Industry Urges Full Funding of the Office of Space Commerce
Letter Sent to House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee Leadership
A letter written by a group of commercial space industry companies and associations has been delivered today to Representatives Hal Rogers (R-KY) and Grace Meng (D-NY), the Chair and Ranking Member respectively of the House Appropriations Committee Subcommittee on Commerce, Science, Justice and Related Agencies, concerning funding for the NOAA Office of Space Commerce.
Helping the U.S. space industry operate safely in an increasingly congested space domain ensures space-based services like broadband internet and weather forecasting are available to the American people."
Industry Association Letter
The signatories of the letter urge the committee leadership to appropriate sufficient funding for the Office of Space Commerce (OSC) in the Fiscal Year 2026 appropriations bill. Specifically, they call for the committee to fund OSC at $65M, the Fiscal Year 2025 appropriated level, and urge the Subcommittee to ensure continued execution of funds appropriated to OSC in Fiscal Year 2025.
The proposed NOAA OSC appropriation is $10 million, which would essentially eliminate funding for TraCSS and other programs. Coordination of space traffic would possibly be given back to the Department of Defense, or farmed out to commercial entities.
"One of OSC’s most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to U.S. satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration’s role in air traffic control for the U.S. airline industry. Helping the U.S. space industry operate safely in an increasingly congested space domain ensures space-based services like broadband internet and weather forecasting are available to the American people," the letter states. "Likewise, a safe space operating environment is vital for continuity of national security space missions such as early warning of missile attacks on deployed U.S. military forces. Without funding for space traffic coordination, U.S. commercial and government satellite operators would face greater risks – putting critical missions in harm’s way, raising the cost of doing business, and potentially driving U.S. industry to relocate overseas.
"Moreover, failure to fund OSC adequately risks reverting the space traffic coordination mission to the Department of Defense despite longstanding U.S. policy favoring civil oversight. Successive administrations have recognized on a bipartisan basis that space traffic coordination is a global, commercial-facing function best managed by a civilian agency. Keeping space traffic coordination within the Department of Commerce preserves military resources for core defense missions and prevents the conflation of space safety with military control – critical to U.S. leadership in setting international standards and norms for space activities."
The letter is signed by:
The Aerospace Industries Association
AIAA
The Commercial Space Federation
The National Security Space Association
The Commercial SSA Coalition
The Satellite Industry Association
The Space Data Association