§ 363. Program authorized 
(a) IN GENERAL.—In order to carry out the purposes 
of this subchapter, the Administration, in cooperation with 
other Federal agencies, shall initiate and carry out a pro-
gram of research, technology, monitoring, and other ap-
propriate activities directed to understand the physics and 
chemistry of the upper atmosphere. 
(b) ACTIVITIES.—In carrying out the provisions of 
this subchapter, the Administration shall— 
(1) arrange for participation by the scientific 
and engineering community, of both the Nation’s in-
dustrial organizations and institutions of higher edu-
cation, in planning and carrying out appropriate re-
search, in developing necessary technology, and in 
making necessary observations and measurements; 
(2) provide, by way of grant, contract, scholar-
ships, or other arrangements, to the maximum ex-
tent practicable and consistent with other laws, for 
the widest practicable and appropriate participation 
of the scientific and engineering community in the 
program authorized by this subchapter; and 
(3) make all results of the program authorized 
by this subchapter available to the appropriate regu-
latory agencies and provide for the widest prac-
ticable dissemination of such results.
§ 364. International cooperation 
In carrying out the provisions of this subchapter, the 
Administration, subject to the direction of the President 
and after consultation with the Secretary of State, shall 
make every effort to enlist the support and cooperation 
of appropriate scientists and engineers of other countries 
and international organizations. 
CHAPTER 5—ADJUNCT NATIONAL SPACE 
PROGRAM PROVISIONS 
SUBCHAPTER I—APPROPRIATIONS AND FUNDS 
Sec. 
501. Prior authorization of appropriations required. 
502. Working capital fund. 
SUBCHAPTER II—CONTRACT AND LEASE AUTHORITY 
511. Guaranteed customer base. 
512. Quality assurance personnel. 
513. Tracking and data relay satellite services. 
514. Award of contracts to small businesses and disadvantaged individuals. 
515. Foreign contract limitation. 
SUBCHAPTER III—COST EFFECTIVENESS 
531. Requirement for independent cost analysis. 
532. Cost effectiveness calculations. 
533. Use of abandoned and underutilized buildings, grounds, and facilities. 
SUBCHAPTER IV—AWARDS 
541. Congressional Space Medal of Honor. 
SUBCHAPTER V—USE OF SPACE SHUTTLE OR ALTERNATIVES 
551. Recovery of fair value of placing Department of Defense payloads in orbit 
with space shuttle. 
552. Payloads launched on Titan II launch vehicles. 
553. Space shuttle use policy. 
554. Commercial payloads on space shuttle. 
SUBCHAPTER VI—SHUTTLE PRICING POLICY FOR COMMERCIAL 
AND FOREIGN USERS 
561. Congressional findings and declarations. 
562. Purpose, policy, and goals. 
563. Definition of additive cost.
564. Duties of Administrator. 
SUBCHAPTER VII—EDUCATION AND RESEARCH 
571. Science, Space, and Technology Education Trust Fund. 
572. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Endeavor Teacher Fellow-
ship Trust Fund. 
573. Experimental Program to Stimulate Competitive Research—merit grant 
competition requirements. 
574. National Aeronautics and Space Administration Science and Technology 
Scholarship Program. 
SUBCHAPTER VIII—SAFETY 
581. Drug and alcohol testing. 
582. Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel. 
SUBCHAPTER IX—COMPETITIVENESS AND INTERNATIONAL 
COOPERATION 
591. Competitiveness and international cooperation. 
SUBCHAPTER I—APPROPRIATIONS AND FUNDS 
§ 501. Prior authorization of appropriations required 
Notwithstanding the provisions of any other law, no 
appropriation may be made to the Administration unless 
previously authorized by legislation enacted by Congress. 
§ 502. Working capital fund 
(a) ESTABLISHMENT.—There is hereby established in 
the United States Treasury an Administration working 
capital fund. 
(b) AVAILABILITY OF AMOUNTS.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Amounts in the fund are 
available for financing activities, services, equipment, 
information, and facilities as authorized by law to be 
provided— 
(A) within the Administration;
(B) to other agencies or instrumentalities 
of the United States; 
(C) to any State, Territory, or possession 
or political subdivision thereof; 
(D) to other public or private agencies; or 
(E) to any person, firm, association, cor-
poration, or educational institution on a reim-
bursable basis. 
