Satellite/5G Spectrum Debates 'Intense,' Commerce Commercial Space Head Says

Administration debates over spectrum use for satellite vs. 5G "have been intense," Commerce Department Office of Space Commerce Director Kevin O'Connell said in Senate Commerce Committee testimony Wednesday. He said a worry on the space side is protecting taxpayer investments in federal capabilities like GPS and weather prediction via NOAA satellites, and Commerce wants to ensure the space community has an advocate while a 5G strategy is formulated.

O'Connell said commercial space operators are facing a "complex and competitive" regulatory landscape with countries with mature regulatory systems trying to update and modernize their rules while other countries try to gain advantage and market share. The U.S. needs to be more agile via regulatory revisions to retain its pre-eminence, he said. He said leaving his position within Commerce empty for more than a decade "should never be allowed to happen again."

With multiple agencies having statutory responsibility on space-related issues such as spectrum management and payload review, it's time for cross-agency work to align and simplify rules, O'Connell said. He said regulatory differences between nations need to be reconciled.

Commerce will be responsible for conjunction analyses and other space flight safety services for the commercial and civil operators by 2024, and it wants to create an open cloud architecture that would let researchers and others vet and validate sensors and analytic tools, O'Connell said. He said the agency is also considering how international partners might participate. He said since Commerce interacts with commercial space actors, it's sensible for it to be the lead agency on debris issues there.

With emerging space capabilities like in-orbit satellite servicing, it's a question of how U.S. regulators will handle such operations especially because a lot of countries have lighter regulatory regimes and are trying to attract business, O'Connell said. NASA is developing a Restore-L mission to refuel a U.S. Geological Survey satellite, but its ultimate goal is to transfer or license the technology and capabilities to the private sector rather than operate its own fleet of in-orbit servicing vehicles, NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said.

The U.S. needs to ensure it's the "international partner of choice" for other space-faring nations and the focal point for the growing global space commerce industry, said Senate Commerce Chairman Roger Wicker, R-Miss. He said the U.S. needs to remain the pre-eminent space-faring nation, particularly as China challenges U.S. leadership in space. Ranking member Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., questioned the proposed White House budget cutting International Space Station funding and other NASA programs and said Congress likely will reject most suggested cuts.