administrator shall provide the ap-20
propriate committees of Congress with a briefing on the 21
costs, benefits, risks, training requirements, and policy or 22
legal implications, including liability matters, of launching 23
United States Government personnel on commercial sub-24
orbital vehicles. 25
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SEC. 306. LUNAR COMMUNICATIONS. 1
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-2
ings: 3
(1) Reliable communication and navigation ca-4
pabilities are essential for sustainable human and 5
robotic exploration of the Moon. 6
(2) Fostering the development of commercial 7
capabilities can accelerate the deployment of lunar 8
communication and navigation services. 9
(b) A
UTHORIZATION.—The Administrator is author-10
ized to develop a robust and resilient architecture for lunar 11
communications and navigation to support the Adminis-12
tration’s human and robotic lunar exploration activities. 13
(c) S
TUDY ANDPLAN.—To inform the development 14
described in subsection (b), the Administrator shall con-15
duct a study and develop a plan— 16
(1) to enable interoperable communications and 17
navigation services for cislunar missions; 18
(2) to work with the private sector, other Fed-19
eral agencies, and, as appropriate, international 20
partners to establish technical standards, consistent 21
with section 12(d) of the National Technology 22
Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (Public Law 23
104–113), protocols, and interface requirements for 24
cislunar communications and navigation services and 25
systems; 26
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(3) to support NASA lunar activities; 1
(4) to leverage NASA’s space technology re-2
search, development, and demonstration activities re-3
lated to space communications and navigation; and 4
(5) to evaluate the opportunities, benefits, feasi-5
bility, and challenges of the potential use of commer-6
cial cislunar communication and navigation services, 7
as appropriate, by United States commercial pro-8
viders. 9
SEC. 307. CELESTIAL TIME STANDARDIZATION. 10
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-11
gress that— 12
(1) United States leadership of a sustained 13
presence on the Moon and in deep space exploration 14
is important for advancing science, exploration, com-15
mercial growth, and international partnership; 16
(2) the Artemis and Moon to Mars program of 17
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 18
will involve governmental, commercial, academic, and 19
international partners where there is a need for 20
interoperability between systems; 21
(3) the use of Coordinated Universal Time has 22
challenges when used beyond Earth at other celestial 23
bodies due to relativistic effects; 24
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(4) the United States should lead in developing 1
time standardization for the Moon and other celes-2
tial bodies other than Earth to support interoper-3
ability and safe and sustainable operations; and 4
(5) development of such standardization will ad-5
vance United States leadership in standards setting 6
for global competitiveness, and will benefit other 7
spacefaring countries and entities. 8
(b) D
EVELOPMENT OF CELESTIALTIMESTANDARD-9
IZATION.—The Administrator, in consultation with the Di-10
rector of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, shall 11
conduct the following activities: 12
(1) Enable the development of celestial time 13
standardization, including by leading the study of, 14
and development of a definition for, a coordinated 15
lunar time. 16
(2) Develop a strategy to implement a coordi-17
nated lunar time that would support future oper-18
ations and infrastructure on and around the Moon. 19
(3) In carrying out paragraphs (1) and (2)— 20
(A) coordinate with relevant Federal enti-21
ties, including the Department of Commerce, 22
the Department of Defense, the Department of 23
State, and the Department of Transportation; 24
and 25
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(B) consult with relevant— 1
(i) private sector entities; 2
(ii) academic entities; and 3
(iii) international standards-setting 4
bodies. 5
(4) Incorporate the following features of a co-6
ordinated lunar time, to the extent practicable, in 7
the development of the strategy developed under 8
paragraph (2): 9
(A) Traceability to Coordinated Universal 10
Time. 11
(B) Accuracy sufficient to support preci-12
sion navigation and science. 13
(C) Resilience to loss of contact with 14
Earth. 15
(D) Scalability to space environments be-16
yond the Earth-Moon system. 17
(c) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 2 years after the date 18
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall pro-19
vide the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transpor-20
tation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, Space, 21
and Technology of the House of Representatives with a 22
briefing on the strategy developed pursuant to subsection 23
(b)(2), including relevant plans, timelines, and resources 24
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required for the implementation of a coordinated lunar 1
time pursuant to such strategy. 2
TITLE IV—SPACE TECHNOLOGY 3
SEC. 401. SPACE TECHNOLOGY MISSION DIRECTORATE. 4
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-5
gress that an independent Space Technology Mission Di-6
rectorate is critical to ensuring continued investments in 7
the development of technologies for missions across the 8
portfolio of NASA, including science, aeronautics, and 9
human exploration. 10
(b) S
PACETECHNOLOGYMISSIONDIRECTORATE.— 11
The Administrator shall maintain a Space Technology 12
Mission Directorate consistent with section 702 of the Na-13
tional Aeronautics and Space Administration Transition 14
Authorization Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–10; 51 U.S.C. 15
20301 note). 16
SEC. 402. SBIR PHASE II FLEXIBILITY. 17
Section 9 of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 638) 18
is amended in subsection (cc) by striking ‘‘and the Depart-19
ment of Education’’ and inserting ‘‘the Department of 20
Education, and the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-21
ministration’’. 22
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SEC. 403. SENSE OF CONGRESS ON CRYOGENIC FLUID 1
VALVE TECHNOLOGY REVIEW. 2
It is the sense of Congress that advancing cryogenic 3
fluid valve technology would support the Administration’s 4
efforts to improve cryogenic fluid management and im-5
prove space vehicle reliability and efficiency. 6
TITLE V—AERONAUTICS 7
SEC. 501. DEFINITIONS. 8
In this title: 9
(1) A
DVANCED AIR MOBILITY; AAM.—The terms 10
‘‘advanced air mobility’’ and ‘‘AAM’’ mean a trans-11
portation system that is comprised of urban air mo-12
bility and regional air mobility using manned or un-13
manned aircraft. 14
(2) R
EGIONAL AIR MOBILITY .—The term ‘‘re-15
gional air mobility’’ means the movement of pas-16
sengers or property by air between 2 points using an 17
airworthy aircraft that— 18
(A) has advanced technologies, such as dis-19
tributed propulsion, vertical takeoff and land-20
ing, powered lift, nontraditional power systems, 21
or autonomous technologies; 22
(B) has a maximum takeoff weight of 23
greater than 1,320 pounds; and 24
(C) is not urban air mobility. 25
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(3) UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM .—The term 1
‘‘unmanned aircraft system’’ has the meanings given 2
such term in section 44801 of title 49, United 3
States Code. 4
(4) U
RBAN AIR MOBILITY.—The term ‘‘urban 5
air mobility’’ means the movement of passengers or 6
property by air between 2 points in different cities 7
or 2 points within the same city using an airworthy 8
aircraft that— 9
(A) has advanced technologies, such as dis-10
tributed propulsion, vertical takeoff and land-11
ing, powered lift, nontraditional power systems, 12
or autonomous technologies; and 13
(B) has a maximum takeoff weight of 14
greater than 1,320 pounds. 15
SEC. 502. HYPERSONIC RESEARCH. 16
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-17
gress that— 18
(1) basic and applied hypersonic research— 19
(A) is critical for enabling the development 20
of advanced high-speed aeronautical and space 21
systems; and 22
(B) can improve understanding of tech-23
nical challenges related to high-speed and reus-24
able vehicle technologies, including those related 25
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to propulsion, noise, advanced materials, and 1
entry, descent, and landing operations; 2
(2) investments in hypersonic research are crit-3
ical to sustaining United States global leadership in 4
space and aeronautics; and 5
(3) NASA efforts to study hypersonic re-6
search— 7
(A) should not duplicate, and may com-8
plement, research supported by the Department 9
of Defense; and 10
(B) should be conducted in partnership 11
with universities and industry, as appropriate. 12
(b) H
YPERSONICRESEARCH.—The Administrator, in 13
coordination with the Administrator of the Federal Avia-14
tion Administration and the Secretary of Defense, as ap-15
propriate, and in consultation with industry and academia, 16
shall continue to carry out basic and applied hypersonic 17
research. 18
(c) H
YPERSONICRESEARCHROADMAP.— 19
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 20
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-21
ministrator, in consultation with the Administrator 22
of the Federal Aviation Administration, the Sec-23
retary of Defense, industry, and academic institu-24
tions, shall update the hypersonic research roadmap 25
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required under section 603 of the National Aero-1
nautics and Space Administration Transition Au-2
thorization Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–10; 131 3
Stat. 55). 4
(2) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In updating the re-5
search roadmap, the Administrator may consider— 6
(A) advancements in— 7
(i) system level design, analysis, and 8
