Title: One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act
Policy area: Science, Technology, Communications

Summary:
One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act
This bill requires a federal agency that issues a license for the conduct of a lunar activity in outer space to require that each license applicant agree to abide by recommendations, guidelines, or principles issued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) related to the protection and preservation of U.S. government lunar artifacts.
A federal agency may

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1694 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1694

     To require any Federal agency that issues licenses to conduct 
   activities in outer space to include in the requirements for such 
 licenses an agreement relating to the preservation and protection of 
          the Apollo 11 landing site, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                 May 23 (legislative day, May 22), 2019

 Mr. Peters (for himself and Mr. Cruz) introduced the following bill; 
    which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, 
                      Science, and Transportation

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To require any Federal agency that issues licenses to conduct 
   activities in outer space to include in the requirements for such 
 licenses an agreement relating to the preservation and protection of 
          the Apollo 11 landing site, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``One Small Step to Protect Human 
Heritage in Space Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.

    (a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) On July 16, 1969, the Apollo 11 spacecraft launched 
        from the John F. Kennedy Space Center carrying Neil A. 
        Armstrong, Edwin E. ``Buzz'' Aldrin, Jr., and Michael Collins.
            (2) July 20, 2019, will mark the 50th anniversary of the 
        date on which the Apollo 11 spacecraft landed on the Moon and 
        Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first humans to set 
        foot on a celestial body off the Earth.
            (3) The landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft and humanity's 
        first off-world footprints are achievements unparalleled in 
        history, a direct product of the work and perseverance of the 
        more than 400,000 individuals who contributed to the 
        development of the Apollo missions on the shoulders of 
        centuries of science and engineering pioneers from all corners 
        of the world.
            (4) Among the thousands of individuals who have contributed 
        to the achievements of the National Aeronautics and Space 
        Administration (in this section referred to as ``NASA'') are 
        African-American women such as Katherine Johnson, Dorothy 
        Vaughn, Mary Jackson, and Dr. Christine Darden, who made 
        critical contributions to NASA space programs. Katherine 
        Johnson worked at NASA for 35 years and calculated the 
        trajectory of the Apollo 11 landing and the trajectories for 
        the spaceflights of astronauts Alan Shepard and John Glenn. 
        Katherine Johnson, together with many other individuals the 
        work of whom often went unacknowledged, helped broaden the 
        scope of space travel and charted new frontiers for humanity's 
        exploration of space.
            (5) The landing of the Apollo 11 spacecraft was made on 
        behalf of all humankind, and Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin 
        were accompanied by messages of peace from the leaders of more 
        than 70 countries.
            (6) The lunar landing sites of the Apollo 11 spacecraft, 
        the robotic spacecraft that preceded the Apollo 11 mission, and 
        the crewed and robotic spacecraft that followed, are of 
        outstanding universal value to humanity.
            (7) Such landing sites--
                    (A) are the first archaeological sites with human 
                activity that are not on Earth;
                    (B) provide evidence of the first achievements of 
                humankind in the realm of space travel and exploration; 
                and
                    (C) contain artifacts and other evidence of human 
                exploration activities that remain a potential source 
                of cultural, historical, archaeological, 
                anthropological, scientific, and engineering knowledge.
            (8) As commercial enterprises and more countries acquire 
        the ability to land on the Moon, it is necessary to ensure the 
        recognition and protection of the Apollo 11 landing site and 
        other historic landing sites together with all the human effort 
        and innovation the sites represent.
            (9) On July 20, 2011, NASA published the voluntary guidance 
        entitled ``NASA's Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities: How 
        to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of 
        U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts''.
            (10) In March 2018, the Office of Science and Technology 
        Policy published a report entitled ``Protecting & Preserving 
        Apollo Program Lunar Landing Sites & Artifacts''.
            (11) The Apollo 11 landing site and other similar historic 
        landing sites in outer space merit legal protection from 
        inadvertent or intentional interference with such sites or the 
        environment surrounding such sites in order to prevent 
        irremediable loss of archaeological, anthropological, 
        historical, scientific, and engineering significance and value.
            (12) Space-faring entities based outside the United States 
        have the capacity to land on the Moon.
            (13) The licensing requirements under this Act are 
        applicable only to United States-based activities in outer 
        space and therefore have limited efficacy for protecting 
        against intentional or inadvertent disturbances of the Apollo 
        11 landing site and other similar historic sites from space-
        faring entities based outside the United States.
            (14) A binding international agreement to protect the 
        Apollo 11 landing site and other similar historic sites by 
        requiring adherence to the recommendations described in section 
        3(b) would be sufficient to protect against intentional or 
        inadvertent disturbances of the Apollo 11 landing site and 
        other similar historic sites.
    (b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
President should initiate a diplomatic initiative to negotiate an 
international agreement described in subsection (a)(14).

SEC. 3. LICENSING REQUIREMENTS CONCERNING PRESERVATION OF HISTORIC 
              LUNAR LANDING SITES.

    (a) In General.--Beginning not later than 90 days after the date of 
the enactment of this Act, any Federal agency that issues a license to 
conduct an activity in outer space shall require each applicant for 
such a license--
            (1) to agree to abide by the recommendations described in 
        subsection (b); or
            (2) in the case of an activity that requires a license from 
        more than one Federal agency, to certify (as described in 
        paragraph (1) or (2), as applicable, of section 1746 of title 
        28, United States Code) that the applicant has submitted an 
        application for a license for such activity to another Federal 
        agency that satisfies paragraph (1).
    (b) Recommendations Described.--The recommendations described in 
this subsection are--
            (1) ``NASA's Recommendations to Space-Faring Entities: How 
        to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of 
        U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts'' issued by the National 
        Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 20, 2011;
            (2) the updates to ``NASA's Recommendations to Space-Faring 
        Entities: How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and 
        Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts'' issued by 
        the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on October 
        28, 2011; and
            (3) any successor heritage preservation recommendations, 
        guidelines, or principles relating to the protection and 
        preservation of Government lunar artifacts issued by the 
        National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
    (c) Exemptions.--A Federal agency issuing a license described in 
subsection (a) may, in consultation with the Administrator of the 
National Aeronautics and Space Administration, exempt specific 
activities of an applicant from the historic preservation agreement or 
certification under subsection (a) if such bona fide activities are 
determined to have legitimate and significant historical, 
archeological, anthropological, scientific, or engineering value.
    (d) Authority To Assess Penalty Fees.--
            (1) In general.--A Federal agency issuing a license 
        described in subsection (a) may assess a penalty fee on the 
        holder of such license for conduct that violates one or more of 
        terms of the license relating to the agreement under subsection 
        (a)(1).
            (2) Amount.--The penalty fee amount assessed under 
        paragraph (1) shall be--
                    (A) commensurate with the nature and extent of the 
                violation; and
                    (B) sufficient to deter future violations.
    (e) Activity Defined.--In this section, the term ``activity'' means 
an action or endeavor in outer space that--
            (1) is intended to be lunar in nature, including lunar 
        orbit, landing, and impact; or
            (2) has a greater likelihood than not of becoming lunar in 
        nature, including unintentional orbit and impact.
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