The National Space Council has approved four recommendations that seek to introduce changes to commercial space regulations, SpaceNews reported Wednesday.Vice President Mike Pence, chair of the council, and other NSC members cleared the recommendations during their second public session Wednesday at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
The council’s first recommendation calls on the Transportation Department to streamline the space launch and re-entry licensing process by March 2019.
The council also suggested the consolidation of the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration’s commercial remote sensing regulatory affairs office and the space commerce office into a single body under the office of the Commerce Department’s secretary.
The council also asked the Commerce Department and the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to collaborate with the Federal Communications Commission to facilitate commercial space operations by developing measures designed to protect the radiofrequency spectrum.
The fourth recommendation also calls for Scott Pace, the council’s executive secretary, to work with other NSC members to come up with export control reform recommendations by the end of 2018.
The recommendations came two months after NASA formed a new advisory group to advise and inform the council on various space-related issues.