validation of hypersonic aircraft tech-9
nologies; 10
(ii) propulsion capabilities and tech-11
nologies; 12
(iii) vehicle technologies, including ve-13
hicle flow physics and vehicle thermal man-14
agement associated with aerodynamic heat-15
ing; 16
(iv)(I) advanced materials, including 17
materials capable of withstanding high 18
temperatures; 19
(II) demonstrating durable materials; 20
and 21
(III) efforts to apply such materials; 22
and 23
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(v) other areas of hypersonic research 1
as determined appropriate by the Adminis-2
trator; and 3
(B) data trends regarding sonic boom over-4
pressures associated with hypersonic aircraft. 5
(d) R
EPORT ANDBRIEFING.—Not later than 1 year 6
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Adminis-7
trator shall— 8
(1) submit to the appropriate committees of 9
Congress the updated research roadmap under sub-10
section (c); and 11
(2) provide the appropriate committees of Con-12
gress with a briefing on the research conducted 13
under subsection (b), including with respect to the 14
manner in which such research aligns with such up-15
dated research roadmap. 16
SEC. 503. ADVANCED MATERIALS AND MANUFACTURING 17
TECHNOLOGY. 18
(a) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 19
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall sub-20
mit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 21
on the status of NASA activities relating to subsections 22
(e) and (f) of section 10831 of the National Aeronautics 23
and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 24
(Public Law 117–167; 51 U.S.C. 40102 note). 25
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(b) UPDATE ANDBRIEFING.—Not later than 2 years 1
after the date on which the report required by subsection 2
(a) is submitted, the Administrator shall— 3
(1) submit to the appropriate committees of 4
Congress an update to the findings contained in 5
such report; and 6
(2) provide the appropriate committees of Con-7
gress with a briefing on such update. 8
SEC. 504. UNMANNED AIRCRAFT SYSTEM AND ADVANCED 9
AIR MOBILITY. 10
The Administrator shall continue research, as appro-11
priate and necessary, in collaboration with the Adminis-12
trator of Federal Aviation Administration, the heads of 13
other relevant Federal agencies, and appropriate rep-14
resentatives of academia and industry, on unmanned air-15
craft systems and advanced air mobility. 16
SEC. 505. ADVANCED CAPABILITIES FOR EMERGENCY RE-17
SPONSE OPERATIONS. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator may continue 19
to conduct research and development activities under the 20
Advanced Capabilities for Emergency Response Oper-21
ations (ACERO) project, or appropriate successor project 22
or projects, to improve aerial responses to wildfires. 23
(b) B
RIEFING.— 24
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 180 days 1
after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Ad-2
ministrator shall provide the appropriate committees 3
of Congress with a briefing on ongoing research and 4
development activities related to improving aerial re-5
sponses to wildfires. 6
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The briefing required by 7
paragraph (1) shall include the following: 8
(A) An identification of any topic related 9
to improvement of aerial responses to wildfires 10
that could benefit from further research. 11
(B) A description of collaboration with 12
other relevant Federal agencies. 13
(C) A description of any continuing efforts 14
under this section. 15
(D) Any other information the Adminis-16
trator considers appropriate. 17
SEC. 506. HYDROGEN AVIATION. 18
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subject to the availability of ap-19
propriations for such purpose, the Administrator may 20
carry out research on emerging technologies related to hy-21
drogen aviation. 22
(b) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the date 23
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall pro-24
vide the appropriate committees of Congress with a brief-25
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ing on the ongoing research under subsection (a) that in-1
cludes— 2
(1) an identification of any agency with which 3
NASA has partnered on such research; and 4
(2) a description of anticipated further actions 5
and activities related to the topic of hydrogen avia-6
tion. 7
SEC. 507. HIGH-PERFORMANCE CHASE AIRCRAFT. 8
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-9
gress that— 10
(1) NASA programs benefit from and rely upon 11
high-performance chase aircraft for providing re-12
search and mission support; and 13
(2) NASA currently faces maintenance chal-14
lenges related to its aging high-performance aircraft 15
fleet, which is resulting in increased program costs. 16
(b) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 60 days after the date 17
of the enactment of this Act, and biannually thereafter, 18
the Administrator shall provide the appropriate commit-19
tees of Congress with a briefing on the strategy of NASA 20
relating to the following: 21
(1) Collaboration with the Department of De-22
fense on efforts for research and flight asset sharing 23
to support NASA’s research mission support and 24
pilot training requirements. 25
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(2) Efforts to seek aircraft parts and engines to 1
keep NASA’s current fleet of chase aircraft oper-2
ational, including potential use of 3D additive manu-3
factured parts. 4
(3) Strategies for acquiring or using through 5
loan, sharing, or other agreements, as appropriate, 6
Department of Defense aircraft to support NASA’s 7
research and mission support activities, as required. 8
SEC. 508. COLLABORATION WITH ACADEMIA. 9
It is the sense of Congress that— 10
(1) colleges and universities are hubs of re-11
search and innovation, with expertise in various 12
fields of science and aeronautics; 13
(2) collaborating with academia allows NASA to 14
access cutting-edge research and expertise that can 15
further enable advancements in aeronautics research 16
and technology and address complex aeronautical 17
challenges; 18
(3) a cutting-edge civil aeronautics research and 19
development program can inspire the next genera-20
tion to pursue education and careers in science, 21
technology, engineering, and mathematics, including 22
aeronautics; and 23
(4) opportunities for students to participate in 24
NASA-supported academic research and develop-25
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ment projects, such as the University Leadership 1
Initiative, the University Students Research Chal-2
lenge, the National Space Grant College and Fellow-3
ship Project, and related aeronautic projects and 4
competitions, contributes to training the next gen-5
eration and developing the aeronautics workforce to 6
support continued United States leadership and eco-7
nomic growth in civil aeronautics and aviation. 8
TITLE VI—SCIENCE 9
SEC. 601. MAINTAINING A BALANCED SCIENCE PORTFOLIO. 10
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—Congress reaffirms the 11
sense of Congress that— 12
(1) a balanced and adequately funded set of ac-13
tivities consisting of research and analysis grant pro-14
grams, technology development, suborbital research 15
activities, and small, medium, and large space mis-16
sions, contributes to a robust and productive science 17
program and serves as a catalyst for innovation and 18
discovery; and 19
(2) the Administrator should set science prior-20
ities by following the recommendations and guidance 21
provided by the scientific community through the 22
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and 23
Medicine decadal surveys. 24
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(b) POLICYREAFFIRMATION.—Congress reaffirms 1
the policy of the United States set forth in section 501(c) 2
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 3
Transition Authorization Act of 2017 (Public Law 115– 4
10; 51 U.S.C. 20302 note), which states, ‘‘It is the policy 5
of the United States to ensure, to the extent practicable, 6
a steady cadence of large, medium, and small science mis-7
sions’’. 8
SEC. 602. IMPLEMENTATION OF SCIENCE MISSION COST 9
CAPS. 10
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-11
gress that— 12
(1) NASA science missions address compelling 13
scientific questions prioritized by the National Acad-14
emies decadal surveys, and often such missions ex-15
ceed expectations in terms of performance, longevity, 16
and scientific impact; 17
(2) the Administrator should continue to pursue 18
an ambitious science program while also seeking to 19
avoid excessive cost growth that has the potential to 20
affect the balance across the Science portfolio and 21
within the Science Divisions; 22
(3) audits by the NASA Inspector General and 23
the Government Accountability Office have reported 24
that early cost estimates for missions in the prelimi-25
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nary phases of conception and development are im-1
mature and unreliable, and the cost of a mission 2
typically is not well-understood until the project is 3
further along in the development process; 4
(4) cost growth of a mission beyond its early 5
cost estimates is a challenge for budget planning 6
and has the potential to affect other missions in the 7
Science Mission Directorate portfolio, including 8
through delays to future mission solicitations; and 9
(5) relying on early cost estimates made prior 10
to preliminary design review for science missions 11
which then experience such cost growth may 12
disincentivize program and cost discipline moving 13
forward. 14
(b) R
EQUIREMENT.—To the maximum extent prac-15
ticable, the Administrator shall ensure that, unless over-16
whelmingly necessary to do otherwise, NASA— 17
(1) minimizes changes to requirements, capa-18
bilities, and mission objectives under to fixed-price 19
contracts with commercial providers; and 20
(2) otherwise adheres to the requirements, ca-21
