I don’t like the title of this piece. I don’t like that I have to write it. Yet I have to. Why? Because, based on their actions (not their words) it is becoming ever clearer that there is a faction in our national government that does not want our private citizens to open the High Frontier of space.
The most recent example is the White House National Space Council’s “Novel Space Activities Authorization and Supervision Framework.” Ostensibly created to “create an agile framework that can respond to changing needs as we scale to the future,” the December 2023 document is more a leash than a catalyst for the creative economic expansion of the newspace revolution now underway.
Clearly born out of the United States government response to international pressures to control what those crazy American disruptors might do in space, just look at the title for the tell. “Novel?” The document defines this term as referring to anything “not directly regulated under the current U.S. regulatory regime.” It may be true that American citizen space activities are considered “novel” from the global bureaucracy’s perspective, while government space projects and programs are considered routine, the baseline, and the standard. However, it is a poor choice of words for our own government to adopt this language. Words have meaning, and coming out the gate, labeling the space equivalent of the diverse and dynamic American private sector economy as “novel” is a bad sign.
The document admits it was “in part, developed and is being implemented to meet the nation’s international obligations as a State Party to the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, opened for signature on January 27, 1967 (Outer Space Treaty).” This motivation to respond to the Outer Space Treaty isunderstandable. But it is one thing to honor international…
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