The U.S. Office of Space Commerce (OSC), operating within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) which is part of the Department of Commerce, is the primary entity responsible for fostering the economic growth and technological advancement of the U.S. commercial space industry. Its key activities include policy advocacy, regulation of private remote sensing space systems, and the provision of space situational awareness services, notably through the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS). OSC works with various government agencies like NASA and international organizations such as ESA to promote U.S. space commerce and ensure compliance with regulations. The OSC aims to advance U.S. leadership in the global commercial space sector by removing regulatory barriers and promoting U.S. space products/services.
All verified mentions of this organization in source documents.
A House spending bill passed in July 2020 rejected the Commerce Department’s $15,000,000 Office of Space Commerce request pending a final report requested by a fiscal year 2020 spending bill to examine which agency was best suited for civil space traffic management.
Space Policy Directive 3, signed in June 2018, called for the Commerce Department, through its Office of Space Commerce, to take on civil space traffic management responsibilities then handled by the Department of Defense.
The Commerce Department requested $15,000,000 for the Office of Space Commerce in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal, with most of that funding intended for space traffic management.
Kevin O’Connell is the director of the Office of Space Commerce and led Commerce planning that included developing an open-architecture data repository to host space situational awareness data from government and commercial sources.
The National Academy of Public Administration released a report on 2020-08-20 concluding that the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce was best suited to take on civil space traffic management and ranked it ahead of NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense.
The $500,000 funding increase for the Office of Space Commerce in 2020 was specifically earmarked for the NAPA study.
The Commerce Department requested $10,000,000 for the Office of Space Commerce in 2020 but received $2,300,000 for that office in 2020.
The $2,300,000 provided to the Office of Space Commerce in 2020 was $500,000 more than its 2019 funding.
The Commerce Department requested $15,000,000 for the Office of Space Commerce in its 2021 budget proposal, with most of that funding intended for space traffic management.
Space Policy Directive 3, issued by the White House in 2018, directed that civil space traffic management responsibilities be assigned to the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce.
The Office of Space Commerce achieved an average score of 2.9 across all factors in the NAPA assessment.
The administration's fiscal year 2021 budget proposal requested $15,000,000 for the combined Office of Space Commerce and CRSRA.
The report accompanying the House bill rejected the proposed merger of CRSRA into the Office of Space Commerce and the associated $15,000,000 budget increase and requested delivery of a National Academy of Public Administration study on the topic.
The spending bill approved by the House Appropriations Committee on 2020-07-14 rejects the administration proposal to combine the Office of Space Commerce with Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs and to increase its budget to perform space traffic management work.
The bill includes $1,800,000 for the Office of Space Commerce within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
Congress provided $1,800,000 for NOAA’s CRSRA and $2,300,000 for the Office of Space Commerce instead of the requested $10,000,000 in the 2020 appropriations process.
The Commerce Department sought to combine the Office of Space Commerce with NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) office in its 2020 budget proposal and requested $10,000,000 for the combined office.
In its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal submitted in February, the Commerce Department again sought to combine the Office of Space Commerce and CRSRA and requested $15,000,000 with most of the additional funding intended to implement SPD-3.
The Commerce Department requested $15,000,000 for the Office of Space Commerce in its fiscal year 2021 budget proposal to support space traffic management work.
Congress rejected a $10,000,000 budget request for the Office of Space Commerce in fiscal year 2020 and directed the Commerce Department to undertake a study on the proposed transfer of space traffic management responsibilities.