pabilities, and mission objectives of such contracts. 22
(c) R
EPORT.— 23
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 24
the date of the enactment of this Act, the Comp-25
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troller General of the United States shall submit to 1
the appropriate committees of Congress a report of 2
NASA practices related to the establishment of and 3
compliance with cost caps of competitively selected, 4
principal investigator-led science missions. 5
(2) E
LEMENTS.—The report required by para-6
graph (1) shall— 7
(A) assess current cost cap values and de-8
termine whether existing cost cap amounts are 9
appropriate for different classes of missions; 10
(B) consider the effectiveness of cost caps 11
in maintaining a varied and balanced portfolio 12
of mission types within the Science Mission Di-13
rectorate; 14
(C) describe the information NASA re-15
quires as part of a proposal submission related 16
to project cost estimates and proposal compli-17
ance with cost caps, and assess whether such 18
required information provides sufficient insight 19
or confidence in the estimates; 20
(D) consider NASA processes for assessing 21
proposed cost estimates and the accuracy of 22
such assessments for past competitively se-23
lected, principal investigator-led science mis-24
sions; and 25
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(E) for the period starting on January 1, 1
2000 and ending on the date of the enactment 2
of this Act— 3
(i) a list of— 4
(I) competitively selected, prin-5
cipal investigator-led science missions 6
for which costs have exceeded the as-7
sociated cost cap; and 8
(II) reason the mission costs ex-9
ceeded the cost cap; 10
(ii) an assessment of NASA’s role in 11
predicting, preventing, or managing com-12
petitively-selected, principal investigator-led 13
science mission cost increases; and 14
(iii) a description of the impact of in-15
creased competitively-selected, principal in-16
vestigator-led science mission costs beyond 17
the cost caps on— 18
(I) the missions for which the 19
cost cap has been breached; and 20
(II) other missions within the ap-21
plicable division and within the 22
Science Mission Directorate. 23
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SEC. 603. REEXAMINATION OF DECADAL SURVEYS. 1
Section 20305(c) of title 51, United States Code, is 2
amended by inserting ‘‘, significant changes to the NASA 3
budget,’’ after ‘‘growth’’. 4
SEC. 604. LANDSAT. 5
Not later than 180 days after the date of the enact-6
ment of this Act, the Administrator shall submit to the 7
appropriate committees of Congress a report describing— 8
(1) the Administrator’s efforts to comply with 9
section 60134 of title 51, United States Code; 10
(2) aspects of Landsat NEXT or any other 11
Landsat observations that— 12
(A) could be provided by private sector 13
data-buys or service procurements; and 14
(B) could— 15
(i) meet associated science require-16
ments while maintaining or exceeding the 17
quality, integrity, and continuity of the 18
Landsat observational capabilities and per-19
formance, including requirements nec-20
essary to ensure high-quality calibrated 21
data continuity and traceability with the 22
50-year Landsat data record; and 23
(ii) comply with nondiscriminatory 24
availability of unenhanced data and public 25
archiving of data pursuant to section 26
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60141 and 60142 of title 51, United 1
States Code, and all other relevant Federal 2
laws, regulations, and policies related to 3
open science and data accessibility; 4
(3) any potential tradeoffs or other impacts of 5
the requirements described in clauses (i) and (ii) of 6
paragraph (2)(B) that could reduce the benefit of 7
Landsat data for scientific and applied uses or re-8
duce the Federal Government’s ability to make such 9
data available for the widest possible use; and 10
(4) recommendations and opportunities for the 11
Federal Government to mitigate potential tradeoffs 12
or impacts identified under paragraph (3) or to oth-13
erwise facilitate private sector data-buys or service 14
procurements. 15
SEC. 605. COMMERCIAL SATELLITE DATA. 16
(a) F
INDINGS.—Congress makes the following find-17
ings: 18
(1) Section 60501 of title 51, United States 19
Code, states that the goal for the Earth Science pro-20
gram of NASA shall be to pursue a program of 21
Earth observations, research, and applications activi-22
ties to better understand the Earth, how it supports 23
life, and how human activities affect its ability to do 24
so in the future. 25
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(2) Section 50115 of title 51, United States 1
Code, states that the Administrator of NASA shall, 2
to the extent possible and while satisfying the sci-3
entific requirements of NASA, and where appro-4
priate, of other Federal agencies and scientific re-5
searchers, acquire, where cost effective, space-based 6
commercial Earth remote sensing data, services, dis-7
tribution, and applications from a commercial pro-8
vider. 9
(3) The Administrator of NASA established the 10
Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Pilot Pro-11
gram in 2017 to identify, validate, and acquire from 12
commercial sources data that support the Earth 13
science research and application goals. 14
(4) The Administrator of NASA has— 15
(A) determined that the pilot program de-16
scribed in paragraph (3) has been a success, as 17
described in the final evaluation entitled ‘‘Com-18
mercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program 19
Pilot Evaluation Report’’ issued in 2020; 20
(B) established a formal process for evalu-21
ating and onboarding new commercial vendors 22
in such pilot program; 23
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(C) increased the number of commercial 1
vendors and commercial data products available 2
through such pilot program; and 3
(D) expanded procurement arrangements 4
with commercial vendors to broaden user access 5
to provide commercial Earth remote sensing 6
data and imagery to federally funded research-7
ers. 8
(b) C
OMMERCIALSATELLITEDATAACQUISITION 9
P
ROGRAM.— 10
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Chapter 603 of title 51, 11
United States Code, is amended by adding at the 12
end the following: 13
‘‘§ 60307. Commercial satellite data acquisition pro-14
gram 15
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator, acting 16
through the Earth Science Division of the Science Mission 17
Directorate, shall continue to acquire and disseminate cost 18
effective and appropriate commercial Earth remote sens-19
ing data and imagery in order to satisfy the operational 20
and scientific requirements of the Administration, and as 21
appropriate, the scientific requirements of other Federal 22
agencies and scientific researchers to augment or com-23
plement the suite of Earth observations acquired by the 24
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Administration, other United States Government agencies, 1
and international partners. 2
‘‘(b) D
ATAPUBLICATION ANDTRANSPARENCY.—The 3
terms and conditions of commercial Earth remote sensing 4
data and imagery acquisitions under the program de-5
scribed in subsection (a) shall take into consideration— 6
‘‘(1) the publication of commercial data or im-7
agery for scientific purposes; or 8
‘‘(2) the publication of information that is de-9
rived from, incorporates, or enhances the original 10
commercial data or imagery of a vendor. 11
‘‘(c) A
UTHORIZATION.—In carrying out the program 12
under this section, the Administrator may— 13
‘‘(1) procure the commercial Earth remote 14
sensing data and imagery from commercial vendors 15
to advance scientific research and applications in ac-16
cordance with subsection (a); and 17
‘‘(2) establish or modify end-use license terms 18
and conditions to allow for the widest-possible use of 19
procured commercial Earth remote sensing data and 20
imagery by individuals other than NASA-funded 21
users, consistent with the goals of the program. 22
‘‘(d) U
NITEDSTATESVENDORS.—Commercial Earth 23
remote sensing data and imagery referred to in sub-24
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sections (a) and (c) shall, to the maximum extent prac-1
ticable, be procured from United States vendors. 2
‘‘(e) R
EPORT.—Not later than 180 days after the 3
date of the enactment of this section, and annually there-4
after, the Administrator shall submit to the Committee on 5
Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate and 6
the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the 7
House of Representatives a report that includes the fol-8
lowing information regarding the agreements, vendors, li-9
cense terms, and uses of commercial Earth remote sensing 10
data and imagery under this section: 11
‘‘(1)(A) In the case of the initial report, a list 12
of all agreements that are providing commercial 13
Earth remote sensing data and imagery to NASA as 14
of the date of the report. 15
‘‘(B) For each subsequent report, a list of all 16
agreements that have provided commercial Earth re-17
mote sensing data and imagery to NASA during the 18
reporting period. 19
‘‘(2) A description of the end-use license terms 20
and conditions for each such vendor. 21
‘‘(3) A description of the manner in which each 22
such agreement is advancing scientific research and 23
applications, including priorities recommended by 24
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the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, 1
and Medicine decadal surveys. 2
‘‘(4) Information specifying whether the Admin-3
istrator has entered into an agreement with a com-4
mercial vendor or a Federal agency that permits the 5
use of data and imagery by Federal Government em-6
ployees, contractors, or non-Federal users.’’. 7
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-8
tents for chapter 603 of title 51, United States 9
Code, is amended by adding at the end the fol-10
lowing: 11
‘‘60307. Commercial Satellite Data Acquisition Program.’’. 
SEC. 606. PLANETARY SCIENCE PORTFOLIO. 
