Sec. 2605. Centers of Excellence for Space Situational Awareness
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Subject to appropriations, the Secretary shall award grants to eligible entities to establish 1 or more Centers of Excellence for Space Situational Awareness to advance scientific, technological, transdisciplinary, and policy research in space situational awareness. Each Center shall— conduct transdisciplinary research, development, and demonstration projects related to detecting, tracking, identifying, characterizing, modeling, and minimizing space safety, security, and sustainability risks to improve— space situational awareness and the development of open-architecture resources for improved space safety, security, and sustainability; the unique identification, tracking, classification, prediction, and modeling of orbital debris and space objects; the monitoring, quantification, assessment, modeling, and prediction of space operations and environmental threats and hazards, including in space collisions; peer exchange and documentation of evidence-based practices, policies, laws, and regulations related to orbital debris mitigation and remediation; and sharing, modeling, and curation of data related to orbital debris, space objects, and the environment of orbital debris and space objects; conduct policy research related to space safety, security, and sustainability so as to improve sharing of common data and legal standards related to orbital debris; leverage non-Federal sources of support to improve space situational awareness and minimize space safety, security, and sustainability risks; and draw on commercial capabilities and data, as appropriate.
To be eligible for a grant under this section, an entity shall be a consortium led by— an institution of higher education; or a nonprofit organization. The consortium referred to in paragraph
(1)may include 1 or more— commercial entities; Federal laboratories, including Department of Defense research laboratories; and other institutions of higher education or nonprofit organizations. In awarding grants under this section, the Secretary shall consider, at a minimum— the potential of a proposed Center— to improve the science and technology of space situational awareness; and to reduce the amount of space safety, security, and sustainability risks; and the commitment of financial support, advice, participation, and other contributions from non-Federal sources. A grant awarded under this section shall be awarded for a period of 5 years. There is authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section $20,000,000.