Sec. 1631. Sense of the Senate on resolution limits on commercial space imagery
324 words·~1 min read·
/bill/113/s/2410/pcs/section-1631·A research copy — for the controlling text, always check the official state or federal source. Not legal advice.
Congress makes the following findings: The Department of Defense and the security of the United States depend on the United States commercial space imaging industry for mapping, intelligence, battle damage assessment, coalition warfare, and humanitarian relief. The Department of Defense could benefit from the relaxation of the current limits on the resolution of the imagery that the United States commercial space imaging industry is permitted to sell because the industry will respond to larger market opportunities by increasing the quantity of spacecraft and the quality and diversity of the imagery and imagery-derived products the industry provides.
The Department of Defense has a need to protect some places and events from the collection and sale of high-resolution imagery. That need could be met through existing licensing and contractual authorities that either permit the government to exercise direct control of specific collection tasking and image dissemination or to restrict collection. Instead of using the approach described in paragraph (3), the United States commercial space imaging industry has been prohibited from selling imagery over the vast majority of the planet where there are no national security sensitivities.
Limits on the resolution of commercial space imaging have been relaxed somewhat in the past, but only when the United States commercial space imaging industry has faced competition from foreign providers of such imaging. It is the sense of the Senate that— the Secretary of Defense should support relaxation, as soon as practicable, of panchromatic, spectral, and infrared imagery resolution limits so that the United States commercial space imaging industry may promptly begin— to attract investment in new satellite capabilities; to design and build new satellites; and to create new processing capabilities, business strategies, and marketing capacity; and the Under Secretary of Defense for Policy should provide a recommendation to Congress by April 1, 2015, on the design and development of a flexible and dynamic capability to control the collection and sale of commercial space imagery to protect national security.