12
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-13
gress that— 14
(1) planetary science missions advance the sci-15
entific understanding of the solar system and the 16
place of humans in it while also advancing the de-17
sign and operations of spacecraft and robotic engi-18
neering; and 19
(2) the Discovery, New Frontiers, and Flagship 20
programs allow NASA to fund a range of missions 21
that vary in size, cost, and complexity, and main-22
taining balance across these mission classes allows 23
for a broad scope of discoveries and scientific ad-24
vances. 25
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(b) MISSIONPRIORITIESREAFFIRMATION.—Con-1
gress reaffirms the direction in section 502(b)(1) of the 2
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Transi-3
tion Authorization Act of 2017 (Public Law 115–10; 51 4
U.S.C. 20301 note) that— 5
(1) in accordance with the priorities established 6
in the most recent Planetary Science Decadal Sur-7
vey, the Administrator shall ensure, to the greatest 8
extent practicable, the completion of a balanced set 9
of Discovery, New Frontiers, and Flagship missions 10
at the cadence recommended by the most recent 11
Planetary Science Decadal Survey; and 12
(2) consistent with the missions described in 13
paragraph (1), and while maintaining the continuity 14
of scientific data and steady development of capabili-15
ties and technologies, the Administrator may seek, if 16
necessary, adjustments to mission priorities, sched-17
ule, and scope in light of changing budget projec-18
tions. 19
SEC. 607. PLANETARY DEFENSE. 20
(a) N
EAR-EARTHOBJECTSURVEY ANDPOLICY.— 21
Section 808 of the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-22
ministration Authorization Act of 2010 (42 U.S.C. 23
18387), is amended in subsection (b) by striking ‘‘imple-24
ment, before September 30, 2012,’’ and inserting ‘‘, in co-25
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ordination with the NASA Administrator, maintain and 1
regularly update’’. 2
(b) P
OLICY ONNEAR-EARTHOBJECTS ANDRESPON-3
SIBLEFEDERALAGENCY.—Section 71103 of title 51, 4
United States Code, is amended to read as follows: 5
‘‘§ 71103. Policy on near-Earth objects and respon-6
sible Federal agency 7
‘‘The Director of the Office of Science and Tech-8
nology Policy, in coordination with the Administrator, 9
shall maintain and regularly update policy for notifying 10
Federal agencies and relevant emergency response institu-11
tions of an impending near-Earth object threat, if near- 12
term public safety is at risk, and provide recommendations 13
for a Federal agency or agencies to be responsible for— 14
‘‘(1) protecting the United States from a near- 15
Earth object that is expected to collide with Earth; 16
and 17
‘‘(2) implementing a deflection campaign, in 18
consultation with international bodies, should one be 19
necessary.’’. 20
(c) P
LANETARYDEFENSECOORDINATIONOFFICE.— 21
Chapter 711 of title 51, United States Code, is amended 22
by adding at the end the following: 23
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‘‘§ 71105. Planetary Defense Coordination Office 1
‘‘(a) O
FFICE.—As directed in section 10825 of the 2
National Aeronautics and Space Administration Author-3
ization Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–167), the Adminis-4
trator shall maintain an office within the Planetary 5
Science Division of the Science Mission Directorate to be 6
known as the ‘Planetary Defense Coordination Office’. 7
‘‘(b) R
ESPONSIBILITIES.—Consistent with the direc-8
tion in section 10825 of the National Aeronautics and 9
Space Administration Authorization Act of 2022 (Public 10
Law 117–167) the Planetary Defense Coordination Office 11
under subsection (a) shall— 12
‘‘(1) plan, develop, and implement a program to 13
survey threats posed by near-Earth objects equal to 14
or greater than 140 meters in diameter, as required 15
by section 321(d)(1) of the National Aeronautics 16
and Space Administration Authorization Act of 2005 17
(Public Law 109–155; 119 Stat. 2922); 18
‘‘(2) identify, track, and characterize potentially 19
hazardous near-Earth objects, issue warnings of the 20
effects of potential impacts of such objects, and in-21
vestigate strategies and technologies for mitigating 22
the potential impacts of such objects; and 23
‘‘(3) assist in coordinating government planning 24
for a response to a potential impact of a near-Earth 25
objects.’’. 26
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(d) CONFORMINGAMENDMENT.—The table of con-1
tents for chapter 711 of title 51, United States Code, is 2
amended— 3
(1) by striking the item relating to section 4
71103 and inserting the following: 5
‘‘71103. Policy on near-Earth objects and responsible Federal agency.’’; and 
(2) by adding at the end the following: 6
‘‘71105. Planetary Defense Coordination Office.’’. 
SEC. 608. LUNAR DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION. 
7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator may carry out, 8
within the Science Mission Directorate, a program to ac-9
complish science objectives for the Moon, with an organi-10
zational structure that aligns responsibility, authority, and 11
accountability, as recommended by the most recent 12
decadal survey for planetary science and astrobiology. 13
(b) O
BJECTIVES ANDREQUIREMENTS.—In carrying 14
out the program under subsection (a), the Administrator 15
shall direct the Science Mission Directorate, in consulta-16
tion with the Exploration Systems Development Mission 17
Directorate and the Space Technology Mission Direc-18
torate, to define high-priority lunar science objectives, in-19
formed by decadal and other scientific consensus rec-20
ommendations, and related requirements of an integrated 21
Artemis science strategy for human and robotic missions 22
to the Moon. 23
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(c) INSTRUMENTATION .—The program under sub-1
section (a) shall assess the need for and facilitate the de-2
velopment of instrumentation to support the scientific ex-3
ploration of the Moon. 4
SEC. 609. COMMERCIAL LUNAR PAYLOAD SERVICES. 5
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-6
gress that— 7
(1) the Administrator’s encouragement and 8
support for commercial services for lunar surface de-9
livery capabilities and other related services serves 10
the national interest; and 11
(2) commercial providers benefit from an ap-12
proach that places low-cost, noncritical instruments 13
on initial deliveries using small- and medium-size 14
landers before proceeding to larger landers for more 15
complex payloads. 16
(b) C
OMMERCIALLUNARPAYLOADSERVICES.—The 17
Administrator is authorized to continue the Commercial 18
Lunar Payload Services program for the purpose of pro-19
curing, from 1 or more United States commercial pro-20
viders, services for delivery of NASA science payloads, and 21
the payloads of other NASA mission directorates, as ap-22
propriate and practicable, to the lunar surface. 23
(c) R
ELATIONSHIP TO OTHERMISSIONDIREC-24
TORATES.—A Mission Directorate that seeks to obtain 25
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commercial lunar payload services under the program re-1
ferred to in subsection (b) shall provide funding for— 2
(1) any payload, instrument, or other item 3
sponsored by the Mission Directorate for delivery 4
through the program; and 5
(2) the cost of the commercial lunar payload 6
services obtained on behalf of the Mission Direc-7
torate. 8
(d) I
MPLEMENTATION.—In implementing any such 9
activities under subsection (b), the Administrator shall— 10
(1) conduct updated market research on the 11
commercial lunar economy and identify any changes 12
since the last market analysis; 13
(2) assess NASA’s needs from and role in and 14
contribution to the commercial lunar delivery mar-15
ket; 16
(3) based on the needs identified under para-17
graph (2), assess the effectiveness of the task order 18
approach in advancing commercial development of 19
lunar delivery services, including an assessment of 20
the appropriate number of providers necessary to 21
support NASA commercial lunar delivery needs, and 22
identify any challenges and recommendations for im-23
provement; and 24
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(4) strengthen procedures related to the selec-1
tion, manifesting, interfaces, and requirements of 2
payloads and other relevant factors that could con-3
tribute to minimizing future NASA-directed changes 4
to projects following commercial lunar payload serv-5
ice contract awards. 6
(e) C
OORDINATION.—The Administrator shall ensure 7
coordination between Mission Directorates and the Moon 8
to Mars Program on the administration of the program 9
referred to in subsection (b) so as to ensure the alignment 10
of goals for lunar delivery services. 11
SEC. 610. PLANETARY AND LUNAR OPERATIONS. 12
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-13
gress that— 14
(1) existing NASA lunar and Martian orbital 15
missions are operating well beyond their planned 16
mission lifespans; 17
(2) NASA relies on such aging infrastructure 18
for observations, communications relay, and other 19
operations to support critical NASA missions; and 20
(3) the United States plans to increase its ac-21
tivities on and around both the Moon and Mars in 22
coming years. 23
(b) P
LAN.—The Administrator shall develop a plan 24
to ensure continuity of operations and sufficient observa-25
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tional and operational capabilities on and around the 1
Moon and Mars necessary to continue to enable a robust 2
science program and human exploration program for the 3
Moon and Mars well into the future. Such plan shall con-4
sider opportunities to engage both private and inter-5
national partners in future operations. 6
SEC. 611. MARS SAMPLE RETURN. 7
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator shall, subject 8
to the availability of appropriations, lead a Mars Sample 9
Return program to enable the return to Earth of scientif-10
