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.
Congress funded the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office at $1,800,000 and the Office of Space Commerce at $2,300,000 and rejected the proposed combination of the offices.
Parts of the Commerce Department’s fiscal year 2021 budget proposal were not released with the rest of the White House budget request on 2020-02-10, and the Departmental Management section covering the Office of Space Commerce was released by 2020-02-14.
The fiscal year 2021 budget proposal seeks to combine the Office of Space Commerce with the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office and move the combined office from NOAA to directly under the Secretary of Commerce.
The U.S. Commerce Department is requesting a larger budget for its Office of Space Commerce in fiscal year 2021 to work on space traffic management activities.
The fiscal year 2021 funding request for the Office of Space Commerce would fund hiring 13 people, roughly doubling the office’s size.
The Commerce Department is seeking $15,000,000 for the combined Office of Space Commerce and Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs in fiscal year 2021, up from the 2020 request of $10,000,000.
In 2019, the Office of Space Commerce and the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office each received $1,800,000.
The final fiscal year 2020 spending bill rejected the proposed merger of the two Commerce offices and provided only $500,000 in additional funding for the Office of Space Commerce.
The Commerce Department requested $10,000,000 in its fiscal year 2020 budget for the combined Office of Space Commerce and Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs, with much of the additional funding intended for space traffic management planning.
The fiscal year 2020 spending bill directed the Office of Space Commerce to use the additional $500,000 for an independent study by the National Academy of Public Administration on which organization should have civil space traffic management responsibilities and related funding and regulatory issues.
Patrick Sullivan, deputy director of the Office of Space Commerce, supports improving data about the size of the space economy and working closely with multiple bureaus to analyze that value.
The Senate Appropriations Committee twice invited senior officials from the Commerce Department to offer public testimony on establishing an Office of Space Commerce within the Office of the Secretary, and those officials declined to testify both times.
The Commerce Department’s fiscal year 2020 budget proposal sought to merge the Office of Space Commerce and CRSRA and place them under the Office of the Secretary of Commerce with a combined budget of $10,000,000.
The Office of Space Commerce received $500,000 more in the minibus than it received in fiscal year 2019.
A minibus spending bill released 2019-12-16 provides $2,300,000 for the Office of Space Commerce and $1,800,000 for the Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs office.
The appropriations bill rejected the Commerce Department’s proposal to merge the two offices and instead kept the Office of Space Commerce and CRSRA separate and located within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The $500,000 increase for the Office of Space Commerce in the minibus was intended to support the independent study of the proposed transfer of space traffic management responsibilities.
The Office of Space Commerce is implementing an open-architecture data repository designed to combine Air Force tracking data with data from other sources to identify potential close approaches.
The Office of Space Commerce requested $10,000,000 to create a new organization for space traffic management starting in fiscal year 2020.
Kevin O’Connell, director of the Office of Space Commerce, set a goal to transition commercial conjunction analysis and notification to the Department of Commerce by 2024.