Rockledge, Fla., June 14, 2013 (FSDC PR) — The Florida Space Development Council (FSDC), a chapter of the National Space Society, has written to the U.S. Department of State to voice opposition to proposed export-control rulemaking that would add commercial human spaceflight vehicles to a Department of Defense “munitions list” and thereby place onerous restrictions on their export from the U.S.
By Andrew Nelson
Chief Operating Officer,
XCOR Aerospace
Just a quick note while I have a moment to stop and reflect in the thick of NSRC 2013. Specifically, I want to address some new rules being proposed by the US State Department on export controls for manned suborbital space vehicles designed for commercial spaceflight.
At the end of May, the Department of State published a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (or NPRM) Rule 78 FR 31 444 (pdf)– that did a great thing. The DoS proposed a move of commercial satellites from the US Department of Defense (DoD) Munitions List to the Department of Commerce’s commerce control list (CCL). This is a great step for the industry. Since the time commercial satellites were placed on the munitions list in 1999, the commercial satellite industry was almost wiped out.
