The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs Office has lifted certain restrictions on commercial remote sensing satellite operations.
The Office of Space Commerce said Monday that Tier 3 restrictions on “most capable, unmatched commercial remote sensing systems” expired on July 19, three years after NOAA adopted a three-tier approach to licensing commercial remote sensing systems.
“We said these temporary restrictions would last no more than three years, and three years later, we lifted them. U.S. capabilities lead the world in this important market, and this licensing change will maintain that lead,” said NOAA Administrator Rick Spinrad.
NOAA reduced global imaging restrictions to permit imaging and distribution for all except less than 1 percent of the Earth’s surface, removed restrictions on non-Earth imaging and rapid revisit, as well as removed temporary conditions on X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar.