ically selected samples from the surface of Mars for study 11
in terrestrial laboratories, consistent with the rec-12
ommendations of the National Academies decadal surveys 13
for planetary science. 14
(b) A
PPROACH.—The Administrator shall pursue the 15
program described in subsection (a) on a timeline and in 16
a manner necessary to— 17
(1) sustain United States leadership in the sci-18
entific exploration of Mars; 19
(2) capitalize on United States industry and 20
NASA capabilities to land and operate robotic space-21
craft on the surface of Mars; and 22
(3) maintain a balanced and robust planetary 23
science division portfolio without requiring signifi-24
cant increases to the NASA budget. 25
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(c) IMPLEMENTATION PLAN.—As soon as practicable 1
and not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 2
of this Act, the Administrator shall do the following: 3
(1) Transmit to the appropriate committees of 4
Congress an acquisition plan and timeline for the 5
implementation of a Mars Sample Return program 6
pursuant to this section, with the goal of enabling 7
the highest scientific return for the resources in-8
vested, which plan shall— 9
(A) include a design and mission architec-10
ture; and 11
(B) establish realistic cost and schedule es-12
timates to enable such goal. 13
(2) Determine a path forward for the Mars 14
Sample Return that— 15
(A) is aligned with NASA’s Mars Sample 16
Return Strategy Review Team’s findings; 17
(B) considers alternative mission concepts 18
and lower cost sample return methods; and 19
(C) enables an earlier return of samples to 20
Earth. 21
(3) Not later than 1 year after the date of the 22
enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall enter 23
into firm fixed-price agreements with 1 or more 24
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United States industry partners to carry out this 1
section. 2
SEC. 612. HELIOPHYSICS RESEARCH. 3
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-4
gress that— 5
(1) NASA heliophysics research advances the 6
scientific understanding of the Sun, its impact on 7
the Earth and near-Earth environment, and the 8
Sun’s interactions with other bodies in the solar sys-9
tem, the interplanetary medium, and the interstellar 10
medium; 11
(2) fundamental science supported by the 12
Heliophysics division is critical to improving space 13
weather observations forecasting capabilities, which 14
contribute to— 15
(A) fortifying national security and other 16
critically important space-based and ground- 17
based assets; 18
(B) improving the resilience of the energy 19
infrastructure of the United States; and 20
(C) protecting human health in space; and 21
(3) the Heliophysics Division should continue to 22
maximize the scientific return on investment of its 23
portfolio through maintaining a balanced portfolio 24
that includes research and analysis, including multi-25
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disciplinary research initiatives, technology develop-1
ment, space-based missions, and suborbital flight 2
projects that include both directed and strategic mis-3
sions and principal investigator-led, competitively so-4
licited missions, informed by the science priorities 5
and guidance of the most recent decadal survey in 6
solar and space physics. 7
(b) P
ROGRAMMANAGEMENT.—The Administrator 8
shall seek— 9
(1) to maintain a regular Explorer Announce-10
ment of Opportunity cadence and alternate between 11
small and mid-sized missions; and 12
(2) to enable a regular selection of Missions of 13
Opportunity. 14
SEC. 613. GEOSPACE DYNAMICS CONSTELLATION. 15
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-16
gress that— 17
(1) the Geospace Dynamics Constellation mis-18
sion could enable scientific discoveries that will 19
transform understanding of the processes that gov-20
ern the dynamics of the Earth’s upper atmospheric 21
envelope that surrounds and protects the planet; and 22
(2) seeking commercial partnerships to provide 23
the technology to understand the phenomena and to 24
use the scientific knowledge gained by such mission 25
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could assist in identifying solutions that could ben-1
efit United States industry and citizens. 2
(b) A
SSESSMENT.—Not later than 180 days after the 3
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 4
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report 5
regarding the schedule and budget profile to launch the 6
Geospace Dynamics Constellation mission by the end of 7
the decade to fulfill the recommendations of the 8
heliophysics decadal survey. 9
SEC. 614. NANCY GRACE ROMAN TELESCOPE. 10
The Administrator shall continue development of the 11
Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope as directed in sub-12
section 10823(b) of the National Aeronautics and Space 13
Administration Authorization Act of 2022 (Public Law 14
117–167; 136 Stat. 1741). 15
SEC. 615. CHANDRA X-RAY OBSERVATORY. 16
The Administrator shall, to the greatest extent prac-17
ticable, take no action to reduce or otherwise preclude con-18
tinuation of the science operations of the Chandra X-ray 19
Telescope before the completion and consideration of the 20
next triennial review of mission extensions for the astro-21
physics division conducted pursuant to section 30504 of 22
title 51, United States Code, and NASA’s ongoing oper-23
ations paradigm change review. 24
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TITLE VII—STEM EDUCATION 1
SEC. 701. NATIONAL SPACE GRANT COLLEGE AND FELLOW-2
SHIP PROGRAM. 3
(a) A
MENDMENTS.—Title 51, United States Code, is 4
amended— 5
(1) in section 40303, by striking subsections (d) 6
and (e); and 7
(2) in section 40304— 8
(A) by striking subsection (c) and inserting 9
the following: 10
‘‘(c) S
OLICITATIONS.— 11
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator shall 12
issue a solicitation to space grant consortia for the 13
award of grants or contracts under this section at 14
the conclusion of the award cycle for fiscal Year 15
2020 to 2024. The Administrator shall implement 16
the allocation guidance under subsection (e) during 17
each fiscal year covered by the award cycle. 18
‘‘(2) P
ROPOSALS.—A lead institution of a space 19
grant consortium that seeks a grant or contract 20
under this section shall submit, on behalf of such 21
space grant consortium, an application to the Ad-22
ministrator at such time and in such manner and 23
accompanied by such information as the Adminis-24
trator may require. 25
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‘‘(3) AWARDS.—The Administrator shall award 1
1 or more multi-year grants or contracts, disbursed 2
in annual installments, to the lead institution of an 3
eligible space grant consortium of— 4
‘‘(A) each of the 50 States of the United 5
States; 6
‘‘(B) the District of Columbia; and 7
‘‘(C) the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.’’; 8
and 9
(B) by adding at the end the following: 10
‘‘(e) A
LLOCATION OFFUNDING.— 11
‘‘(1) P
ROGRAM IMPLEMENTATION .—To carry 12
out the purposes set forth in section 40301, each fis-13
cal year, the Administrator shall allocate the funds 14
appropriated for the program under this section for 15
the fiscal year to each space grant consortium 16
awarded a grant or contract under subsection (c)(3) 17
in an equal amount. 18
‘‘(2) P
ROGRAM ADMINISTRATION .— 19
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Each fiscal year, of 20
the funds made available for the National Space 21
Grant College and Fellowship Program, the Ad-22
ministrator shall allocate not more than 10 per-23
cent for the administration of the program. 24
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‘‘(B) COSTS COVERED.—The funds allo-1
cated under paragraph (1) shall cover all costs 2
of the Administration associated with the ad-3
ministration of the National Space Grant Col-4
lege and Fellowship Program, including— 5
‘‘(i) direct costs to the program, in-6
cluding costs relating to support services 7
and civil service salaries and benefits; 8
‘‘(ii) indirect general and administra-9
tive costs of centers and facilities of the 10
Administration; and 11
‘‘(iii) indirect general and administra-12
tive costs of the Administration head-13
quarters. 14
‘‘(3) S
PECIAL OPPORTUNITIES .—Each fiscal 15
year, of the funds made available for the National 16
Space Grant College and Fellowship program, the 17
Administrator shall allocate not more than 5 percent 18
to lead institutions of Space Grant Consortia for 19
grants to carry out innovative approaches and pro-20
grams to further science and education relating to 21
the missions of the Administration pursuant to sub-22
section (b).’’. 23
(b) R
EVIEW.—The Administrator shall make ar-24
rangements for the conduct of a multi-year analysis of the 25
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independent external reviews currently under development 1
in the National Space Grant College and Fellowship Pro-2
gram— 3
(1) to evaluate its management, accomplish-4
ments, approach to funding allocation as described 5
in section 40303(e) of title 51, United States Code, 6
and responsiveness to the purposes and goals de-7
fined in chapter 403 of title 51, United States Code; 8
(2) to consider the benefits partnerships with 9
local education agencies, including those in under-10
served and rural areas, may provide; and 11
(3) to propose any statutory updates that may 12
be needed to implement recommendations of the re-13
view. 14
(c) R
EPORT.—Not later than 270 days after the date 15
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall sub-16
mit to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans-17
portation of the Senate and the Committee on Science, 18
Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives 19
a report on the independent external review of the Na-20
tional Space Grant College and Fellowship Program de-21
scribed in subsection (a). 22
