The same House Science Committee press release that notes the demise of HR 3752 has a bit of good news. The Senate passed by unanimous consent late Tuesday HR 5245, a bill that would extend commercial launch indemnification for five years. This is of considerable interest to the existing commercial launch industry, which has claimed that the loss of such protection would put them at a competitive disadvantage versus international competitors (a claim treated with skepticism by some on Capitol Hill, hence the provision in the bill to study the launch indemnification regime.) This bill was originally part of HR 3752, but was stripped out by the House early last month when the fate of the larger bill was in question; the House passed the bill by unanimous consent last month.
