The House Science Committee approved two space-related bills during a markup session Wednesday afternoon. On a voice vote the committee approved the Charles ‘Pete’ Conrad Astronomy Awards Act (HR 912), which provides awards for amateur astronomers who discover near Earth objects; and the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 (HR 3752), which amends existing law to improve the regulatory environment primarily to benefit commercial suborbital vehicles. HR 3752 was introduced just before the hearing, replacing HR 3245, a similar bill introduced last year that passed through the committee’s space subcommittee last fall.
Another provision of HR 3752 that may be of interest to the wider commercial space community is that it extends the liability indemnification regime for commercial launches (in the event of catastrophic accidents that exceed the mandated level of insurance) for three years, but requires a study on how to sunset the indemnification provision in 2008 or shortly thereafter. This has been a sticking point for commercial launch vehicle providers in the US, who claim they would be at a disadvantage to foreign competitors (who have similar protection) if the indemnification protection was lost, even though it has never been used. Stay tuned on this one.