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SEC. 702. SKILLED TECHNICAL WORKFORCE EDUCATION 1
OUTREACH. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Administrator may conduct 3
or support STEM engagement activities that focus on ex-4
panding opportunities for students to pursue skilled tech-5
nical workforce occupations in space and aeronautics. 6
(b) L
EVERAGINGEXISTINGPROGRAMS.—The Ad-7
ministrator, in conducting activities pursuant to sub-8
section (a), shall leverage, as appropriate, existing pro-9
grams of NASA and may consider leveraging other Fed-10
eral programs and interagency initiatives, such as the 11
Manufacturing USA program under section 34 of the Na-12
tional Institute of Standards and Technology Act (15 13
U.S.C. 278s). 14
(c) I
NCLUSION.—Activities under subsection (a) may 15
include outreach activities that— 16
(1) engage secondary and post-secondary stu-17
dents, including students at institutions of higher 18
education, 2-year colleges, and high schools and stu-19
dents in vocational or career and technical education 20
programs; 21
(2) expose students to careers that require ca-22
reer and technical education; 23
(3) encourage students to pursue careers that 24
require career and technical education; and 25
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(4) provide students hands-on learning opportu-1
nities to view the manufacturing, assembly, and test-2
ing of NASA-funded space and aeronautical systems, 3
as the Administrator considers appropriate and with 4
consideration of relevant factors such as workplace 5
safety, mission needs, and the protection of sensitive 6
and proprietary technologies. 7
(d) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 1 year after the date 8
of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall pro-9
vide the appropriate committees of Congress with a brief-10
ing on NASA’s activities, and any planned activities, con-11
ducted under this section. 12
(e) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 13
(1) I
NSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION .—The 14
term ‘‘institution of higher education’’ has the 15
meaning given the term in section 101(a) of the 16
Higher Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)). 17
(2) S
KILLED TECHNICAL WORKFORCE .—The 18
term ‘‘skilled technical workforce’’ has the meaning 19
given the term in section 4(b)(3) of the Innovations 20
in Mentoring, Training, and Apprenticeships Act 21
(Public Law 115–402; 42 U.S.C. 1862p note). 22
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TITLE VIII—NASA POLICY 1
SEC. 801. NASA ADVISORY COUNCIL. 2
(a) C
ONSULTATION AND ADVICE.—Section 20113(g) 3
of title 51, United States Code, is amended by adding 4
‘‘and Congress’’ after ‘‘advice to the Administration’’. 5
(b) S
UNSET.—Effective September 30, 2028, section 6
20113(g) of title 51, United States Code, is amended by 7
striking ‘‘and Congress’’. 8
SEC. 802. NASA ASSESSMENT OF EARLY COST ESTIMATES. 9
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 10
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 11
shall transmit to the appropriate committees of Congress 12
a review of the development, application, and assessment 13
of early cost estimates made prior to preliminary design 14
review for NASA missions. The review shall include— 15
(1) an assessment of NASA processes related to 16
the formation and evaluation of proposed and early- 17
stage cost estimates; 18
(2) an evaluation of NASA’s monitoring and 19
management of cost estimates throughout mission 20
development, in accordance with section 10861(b)(4) 21
of the National Aeronautics and Space Administra-22
tion Authorization Act of 2022 (Public Law 117– 23
167; 51 U.S.C. 20113 note); and 24
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(3) any such recommendations as the Comp-1
troller General determines appropriate. 2
SEC. 803. AUTHORITY FOR PRODUCTION CONTRACTS FOL-3
LOWING OTHER TRANSACTION PROTOTYPE 4
PROJECTS. 5
Subsection (e) of section 20113 of title 51, United 6
States Code, is amended— 7
(1) by striking ‘‘In the performance of its func-8
tions’’ and inserting the following: 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—In the performance of its 10
functions’’; and 11
(2) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(2) O
THER TRANSACTIONS .—In the case of 13
other transactions to carry out prototype projects, a 14
follow-on production or service contract may be 15
awarded to participants in the prototype transaction 16
without the use of competitive procedures, notwith-17
standing the requirements of section 2304 of title 18
10, if— 19
‘‘(A) competitive procedures were used for 20
the selection of parties for participation in the 21
prototype transaction; and 22
‘‘(B) the participants in the transaction 23
performed successfully during the prototype 24
project. 25
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‘‘(3) TREATMENT.—Transactions under this 1
authority shall be treated as an agency procurement 2
for purposes of chapter 21 of title 41, with regard 3
to procurement ethics.’’. 4
SEC. 804. ROLE OF THE NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND 5
SPACE ADMINISTRATION IN COMMERCIAL 6
SPACE ACTIVITIES. 7
(a) S
ENSE OFCONGRESS.—It is the sense of Con-8
gress that— 9
(1) the National Aeronautics and Space Admin-10
istration and the commercial space sector com-11
plement each other in maintaining the leadership 12
role of the United States in outer space activities; 13
(2) as more outer space activities are conducted 14
by private industry, it is vital to define the appro-15
priate role of the National Aeronautics and Space 16
Administration; and 17
(3) the expertise and experience of the National 18
Aeronautics and Space Administration in human 19
space flight is especially important as commercial 20
human space flight activities extend into Earth’s 21
orbit, to the lunar surface, and beyond. 22
(b) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the 23
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 24
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provide the appropriate committees of Congress with a 1
brief on— 2
(1) the current activities of NASA, including 3
the detail of any NASA personnel, to assist the Sec-4
retary of Commerce, the Secretary of Transpor-5
tation, the Federal Communications Commission, or 6
any other relevant Federal agency with the regula-7
tion of the United States commercial space enter-8
prise; 9
(2) a general breakdown of which NASA exper-10
tise, including scientific, technical, and engineering 11
expertise, is being most used in support of other 12
Federal agencies; and 13
(3) expected future growth in the workload of 14
NASA as it relates to the support described in para-15
graph (1). 16
SEC. 805. RESTRICTION ON FEDERAL FUNDS RELATING TO 17
CERTAIN CHINESE SPACE AND SCIENTIFIC 18
ACTIVITIES. 19
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection 20
(b), no Federal funds authorized in this Act may be obli-21
gated or expended— 22
(1) for the National Aeronautics and Space Ad-23
ministration (NASA), the Office of Science and 24
Technology Policy (OSTP), or the National Space 25
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Council (NSpC) to develop, design, plan, promul-1
gate, implement, or execute a bilateral policy, pro-2
gram, order, or contract of any kind to participate, 3
collaborate, or coordinate bilaterally in any way with 4
China or any Chinese-owned company unless such 5
activities are specifically authorized by a law enacted 6
after the date of the enactment of this Act; or 7
(2) to effectuate the hosting of official Chinese 8
visitors at facilities belonging to or utilized by 9
NASA. 10
(b) E
XCEPTION.—The restrictions described in sub-11
section (a) shall not apply to activities with respect to 12
which NASA, OSTP, or NSpC, after consultation with the 13
Federal Bureau of Investigation, have certified— 14
(1) pose no risk of resulting in the transfer of 15
technology, data, or other information with national 16
security or economic security implications to China 17
or a Chinese-owned company; and 18
(2) will not involve knowing interactions with 19
officials who have been determined by the United 20
States to have direct involvement with violations of 21
human rights. 22
(c) S
UBMISSION.—Any certification made under sub-23
section (b) shall be submitted to the Committee on Com-24
merce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on 25
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Appropriations of the Senate, the Committee on Science, 1
Space, and Technology and the Committee on Appropria-2
tions of the House of Representatives, and the Federal 3
Bureau of Investigation, not later than 30 days prior to 4
the activity in question. Any such certification shall in-5
clude a description of the purpose of such activity, its 6
agenda, its major participants, and its location and tim-7
ing. 8
SEC. 806. FINDINGS RELATING TO CONTRACT FLEXIBILITY. 9
Congress finds that NASA FAR Supplement (NFS) 10
1852.242–72, Denied Access to NASA Facilities instructs 11
that, for the period that NASA facilities were not acces-12
sible to contractor employees, the contracting officer may 13
adjust the contract performance or delivery schedule, fore-14
go the work, reschedule the work, or consider requests for 15
equitable adjustment to the contract. 16
SEC. 807. GAO REPORT. 17
Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment 18
of this Act, the Comptroller General of the United States 19
shall submit to the appropriate committees of Congress 20
a report on fire and emergency services at NASA launch 21
and reentry facilities that assesses the following: 22
(1) Current capabilities and projected demands 23
for NASA-provided fire and emergency services. 24
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(2) The manner in which demand for NASA- 1
provided fire and emergency services have been im-2
pacted by the following: 3
(A) An increased rate of launch and re-4
