{"id":18875,"date":"2017-07-17T18:18:07","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp-productionenv-bjg9h2g2bgg5b8aa.southeastasia-01.azurewebsites.net\/news\/congress-toes-a-cautious-line-on-support-for-commercial-space-partnerships\/"},"modified":"2017-07-17T18:18:07","modified_gmt":"2017-07-17T10:18:07","slug":"congress-toes-a-cautious-line-on-support-for-commercial-space-partnerships","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/news\/congress-toes-a-cautious-line-on-support-for-commercial-space-partnerships\/","title":{"rendered":"Congress toes a cautious line on support for commercial space partnerships"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Axiom
An artist\u2019s conception shows Axiom Space\u2019s commercial space station. (Axiom Space via Vimeo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Members of Congress spoke to space industry leaders on Capitol Hill last week to show their support for the private sector, but both sides expressed frustrations as well.<\/p>\n

At the sixth annual Future Space conference, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, the Texas Republican who chairs the House Subcommittee on Space, spoke highly of private partnerships in space.<\/p>\n

He referred to the promise of asteroid mining twice during his talk, which is good news for Planetary Resources, a space startup based in Redmond, Wash. But Babin also told the gathering of more than 100 space industry professionals that the federal government should be cautious about backing private ventures.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe must ensure that any public-private partnerships don\u2019t lead to dependence or monopoly,\u201d he said during his opening keynote. He also said that if the government invests in a space venture that\u2019s \u201cnot worthy,\u201d it could corrupt the market altogether.<\/p>\n

U.S. Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., also said he\u2019s interested in space mining and gave a shout-out to the Evergreen State\u2019s aerospace community. \u201cWe are quickly gaining a reputation as the Silicon Valley of space,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Kilmer was more effusive than Babin about public-private partnerships, but he voiced his own frustrations \u2013 about governmental gridlock rather than the private sector.<\/p>\n

Although Congress has been generally supportive of giving NASA a bigger budget, progress has stalled in the past due to budget sequestration. \u201cIt\u2019s Latin for \u2018stupid,\u2019 he joked.<\/p>\n

The American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act, introduced last month, is a step in the right direction, Kilmer said. The legislation would shift most of the federal government\u2019s authority for overseeing commercial space activities from the Federal Aviation Administration to the Commerce Department\u2019s Office of Space Commerce.<\/p>\n

Kilmer said the act encourages transparent regulation for commercial space companies.<\/p>\n

Babin also supports the bill, saying it would help ensure that America has a strong space industry. \u201cI believe strongly that this bill will provide American companies with the certainty that they need to operate in space,\u201d Babin said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Space industry executives Mike Gold, Brad Cheetham, Michael L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda and Erika Wagner take part in a panel discussion moderated by former NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver at the podium. (Photo courtesy of Future Space Leaders via Twitter)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Space industry representatives also had their say.<\/p>\n

Michael L\u00f3pez-Alegr\u00eda is a former NASA astronaut who now serves as director of business development at Axiom Space, a company that wants to build a commercially funded space station. He called on the federal government to \u201cdemocratize access to space\u201d by retiring the International Space Station and letting private enterprise build the station\u2019s successors in low Earth orbit.<\/p>\n

The United States and its international partners have agreed to keep the station in operation until at least 2024.<\/p>\n

During a discussion about public-private partnerships for national security, panelists said one reason for the federal government\u2019s reluctance to support private ventures is that space startups aren\u2019t narrowing their focus enough, leading to startup fatigue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe need to be clear about where we\u2019re investing, and how commercial is investing,\u201d said Kay Sears, vice president of strategy and business development at Lockheed Martin Space Systems. \u201cWe can\u2019t have duplicates.\u201d<\/p>\n

Russ Matijevich, vice president of strategic development for satellite operator Hawkeye360, said startups sometimes think they can compete broadly, but actually need to \u201cfocus on the market they want to capture.\u201d The panelists pointed to SpaceX as a prime example, saying that it\u2019s a launch business, not an all-space business.<\/p>\n

Should space startups be concerned about the grumbling? Eric Stallmer, president of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation, doesn\u2019t think so. He believes the GOP-led Congress has been very supportive of space commercialization.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think they\u2019ve been prudent about the way they have been spending their dollars, but I think that investment will continue, especially as they see the benefit of the near-term investment as it starts to pay off,\u201d he told GeekWire.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An artist\u2019s conception shows Axiom Space\u2019s commercial space station. (Axiom Space via Vimeo) WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 Members of Congress spoke to space industry leaders on Capitol Hill last week to show their support for the private sector, but both sides expressed frustrations as well. At the sixth annual Future Space conference, U.S. Rep. Brian Babin, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[5365,4338,291,5366,5367,5368,190,4820,4467],"class_list":["post-18875","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","tag-brian-babin","tag-commercial-spaceflight-federation","tag-commercial-space","tag-derek-kilmer","tag-future-space","tag-michael-lopez-alegria","tag-nasa","tag-planetary-resources","tag-politics"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18875"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18875"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18875\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18875"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18875"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/starpath.global\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18875"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}