Nicknames SPACE Act of 2015 Public law Pub.L. 114–90 | Effective 25 November 2015 | |
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Other short titles U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015 Long title To facilitate a pro-growth environment for the developing commercial space industry by encouraging private sector investment and creating more stable and predictable regulatory conditions, and for other purposes Enacted by the 114th United States Congress | ||
The United States Government updated US commercial space legislation with the passage of the Spurring Private Aerospace Competitiveness and Entrepreneurship (SPACE) Act of 2015 in November 2015.
The update to US law explicitly allows US citizens to "engage in the commercial exploration and exploitation of 'space resources' [including ... water and minerals]." The right does not extend to biological life, so anything that is alive may not be exploited commercially. The Act further asserts that "the United States does not [(by this Act)] assert sovereignty, or sovereign or exclusive rights or jurisdiction over, or the ownership of, any celestial body." Some scholars argue that the United States recognizing ownership of space resources is an act of sovereignty, and that the act violates the Outer Space Treaty.
The SPACE Act includes the extension of indemnification of US launch providers for extraordinary catastrophic third-party losses of a failed launch through 2025, while the previous indemnification law was scheduled to expire in 2016. The Act also extends, through 2025, the "learning period" restrictions which limit the ability of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to enact regulations regarding the safety of spaceflight participants.
Indemnification for extraordinary third-party losses has, as of 2015, been a component of US space law for over 25 years, and during this time, "has never been invoked in any commercial launch mishap."
Legislative history
Part of the origin of the law lies in the proposed Asteroids Act introduced by Representatives Bill Posey (R-FL) and Derek Kilmer (D-WI) in July 2014. That act was supported by lobbying efforts by Planetary Resources, a Washington-based company that hopes to commercially mine asteroids. Additional lobbying by Deep Space Industries and Bigelow Resources, two other companies with commercial interests in space, helped the proposed Asteroids Act along, which was later rolled into the SPACE Act.
The House of Representatives passed the legislation in May 2015 and the Senate subsequently passed similar legislation.— The legislation was reconciled between the House of Representatives and the Senate and moved to the executive branch for signing or vetoing before 20 November 2015. The President signed the legislation into law on 25 November 2015.