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New Era Outlined in U.S. Space Policy
A national space agenda based on competition and national pride — the space race as it has been called — fits bygone times, according to the new National Space Policy statement released by the Obama administration on June 28. The new era outlined in the 14-page document calls for space-venturing nations to embrace shared principles of responsibility, peace, transparency, no claims of national sovereignty, and recognizing "purposeful interference" with another nation's space systems is an infringement of that nation's rights and grounds for self-defense or deterrence.
U.S. leadership in space is expected to be maintained through space-related research, assured access to space (e.g., using American-manufactured vehicles for payload launches), enhanced spaced-based global positioning, navigation satellite and timing systems, quality of space professional workforce and interagency cooperation.
The policy statement outlines numerous guidelines related to international, environmental, radiofrequency spectrum power, sector (commercial and civil), and space use issues as well. As a result, the brief policy statement may help state and regional space-related TBED strategies focus or refocus investment priorities going forward in areas like identifying research thrusts, exploiting new space-related technologies, and new commercial space opportunities.
The National Space Policy of the United States of America is available at: http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/national_space_policy_6-28-10.pdf.