Committee favors bill to codify NASA’s commercial smallsat data program
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Summary
The committee voted to favorably report HR 2600, the ASCEND Act, which would formally authorize NASA’s commercial smallsat data acquisition program (CSDA). Sponsors said the program supplements NASA observations with cost-effective commercial satellite data useful for disaster response, agriculture, and climate science.
The House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology favorably reported HR 2600, the ASCEND Act, which would authorize a commercial satellite data acquisition program within NASA’s Science Mission Directorate to acquire and use commercial small-satellite data for Earth science and applied research.
“Through commercial licensing, federal agencies and researchers gain access to high quality data that supports wildfire management, agricultural monitoring, disaster preparedness, reforestation, and more,” Representative Hurd said when he introduced the bill. He described the 2017 commercial smallsat data acquisition pilot (CSDA) as a successful model and said the bill would require an annual report to Congress describing implementation, data types acquired, sources, and uses.
Supporters said the program makes NASA data sets more flexible and cost-effective, and witnesses and members entered letters from Planet Labs, Commercial Space Federation, and Maxar Intelligence into the record. Representative Gillen and other members described real-world uses, including post-Superstorm Sandy response in New York and wildfire monitoring in western states. There were no prefiled amendments.
Chairman Babin moved that the committee report HR 2600 to the House with a favorable recommendation; the motion carried by voice vote and the bill was ordered favorably reported without objection. The transcript does not include a recorded roll-call vote or implementation funding details.