(2) CAPITAL REPAIRS.—The fund shall also be 
available for the purpose of funding capital repairs, 
renovations, rehabilitation, sustainment, demolition, 
or replacement of Administration real property, on a 
reimbursable basis within the Administration. 
(3) NO FISCAL YEAR LIMITATION.—Amounts in 
the fund are available without regard to fiscal year 
limitation. 
(c) CONTENTS.—The capital of the fund consists 
of— 
(1) amounts appropriated to the fund; 
(2) the reasonable value of stocks of supplies, 
equipment, and other assets and inventories on 
order that the Administrator transfers to the fund, 
less the related liabilities and unpaid obligations; 
and
(3) payments received for loss or damage to 
property of the fund. 
(d) REIMBURSEMENT.—The fund shall be reim-
bursed, in advance, for supplies and services at rates that 
will approximate the expenses of operation, such as the 
accrual of annual leave, depreciation of plant, property, 
and equipment, and overhead. 
SUBCHAPTER II—CONTRACT AND LEASE 
AUTHORITY 
§ 511. Guaranteed customer base 
No amount appropriated to the Administration may 
be used to fund grants, contracts, or other agreements 
with an expected duration of more than one year, when 
a primary effect of the grant, contract, or agreement is 
to provide a guaranteed customer base for or establish an 
anchor tenancy in new commercial space hardware or serv-
ices unless an appropriations Act specifies the new com-
mercial space hardware or services to be developed or 
used, or the grant, contract, or agreement is otherwise 
identified in such Act. 
§ 512. Quality assurance personnel 
(a) EXCLUSION OF ADMINISTRATION PERSONNEL.— 
A person providing articles to the Administration under 
a contract entered into after December 9, 1991, may not 
exclude Administration quality assurance personnel from
work sites except as provided in a contract provision that 
has been submitted to Congress as provided in subsection 
(b). 
(b) CONTRACT PROVISIONS.—The Administration 
shall not enter into any contract which permits the exclu-
sion of Administration quality assurance personnel from 
work sites unless the Administrator has submitted a copy 
of the provision permitting such exclusion to Congress at 
least 60 days before entering into the contract. 
§ 513. Tracking and data relay satellite services 
(a) CONTRACTS.—The Administration is authorized, 
when so provided in an appropriation Act, to enter into 
and to maintain a contract for tracking and data relay 
satellite services. Such services shall be furnished to the 
Administration in accordance with applicable authoriza-
tion and appropriations Acts. The Government shall incur 
no costs under such contract prior to the furnishing of 
such services except that the contract may provide for the 
payment for contingent liability of the Government which 
may accrue in the event the Government should decide for 
its convenience to terminate the contract before the end 
of the period of the contract. Facilities which may be re-
quired in the performance of the contract may be con-
structed on Government-owned lands if there is included 
in the contract a provision under which the Government
may acquire title to the facilities, under terms and condi-
tions agreed upon in the contract, upon termination of the 
contract. 
(b) REPORTS
TO CONGRESS.—The Administrator 
shall in January of each year report to the Committee on 
Science and the Committee on Appropriations of the 
House of Representatives and the Committee on Com-
merce, Science, and Transportation and the Committee on 
Appropriations of the Senate the projected aggregate con-
tingent liability of the Government under termination pro-
visions of any contract authorized in this section through 
the next fiscal year. The authority of the Administration 
to enter into and to maintain the contract authorized here-
under shall remain in effect unless repealed by legislation 
enacted by Congress. 
§ 514. Award of contracts to small businesses and 
disadvantaged individuals 
The Administrator shall annually establish a goal of 
at least 8 percent of the total value of prime and sub-
contracts awarded in support of authorized programs, in-
cluding the space station by the time operational status 
is obtained, which funds will be made available to small 
business concerns or other organizations owned or con-
trolled by socially and economically disadvantaged individ-
uals (within the meaning of paragraphs (5) and (6) of sec-
tion 8(a) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 637(a))), 
including Historically Black Colleges and Universities and 
minority educational institutions (as defined by the Sec-
retary of Education pursuant to the General Education 
Provisions Act (20 U.S.C. 1221 et seq.)). 