entry operations. 5
(B) An increased number of leases with 6
commercial launch and reentry service providers 7
for use of NASA property. 8
(3) Current fire and emergency services pro-9
vided by commercial providers to support launch and 10
reentry operations that are conducted— 11
(A) to fulfill a contractual obligation with 12
NASA; or 13
(B) for non-NASA purposes using NASA- 14
leased property. 15
(4) Whether NASA-provided and commercially- 16
provided fire and emergency services are able to 17
meet current and projected demands and support all 18
fire response areas on NASA property. 19
SEC. 808. NASA PUBLIC-PRIVATE TALENT PROGRAM. 20
Section 20113 of title 51, United States Code, is 21
amended by adding at the end the following new sub-22
section: 23
‘‘(o) P
UBLIC-PRIVATETALENTPROGRAM.— 24
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‘‘(1) ASSIGNMENT AUTHORITY .—Under policies 1
and procedures prescribed by the Administration, 2
the Administrator may, with the agreement of a pri-3
vate sector entity and the consent of an employee of 4
the Administration or of such entity, arrange for the 5
temporary assignment of such employee of the Ad-6
ministration to such private sector entity, or of such 7
employee of such entity to the Administration, as 8
the case may be. 9
‘‘(2) A
GREEMENTS.— 10
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator 11
shall provide for a written agreement among 12
the Administration, the private sector entity, 13
and the employee concerned regarding the 14
terms and conditions of the employee’s assign-15
ment under this subsection. The agreement 16
shall— 17
‘‘(i) require that the employee of the 18
Administration, upon completion of the as-19
signment, will serve in the Administration, 20
or elsewhere in the civil service if approved 21
by the Administrator, for a period equal to 22
twice the length of the assignment; 23
‘‘(ii) provide that if the employee of 24
the Administration or of the private sector 25
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entity (as the case may be) fails to carry 1
out the agreement, such employee shall be 2
liable to the United States for payment of 3
all expenses of the assignment, unless such 4
failure was for good and sufficient reason, 5
as determined by the Administrator; and 6
‘‘(iii) contain language ensuring that 7
such employee of the Administration or of 8
the private sector entity (as the case may 9
be) does not improperly use predecisional 10
or draft deliberative information that such 11
employee may be privy to or aware of re-12
lated to Administration programing, budg-13
eting, resourcing, acquisition, or procure-14
ment for the benefit or advantage of the 15
private sector entity. 16
‘‘(B) T
REATMENT.—An amount for which 17
an employee is liable under subparagraph (A) 18
shall be treated as a debt due the United 19
States. 20
‘‘(C) W
AIVER.—The Administrator may 21
waive, in whole or in part, collection of a debt 22
described in subparagraph (B) based on a de-23
termination that the collection would be against 24
equity and good conscience and not in the best 25
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interests of the United States, after taking into 1
account any indication of fraud, misrepresenta-2
tion, fault, or lack of good faith on the part of 3
the employee concerned. 4
‘‘(3) T
ERMINATION.—An assignment under this 5
subsection may, at any time and for any reason, be 6
terminated by the Administration or the private-sec-7
tor entity concerned, as the case may be. 8
‘‘(4) D
URATION.— 9
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An assignment under 10
this subsection shall be for a period of not less 11
than 90 days and not more than 2 years, re-12
newable up to a total of three years. An em-13
ployee of the Administration may not be as-14
signed under this subsection for more than a 15
total of 3 years inclusive of all such assign-16
ments. 17
‘‘(B) E
XTENSION.—An assignment under 18
this subsection may be for a period in excess of 19
2 years, but not more than 3 years, if the Ad-20
ministrator determines that such assignment is 21
necessary to meet critical mission or program 22
requirements. 23
‘‘(5) P
OLICIES AND PROCEDURES .— 24
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‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—The Administrator 1
shall establish policies and procedures relating 2
to assignments under this subsection. 3
‘‘(B) E
LEMENTS.—Policies and procedures 4
established pursuant to subparagraph (A) shall 5
address the following: 6
‘‘(i) The nature and elements of writ-7
ten agreements with participants in assign-8
ments under this subsection. 9
‘‘(ii) Criteria for making such assign-10
ments, including the needs of the Adminis-11
tration relating thereto. 12
‘‘(iii) The manner in which the Ad-13
ministration will oversee such assignments, 14
in particular with respect to paragraphs 15
(2)(A)(iii), (7)(C), and (7)(D). 16
‘‘(iv) Criteria for issuing waivers. 17
‘‘(v) The manner in which expenses 18
under paragraph (2)(A)(ii) would be deter-19
mined. 20
‘‘(vi) Guidance for participants in 21
such assignments. 22
‘‘(vii) Mission Directorate, Office, and 23
organizational structure to implement and 24
manage such assignments. 25
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‘‘(viii) Any other necessary policies, 1
procedures, or guidelines to ensure such 2
assignments comply with all relevant statu-3
tory authorities and ethics rules, and effec-4
tively contribute to one or more of the Ad-5
ministration’s missions. 6
‘‘(C) I
NHERENTLY GOVERNMENTAL AC -7
TIVITIES.—Assignments made under this sub-8
section shall not have responsibilities or per-9
form duties or decision making regarding Ad-10
ministration activities that are inherently gov-11
ernmental, pursuant to section 7.500 of title 12
48, Code of Federal Regulations, and Office of 13
Management and Budget review. 14
‘‘(6) S
TATUS OF FEDERAL EMPLOYEES AS -15
SIGNED TO PRIVATE SECTOR ENTITIES .— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—An employee of the 17
Administration who is assigned to a private sec-18
tor entity under this subsection shall be consid-19
ered, during the period of such assignment, to 20
be on detail to a regular work assignment in 21
the Administration for all purposes. The written 22
agreement established under paragraph (2)(A) 23
shall address the specific terms and conditions 24
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•S 933 IS
related to such employee’s continued status as 1
a Federal employee. 2
‘‘(B) C
ERTIFICATION.—In establishing a 3
temporary assignment of an employee of the 4
Administration to a private sector entity, the 5
Administrator shall certify that such temporary 6
assignment shall not have an adverse or nega-7
tive impact on the mission of the Administra-8
tion or organizational capabilities associated 9
with such assignment. 10
‘‘(7) T
ERMS AND CONDITIONS FOR PRIVATE 11
SECTOR EMPLOYEES .—An employee of a private sec-12
tor entity who is assigned to the Administration 13
under this subsection— 14
‘‘(A) shall continue to receive pay and ben-15
efits from the private sector entity from which 16
such employee is assigned and shall not receive 17
pay or benefits from the Administration, except 18
as provided in subparagraph (B); 19
‘‘(B) is deemed to be an employee of the 20
Administration for the purposes of— 21
‘‘(i) chapters 73 and 81 of title 5; 22
‘‘(ii) sections 201, 203, 205, 207, 23
208, 209, 603, 606, 607, 643, 654, 1905, 24
and 1913 of title 18, except that such sec-25
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tion 209 does not apply to any salary, or 1
contribution or supplementation of salary 2
made pursuant to subparagraph (A) of this 3
paragraph; 4
‘‘(iii) sections 1343, 1344, and 5
1349(b) of title 31; 6
‘‘(iv) chapter 171 of title 28 (com-7
monly known as the ‘Federal Tort Claims 8
Act’) and any other Federal tort liability 9
statute; 10
‘‘(v) the Ethics in Government Act of 11
1978; and 12
‘‘(vi) chapter 21 of title 41; 13
‘‘(C) shall not have access to any trade se-14
crets or any other nonpublic information which 15
is of commercial value to the private sector en-16
tity from which such employee is assigned; 17
‘‘(D) may not perform work that is consid-18
ered inherently governmental in nature, in ac-19
cordance with paragraph (5)(C); and 20
‘‘(E) may not be used to circumvent— 21
‘‘(i) section 1710 of title 41, United 22
States Code; or 23
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•S 933 IS
‘‘(ii) any limitation or restriction on 1
the size of the Administration’s civil serv-2
ant workforce. 3
‘‘(8) A
DDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS .—The Ad-4
ministrator shall ensure that— 5
‘‘(A) the normal duties and functions of an 6
employee of the Administration who is assigned 7
to a private sector entity under this subsection 8
can be reasonably performed by other employ-9
ees of the Administration without the perma-10
nent transfer or reassignment of other per-11
sonnel of the Administration; 12
‘‘(B) normal duties and functions of such 13
other employees of the Administration are not, 14
as a result of and during the course of such 15
temporary assignment, performed or augmented 16
by contractor personnel in violation of section 17
1710 of title 41; and 18
‘‘(C) not more than 2 percent of the Ad-19
ministration’s civil servant workforce may par-20
ticipate in an assignment under this subsection 21
at the same time. 22
‘‘(9) C
ONFLICTS OF INTEREST .—The Adminis-23
trator shall implement a system to identify, mitigate, 24
and manage any conflicts of interests that may arise 25
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•S 933 IS
as a result of an employee’s assignment under this 1
subsection. 2
‘‘(10) P
ROHIBITION AGAINST CHARGING CER -3
TAIN COSTS TO THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT .—A 4
private-sector entity may not charge the Administra-5
tion or any other agency of the Federal Government, 6
as direct or indirect costs under a Federal contract, 7
