1

Update on the Activities of the National Space 

Council

Dr. Scott Pace

Executive Secretary

June 18, 2018 National Space Council
Briefing Overview

June 18, 2018 National Space Council 2

• Reinvigorating the National Space Council

• Policy making process

• Space Exploration Priorities

• Commercial Space Priorities

• National Security Space Priorities

• Space Policy Directive 2

• Space Policy Directive 3

• Other Developing Issues

• Members of the Users’ Advisory Group
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 3

Reinvigorating the National Space Council

• Executive Order 13803 reinvigorated the NSpC after nearly 25 years of dormancy.

• The Vice President was appointed as Chair and there are 11 other members of the 

Council. 

• The EO requires the council to:

• review United States Government space policy, including long-range goals, and develop a strategy 

for national space activities;

• develop recommendations for the President on space policy and space-related issues;

• monitor and coordinate implementation of the objectives of the President's national space policy 

and strategy;

• foster close coordination, cooperation, and technology and information exchange among the civil, 

national security, and commercial space sectors;

• advise on participation in international space activities conducted by the United States 

Government; and

• facilitate the resolution of differences concerning major space and space-related policy matters.

President Trump signs Executive Order Reinvigorating the National Space Council, “Today’s 

announcement sends a clear signal to the world that we are restoring America’s proud legacy of 

leadership in space.”
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 4

Policy Making Process

• The National Space Council uses a consensus driven approach to policy making.

President Directs 

National Policy

Vice President Provides 

Direction to Space Council

Staff

Executive Secretary 

releases Policy Review 

Decision (PRD)

Interagency Working Group 

(IWG) works out details of 

the Policy

Interagency Working Group 

(IWG) makes 

recommendations to Deputies 

Committee (DC)

Executive Secretary convenes 

Deputies Committee to 

approve recommendations

Recommendations 

Approved at Space Council 

Meeting by Principals

Executive Secretary prepares 

Space Policy Directive and 

Decision memo for President
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 5

Space Exploration Priorities

• The Human Space Exploration program at NASA is the crown jewel of our nation’s 

Space Enterprise. 

• The previous Administration’s human space exploration plans were impractical and 

alienated our closest foreign allies and commercial partners. 

• Space Policy Directive 1 corrects this error and redirects NASA to the Moon with 

commercial and international partners. The SPD directs NASA to:

• “Lead an innovative and sustainable program of exploration with commercial and international 

partners to enable human expansion across the solar system and to bring back to Earth new 

knowledge and opportunities. Beginning with missions beyond low-Earth orbit, the United States 

will lead the return of humans to the Moon for long-term exploration and utilization, followed by 

human missions to Mars and other destinations.”

President Trump signs Space Policy Directive 1 declaring, “The directive I’m signing today will 

refocus America’s space program on human exploration and discovery. It marks an important step 

in returning American astronauts to the moon for the first time since 1972 for long-term 

exploration and use. This time, we will not only plant our flag and leave our footprint, we will 

establish a foundation for an eventual mission to Mars. And perhaps, someday, to many worlds 

beyond.”
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 6

Commercial Space Priorities

• The private sector is providing increasingly sophisticated space 

hardware and services to global markets. 

• It is crucial that the United States maintain its lead in innovation and 

that it remains the most attractive place for global space 

businesses. 

• We must reform U.S. regulations that have not kept up with the 

speed of technology and markets. 

• Economies with low regulatory burdens attract investment and jobs, 

this is true for the space economy.

• The Trump Administration is streamlining and simplifying our 

regulatory systems for commercial space activity to strengthen 

competitiveness. 
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 7

National Security Space Priorities

• Our adversaries have created anti-satellite and other weapons that threaten our space assets. 

• Space is now recognized as a war-fighting domain.

• The National Security Strategy recognizes that “Communications and financial networks, military and 

intelligence systems, weather monitoring, navigation, and more have components in the space domain.”

• The United States considers unfettered access to and freedom to operate in space to be a vital interest. Any harmful interference with 

or an attack upon critical components of our space architecture that directly affects this vital U.S. interest will be met with a deliberate 

response at a time, place, manner, and domain of our choosing. 

• The U.S. needs to be as dominate in space as we are on the Earth.

• We are working to make our space systems more resilient and less vulnerable to attack.

• The Trump Administration is ensuring we have the capability to deter aggression from our enemies in space. 
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 8

Space Policy Directive 2

• At the February 2018 Meeting of the National Space Council, the Council endorsed four recommendations regarding commercial space activity. 