§ 515. Foreign contract limitation 
The Administration shall not enter into any agree-
ment or contract with a foreign government that grants 
the foreign government the right to recover profit in the 
event that the agreement or contract is terminated. 
SUBCHAPTER III—COST EFFECTIVENESS 
§ 531. Requirement for independent cost analysis 
(a) DEFINITION OF PHASE B.—In this section, the 
term ‘‘Phase B’’ means the latter stages of project formu-
lation, during which the final definition of a project is car-
ried out and before project implementation (which includes 
the Design, Development, and Operations Phases) begins. 
(b) REQUIREMENT.—Before any funds may be obli-
gated for Phase B of a project that is projected to cost 
more than $150,000,000 in total project costs, the Chief 
Financial Officer for the Administration shall conduct an 
independent life-cycle cost analysis of the project and shall 
report the results to Congress. In developing cost account-
ing and reporting standards for carrying out this section, 
the Chief Financial Officer shall, to the extent practicable
and consistent with other laws, solicit the advice of experts 
outside of the Administration. 
§ 532. Cost effectiveness calculations 
(a) DEFINITION
OF COMMERCIAL PROVIDER.—In 
this section, the term ‘‘commercial provider’’ has the 
meaning given the term in section 3 of the National Aero-
nautics and Space Administration Authorization Act of 
2000 (Public Law 106–391, 114 Stat. 1579). 
(b) IN GENERAL.—Except as otherwise required by 
law, in calculating the cost effectiveness of the cost of the 
Administration engaging in an activity as compared to a 
commercial provider, the Administrator shall compare the 
cost of the Administration engaging in the activity using 
full cost accounting principles with the price the commer-
cial provider will charge for such activity. 
§ 533. Use of abandoned and underutilized buildings, 
grounds, and facilities 
(a) DEFINITION OF DEPRESSED COMMUNITIES.—In 
this section, the term ‘‘depressed communities’’ means 
rural and urban communities that are relatively depressed, 
in terms of age of housing, extent of poverty, growth of 
per capita income, extent of unemployment, job lag, or 
surplus labor. 
(b) IN GENERAL.—In any case in which the Adminis-
trator considers the purchase, lease, or expansion of a fa-
cility to meet requirements of the Administration, the Ad-
ministrator shall consider whether those requirements 
could be met by the use of one of the following: 
(1) Abandoned or underutilized buildings, 
grounds, and facilities in depressed communities 
that can be converted to Administration usage at a 
reasonable cost, as determined by the Administrator. 
(2) Any military installation that is closed or 
being closed, or any facility at such an installation. 
(3) Any other facility or part of a facility that 
the Administrator determines to be— 
(A) owned or leased by the United States 
for the use of another agency of the Federal 
Government; and 
(B) considered by the head of the agency 
involved to be— 
(i) excess to the needs of that agency; 
or 
(ii) underutilized by that agency. 
SUBCHAPTER IV—AWARDS 
§ 541. Congressional Space Medal of Honor 
(a) AUTHORITY TO AWARD.—The President may 
award, and present in the name of Congress, a medal of 
appropriate design, which shall be known as the Congres-
sional Space Medal of Honor, to any astronaut who in the
performance of the astronaut’s duties has distinguished 
himself or herself by exceptionally meritorious efforts and 
contributions to the welfare of the Nation and of human-
kind. 
(b) APPROPRIATIONS.—There is authorized to be ap-
propriated from time to time such sums of money as may 
be necessary to carry out the purposes of this section. 
SUBCHAPTER V—USE OF SPACE SHUTTLE OR 
ALTERNATIVES 
§ 551. Recovery of fair value of placing Department 
of Defense payloads in orbit with space 
shuttle 
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, or any 
interagency agreement, the Administrator shall charge 
such prices as are necessary to recover the fair value of 
placing Department of Defense payloads into orbit by 
means of the space shuttle. 
§ 552. Payloads launched on Titan II launch vehicles 
The Secretary of Defense and the Administrator will 
jointly determine which payloads will be launched on Titan 
II launch vehicles and certify by notice to Congress that 
such launches are cost effective as compared to launches 
by the space shuttle and do not diminish the efficient and 
effective utilization of the space shuttle capability. This 
section may be waived only upon certification by the Sec-