the costs of pay or benefits paid by the entity to an 8
employee assigned to the Administration under this 9
subsection for the period of the assignment con-10
cerned. 11
‘‘(11) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—In carrying out this 12
subsection, the Administrator shall take into consid-13
eration— 14
‘‘(A) the question of the manner in which 15
assignments under this subsection might best 16
be used to help meet the needs of the Adminis-17
tration with respect to the training of employ-18
ees; and 19
‘‘(B) as applicable, areas of particular pri-20
vate sector expertise, such as cybersecurity. 21
‘‘(12) NASA 
REPORTING.— 22
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than April 23
30 of each year, the Administrator shall submit 24
to the Committee on Science, Space, and Tech-25
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nology of the House of Representatives and the 1
Committee on Commerce, Science, and Trans-2
portation of the Senate a report summarizing 3
the implementation of this subsection. 4
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—Each report under sub-5
paragraph (A) shall include, with respect to the 6
annual period to which such report relates, the 7
following: 8
‘‘(i) Information relating to the total 9
number of employees of private sector enti-10
ties assigned to the Administration, and 11
the total number of employees of the Ad-12
ministration assigned to private sector en-13
tities. 14
‘‘(ii) A brief description and assess-15
ment of the talent management benefits 16
evidenced from such assignments, as well 17
as any identified strategic human capital 18
and operational challenges, including the 19
following: 20
‘‘(I) An identification of the 21
names of the private sector entities to 22
and from which employees were as-23
signed. 24
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•S 933 IS
‘‘(II) A complete listing of posi-1
tions such employees were assigned to 2
and from. 3
‘‘(III) An identification of as-4
signed roles and objectives of such as-5
signments. 6
‘‘(IV) Information relating to the 7
durations of such assignments. 8
‘‘(V) Information relating to as-9
sociated pay grades and levels. 10
‘‘(iii) An assessment of impacts of 11
such assignments on the Administration 12
workforce and workforce culture. 13
‘‘(iv) An identification of the number 14
of Administration staff and budgetary re-15
sources required to implement this sub-16
section. 17
‘‘(13) F
EDERAL ETHICS.—Nothing in this sub-18
section shall affect existing Federal ethics rules ap-19
plicable to Federal personnel. 20
‘‘(14) GAO 
REPORTING.— 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Not later than 3 years 22
after the date of the enactment of this sub-23
section, the Comptroller General of the United 24
States shall submit to the Committee on 25
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•S 933 IS
Science, Space, and Technology of the House of 1
Representatives and the Committee on Com-2
merce, Science, and Transportation of the Sen-3
ate a report summarizing the implementation of 4
this subsection. 5
‘‘(B) C
ONTENTS.—The report under sub-6
paragraph (A) shall include the following: 7
‘‘(i) A review of the implementation of 8
this subsection, according to law and the 9
Administration policies and procedures es-10
tablished for assignments under this sub-11
section. 12
‘‘(ii) Information relating to the ex-13
tent to which such assignments adhere to 14
best practices relating to public-private tal-15
ent exchange programs. 16
‘‘(iii) A determination as to whether 17
there should be limitations on the number 18
of individuals participating in such assign-19
ments. 20
‘‘(iv) Information relating to the ex-21
tent to which the Administration complies 22
with statutory requirements and ethics 23
rules, and appropriately handles potential 24
conflicts of interest and access to non-25
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•S 933 IS
public information with respect to such as-1
signments. 2
‘‘(v) Information relating to the extent 3
to which such assignments effectively con-4
tribute to 1 or more of the Administra-5
tion’s missions. 6
‘‘(vi) Information relating to Adminis-7
tration resources, including employee time, 8
dedicated to administering such assign-9
ments, and whether such resources are suf-10
ficient for such administration.’’. 11
SEC. 809. MENTORING. 12
(a) B
RIEFING.—Not later than 180 days after the 13
date of the enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall 14
provide the appropriate committees of Congress with a 15
briefing on existing NASA-wide mentoring programs that 16
are focused in whole or in part on ensuring a robust pipe-17
line for NASA’s civil servant workforce, for early-career, 18
mid-level, and senior-level employees at all NASA Centers 19
and NASA Headquarters. 20
(b) C
ONSIDERATIONS.—As part of the briefing re-21
quired by subsection (a), the Administrator may consider 22
the merits of consolidating existing, disparate programs 23
into a single, unified employee development program. 24
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SEC. 810. DRINKING WATER WELL REPLACEMENT FOR 1
CHINCOTEAGUE, VIRGINIA. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-3
sion of law, the Administrator may enter into an agree-4
ment, as appropriate, with the Town of Chincoteague, Vir-5
ginia, for a period of up to 5 years, for reimbursement 6
of the Town of Chincoteague’s costs directly associated 7
with the development of a plan for removal of drinking 8
water wells currently situated on NASA-administered 9
property and the establishment of alternative drinking 10
water wells which are located on property under the ad-11
ministrative control, either through lease, ownership, or 12
easement, of the Town of Chincoteague. Such agreement 13
shall, to the extent practicable, include the three remain-14
ing wells to be removed and relocated, the location of the 15
site to which such wells would be relocated or are planned 16
to be relocated, and a current estimated cost of the reloca-17
tion, including for the purchase, lease, or use of additional 18
property, engineering, design, permitting, and construc-19
tion. 20
(b) S
UBMISSION TOCONGRESS.—Not later than 18 21
months after the date of the enactment of this Act, the 22
Administrator, in coordination with the heads or other ap-23
propriate representatives of relevant entities, shall submit 24
to the appropriate committees of Congress the agreement 25
under subsection (a). 26
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SEC. 811. PASSENGER CARRIER USE FOR ASTRONAUT 1
TRANSPORTATION. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subchapter III of chapter 201 of 3
title 51, United States Code, is amended by adding at the 4
end the following: 5
‘‘§ 20150. Passenger carrier use for astronaut trans-6
portation 7
‘‘(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 8
‘‘(1) G
OVERNMENT ASTRONAUT ; INTER-9
NATIONAL PARTNER ASTRONAUT ; SPACE FLIGHT 10
PARTICIPANT; SPACE SUPPORT VEHICLE .—The 11
terms ‘government astronaut’, ‘international partner 12
astronaut’, ‘space flight participant’, and ‘space sup-13
port vehicle’ have the meanings given such terms in 14
section 50902. 15
‘‘(2) M
ISSION.—The term ‘mission’ means an 16
assignment to a space support vehicle of 1 or 17
more— 18
‘‘(A) government astronauts in the course 19
of their employment; or 20
‘‘(B) space flight participants. 21
‘‘(3) O
FFICIAL PURPOSE.—With respect to 22
transportation, the term ‘official purpose’ means 23
transportation necessary for post-mission activities, 24
including medical research, monitoring, diagnosis, 25
and treatment of a government astronaut or space 26
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flight participant before receiving post-mission med-1
ical clearance to operate a motor vehicle. 2
‘‘(4) P
ASSENGER CARRIER .—The term ‘pas-3
senger carrier’ means a passenger motor vehicle, air-4
craft, boat, vessel, or other similar means of trans-5
portation that is owned or leased by the United 6
States Government. 7
‘‘(b) A
UTHORITY.— 8
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Administrator may au-9
thorize the use of a passenger carrier to transport 10
a government astronaut or space flight participant 11
between the residence of the individual and various 12
locations if— 13
‘‘(A) such transportation is provided for an 14
official purpose; and 15
‘‘(B) the Chief of the Astronaut Office has 16
approved, in writing, post-mission transpor-17
tation of government astronauts and space 18
flight participants under this section. 19
‘‘(2) M
AINTENANCE, OPERATION, AND RE-20
PAIR.—The Administrator may maintain, operate, 21
and repair 1 or more passenger carriers for the pur-22
pose of providing transportation pursuant to the au-23
thority provided in paragraph (1). 24
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‘‘(c) REIMBURSEMENT.—Transportation under sub-1
section (b)(1) of an international partner astronaut or a 2
space flight participant who is not an employee of the 3
United States Government shall be subject to reimburse-4
ment to the Treasury. 5
‘‘(d) R
EGULATIONS.—The Administrator shall pro-6
mulgate such regulations as are necessary to carry out this 7
section. 8
‘‘(e) A
PPLICABILITY OFSECTION1344 OFTITLE 9
31.—In carrying out subsection (b), the Administrator 10
may expend funds available to the Administration, by ap-11
propriation or otherwise, notwithstanding section 1344(a) 12
of title 31.’’. 13
(b) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 14
for chapter 201 of title 51, United States Code, is amend-15
ed by inserting after the item relating to section 20149 16
the following: 17
‘‘20150. Passenger carrier use for astronaut transportation.’’. 
SEC. 812. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION. 
18
Nothing in this Act may be construed to alter or limit 19
NASA’s scientific integrity policies. 20
Æ 
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