House bill would regulate bold commercial space missions — but not very closely
Today, the House of Representatives will vote on a bill that outlines how the government should oversee ambitious commercial missions in space — such as asteroid mining or sending private landers to other planets in the Solar System. Currently, there’s no government framework to supervise such missions, and this legislation could fill that regulatory gap. Yet, some experts say this bill is only a first step and that more comprehensive legislation may be needed to truly fix the uncertainty surrounding spaceflight regulation.
The bill — called the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act — gives the Commerce Department the authority to regulate how commercial companies do bold things in space, making sure they adhere to international...