A detailed review of space-related legislation in the ending session of Congress
Link here. The story can be summed up in one sentence that applies to everything this 118th Congress tried to do: Not much legislation was passed.
One piece of legislation that did pass however could have a major impact during the upcoming Trump administration in shutting down the federal red tape at the FAA that has been squelching the space industry:
The FY2025 bill [on national security] also extends the “learning period” that prohibits new FAA commercial human spaceflight regulations, and authority to provide third-party indemnification for commercial space launches and reentries, for three years each to January 1, 2028 and September 30, 2028 respectively. Those provisions wouldn’t ordinarily be in an NDAA, but it became clear that other legislation wouldn’t make it through and this was the best solution since the deadlines were near.
For the past three years, the FAA has essentially been violating this law by its strict regulation of SpaceX and others in developing new rockets. While Trump already has a great deal of legal power to cut a lot of red tape, the extension of the “learning period” gives him clear authority to do so. It even gives him the authority to tell the FAA that its odious Part 450 regulations do not apply to any rocket under development. And if he does so it will be backed by the clear bi-partisan approval of Congress, which despite its factional and partisan conflicts felt this learning period so important it united to get it past.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit.
The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
Link here. The story can be summed up in one sentence that applies to everything this 118th Congress tried to do: Not much legislation was passed.
One piece of legislation that did pass however could have a major impact during the upcoming Trump administration in shutting down the federal red tape at the FAA that has been squelching the space industry:
The FY2025 bill [on national security] also extends the “learning period” that prohibits new FAA commercial human spaceflight regulations, and authority to provide third-party indemnification for commercial space launches and reentries, for three years each to January 1, 2028 and September 30, 2028 respectively. Those provisions wouldn’t ordinarily be in an NDAA, but it became clear that other legislation wouldn’t make it through and this was the best solution since the deadlines were near.
For the past three years, the FAA has essentially been violating this law by its strict regulation of SpaceX and others in developing new rockets. While Trump already has a great deal of legal power to cut a lot of red tape, the extension of the “learning period” gives him clear authority to do so. It even gives him the authority to tell the FAA that its odious Part 450 regulations do not apply to any rocket under development. And if he does so it will be backed by the clear bi-partisan approval of Congress, which despite its factional and partisan conflicts felt this learning period so important it united to get it past.
On Christmas Eve 1968 three Americans became the first humans to visit another world. What they did to celebrate was unexpected and profound, and will be remembered throughout all human history. Genesis: the Story of Apollo 8, Robert Zimmerman's classic history of humanity's first journey to another world, tells that story, and it is now available as both an ebook and an audiobook, both with a foreword by Valerie Anders and a new introduction by Robert Zimmerman.
The print edition can be purchased at Amazon. from any other book seller, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. The ebook is available everywhere for $5.99 (before discount) at amazon, or direct from my ebook publisher, ebookit. If you buy it from ebookit you don't support the big tech companies and the author gets a bigger cut much sooner.
The audiobook is also available at all these vendors, and is also free with a 30-day trial membership to Audible.
"Not simply about one mission, [Genesis] is also the history of America's quest for the moon... Zimmerman has done a masterful job of tying disparate events together into a solid account of one of America's greatest human triumphs."--San Antonio Express-News
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