US is easing export restrictions on commercial space companies

18/10/2024 6:06

        The Biden administration is easing
        export restrictions on U.S. commercial space companies to ship
        certain satellite and spacecraft-related items to allies and
        partners on Thursday, two people familiar with the matter said.
        
        The changes are intended to make it easier for the growing
        U.S. commercial space industry to expand sales while also
        protecting national security and foreign policy interests.
        
        U.S. space companies like Elon Musk's SpaceX, and large
        defense contractors with space units like Lockheed Martin
        , L3Harris Technologies and Boeing, could
        benefit from the new rules.
        
        Certain items involving remote sensing spacecraft or
        space-based logistics assembly, and servicing spacecraft will no
        longer need licenses for shipment to Australia, Canada, and the
        United Kingdom, one person said.
        
        The rules could also help the U.S. push ahead with the
        trilateral AUKUS security pact between Britain, the U.S. and
        Australia formed in 2021 to respond to China's growing power in
        the Indo-Pacific region. Part of the pact is focused on
        technology sharing.
        
        Some less sensitive satellite and spacecraft parts and
        components will no longer require licenses for shipment to over
        40 countries, the person said. The countries include Canada,
        Australia, Japan, South Korea and most of the European Union,
        the second person said.
        
        In addition, the Commerce Department will do away with
        license requirements for the least sensitive items like
        electrical connectors for most of the world, but not countries
        of concern like Russia and China, the people said.
        
        The changes will be made in new rules due out from the
        Commerce Department on Thursday, the first person familiar with
        the matter said.
        
        The rules come in response to an advanced notice of proposed
        rulemaking from nearly five years ago and a December 2023
        National Space Council request.
        
        After the 2019 notice came out, SpaceX urged the US to
        consider ways to "streamline export control regulations for US
        commercial space industry to lower administrative burden,
        decrease regulatory compliance costs and increase exports
        thereby bolstering the US space commercial sector and industrial
        base."
        
        The easing is expected to help expand SpaceX’s footprint
        abroad as it develops Starship, the company’s reusable
        next-generation rocket.
        
        SpaceX and officials from the Pentagon and Australia are
        
        discussing plans
        
        to test-land a Starship rocket off the coast of Australia
        and bring it ashore for recovery, Reuters reported in July. The
        Starship arrangement could open the door to a greater SpaceX
        presence in Australia.