• Those four recommendations have ben translated into Space Policy Directive 2, which includes:

• LAUNCH AND RE-ENTRY LICENSING REFORM: No later than February 1, 2019, the Secretary of Transportation will release a new regulatory system for managing launch and re-entry activity. In 

writing the new rules, the Secretary shall consider requiring a single license for all types of commercial space flight launch and re-entry operations and replacing prescriptive requirements in the 

commercial space flight launch and re-entry licensing process with performance-based criteria. 

• COMMERCIAL REMOTE SENSING REFORM: Within 90 days, the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with the Secretary of Defense, the Administrator of NASA, and the Chairman of the FCC shall 

review commercial remote sensing regulations for consistency with the policy set above and rescind, revise, or publish notice of proposed rulemaking for those regulations that don’t meet this 

intent. 

• ESTABLISHING A ONE-STOP SHOP: Within 30 days, the Secretary of Commerce shall transmit to a legislative proposal to create, within the Department of Commerce, an entity with primary 

responsibility for administering the Department’s regulation of commercial space flight activities.

• PROTECTION SPECTRUM FOR COMMERCIAL SPACE: Within 120 days, the Secretary of Commerce and the Director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy, in consultation with the Chairman 

of the Federal Communications Commission shall provide to the President a report on improving the global competitiveness of the United States space sector through radio frequency spectrum 

policies, regulation, and United States activities at the International Telecommunication Union and other multilateral forums.

• REFORMING EXPORT CONTROL REQUIREMENTS: No later than 180 days, the Executive Secretary of the National Space Council, with the members of the National Space Council shall initiate a 

review of export licensing regulations affecting commercial space flight activity and develop recommendations to revise such regulations consistent with the policy above.
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 9

Space Policy Directive 3

• The National Space Council developed a new policy for Space 

Traffic Management. 

• The new policy was endorsed at a Deputies Committee and 

recommended to Principals.

• The Vice President announced some pieces of the new policy at 

the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs.

• The President Signed SPD-3 on June 18th. 

The main tenants of the policy include:

• Department of Commerce as the “storefront” for commercial companies looking for space situational awareness and space traffic management services.

• The use of a single catalogue for all space objects.

• The policy will also encourage the commercial space industry to partner with the government to develop data-sharing systems, technical guidelines, and 

safety standards to apply domestically and be promoted internationally that will help minimize debris, avoid satellite collisions during launch and while in 

orbit.
June 18, 2018 National Space Council 10

User Advisory Group to the NSpC

• Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 Astronaut

• Tory Bruno, President and CEO of United Launch 

Alliance

• Wes Bush, CEO of Northrop Grumman

• Dean Cheng, Scholar at the Heritage Foundation

• Eileen Collins, 4-time Shuttle astronaut, first female 

shuttle commander

• Steve Crisafulli, Former Speaker of the Florida House

of Representatives

• Mary Lynne Dittmar, President and CEO of The 

Coalition for Deep Space Exploration

• Adm. Jim Ellis, Retired 4-star Admiral, former head o

STRATCOM

• Tim Ellis, CEO of Relativity Space

• Marillyn Hewson, CEO of Lockheed Martin Corporation

• Homer Hickam, Author of the book “Rocket Boys” and 

former NASA Marshall Spaceflight Center engineer

• Governor Kay Ivey, Governor of Alabama

• Fred Klipsch, Founder and Chairman of Hoosiers for 

Quality Education

• Les Lyles, Retired 4-star Air Force General and 

member of the NASA Advisory Council

• Pam Melroy, 3-time Shuttle astronaut and former 

Deputy Director of the Tactical Technology Office at the

Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency

• Dennis Muilenburg, CEO of the Boeing Company

• Fatih Ozmen, CEO of the Sierra Nevada Corporation

• G.P. Bud Peterson, President of the Georgia Institute 

of Technology

• Eric Schmidt, Google and MIT Media Lab f 

• Jack Schmitt, Apollo 17 Astronaut and former Senator

• Gwynne Shotwell, President and COO of SpaceX

• Bob Smith, CEO of Blue Origin

• Eric Stallmer, President of the Commercial Spaceflight 

Federation

• David Thompson, Founder and CEO of Orbital ATK

• Pamela Vaughan, Board Certified Science Teacher

• Mandy Vaughn, President of VOX Launch Company

• Stu Witt, Founder of Mojave Air and Spaceport, former 

Navy pilot, former Chairman of the Commercial 

Spaceflight Federation

• David Wolf, 4-time Shuttle astronaut and physician