U.S. industry has always been involved in spaceflight. Contractors for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) built the spacecraft that took astronauts to the Moon. Contractors build reconnaissance satellites for the Department of Defense (DOD) and weather satellites for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Increasingly, though, space is becoming commercial. A majority of U.S. satellites are now commercially owned, providing commercial services, and launched by commercial launch providers. Congressional and public interest in space is also becoming more focused on commercial activities, such as companies developing reusable rockets or collecting business data with fleets of small Earth-imaging satellites. Multiple federal agencies regulate the commercial space industry, based on statutory authorities that were enacted separately and have evolved over time. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) licenses commercial launch and reentry vehicles (i.e., rockets and spaceplanes) as well as commercial spaceports. NOAA licenses commercial Earth remote sensing satellites. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) licenses commercial satellite communications. The Departments of Commerce and State license exports of space technology. In response to industry concerns about the complexity of this regulatory framework, the Administration and Congress have made several reform proposals, including Space Policy Directive–2, Streamlining Regulations on Commercial Use of Space (SPD-2, issued in May 2018); the American Space Commerce Free Enterprise Act ( H.R. 2809 , passed by the House in April 2018); and the Space Frontier Act of 2018 ( S. 3277 , ordered to be reported by the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation in August 2018). How the federal government makes use of commercial space capabilities is also evolving. NASA used to own and operate the space shuttles that contractors built for it, but since 2012 it has contracted with commercial service providers to deliver cargo into orbit using their own spacecraft. DOD has its own satellite communications capabilities, but it also procures communications bandwidth from commercial satellite companies. Agencies are considering a host of new opportunities, including acquisition of weather data from commercial satellites, acquisition of science data from commercial lunar landers, and expanded commercial utilization of the International Space Station. At present, Congress is addressing these developments primarily through oversight of agency programs and decisions on agency budgets, rather than through authorizing legislation. This report addresses these two distinct but closely related topics: how the federal government regulates, oversees, and promotes the commercial space sector; and how the federal government itself uses (or might in the future use) commercial space capabilities. As Congress considers these topics, some of the questions that may arise include: Should the federal regulatory framework for commercial space activities be consolidated? How can the commercial space licensing process be made simpler, more timely, and more transparent? How should federal regulatory policies be adjusted as the commercial space industry develops new capabilities and applications? What government space activities can or should be conducted by commercial entities? How can government and industry best work together? Key federal agencies involved in the regulation, oversight, and promotion of commercial space activities include the Federal Aviation Administration, for regulation of launch and reentry; the Department of Commerce, for regulation of Earth remote sensing from space, promotion of the U.S. space industry, and export controls on space technology; and the Federal Communications Commission, for regulation of satellite communications. Some functions, such as mitigation of orbital debris, are shared among agencies. Agency roles are not yet fully settled for certain other functions, such as space situational awareness. Until the 1980s, there was no commercial space launch industry. Private companies and most foreign governments (other than the former Soviet Union) contracted with NASA to launch their satellites. The space shuttle, which became operational in 1982, was intended to replace expendable rockets for the launch of both government and commercial payloads. The shuttle's flight schedule, however, could not meet all the demand for satellite launch, and launch vehicle manufacturers soon became interested in offering launch services commercially. In February 1984, President Reagan designated the Department of Transportation (DOT) as the lead agency for encouraging, facilitating, and licensing commercial expendable launch vehicle activities. DOT established the Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST) to carry out these duties. AST subsequently became part of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). In October 1984, Congress affirmed the establishment of AST and set out statutory requirements for commercial space launch regulation and licensing in the Commercial Space Launch Act ( P.L. 98-575 ). Among other provisions, the act requires that "no person shall launch a launch vehicle or operate a launch site within the United States, unless authorized by a license issued or transferred under this Act." The Commercial Space Transportation Advisory Committee (COMSTAC), also established in 1984, provides information, advice, and recommendations to AST. AST licenses commercial launch and reentry vehicles, such as rockets and spaceplanes, in two different ways: A specific license authorizes one or more individually identified launches or reentries, all at the same site and using the same type of vehicle. For example, license LLS 17-096 (rev. 1) authorizes Space Exploration Technologies (SpaceX) to launch eight flights of the Falcon 9 rocket, all from a specified launch site at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California, carrying a total of 75 specified commercial communications satellites and two specified NASA science satellites. An operator license authorizes an unspecified number of launches or reentries, using a family of similar but not necessarily identical vehicles, over a period of years. For example, license LLO 18-113 authorizes United Launch Alliance to launch any number of flights of six different versions of the Atlas V rocket, all from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, at any time during the five years following the grant of the license. The first licensed launch took place in 1989. Since then there have been a total of 299 licensed launches, including 24 from January through September 2018 (see Figure 1 ). As of September 2018, there were 24 active launch licenses, including 8 specific licenses and 16 operator licenses. The first licensed reentry was in 2010. Since then there have been a total of 17 licensed reentries, including 3 so far in 2018 (see Figure 1 ). All but one of these reentries have been by the Dragon spacecraft that SpaceX uses to deliver cargo to and from the International Space Station for NASA. The other was the first test flight of the Orion crew capsule being developed for NASA by Lockheed Martin. All reentry licenses issued to date have been specific licenses. Under the Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act of 2004 ( P.L. 108-492 ), AST can grant permits rather than full licenses for experimental reusable launch vehicles that are suborbital (in other words, that launch into space but not high enough or fast enough to orbit the Earth before returning). To encourage the development of the industry, the permitting process has fewer requirements and a faster approval timeline than the licensing process. Launch permits are less common than launch licenses. The first permitted launch took place in 2006. There have been a total of 44 permitted launches; the most recent was in October 2016 (see Figure 1 ). As of September 2018, there were no active launch permits. Commercial launch and reentry sites, commonly known as spaceports, must also be licensed. Licensing procedures for commercial spaceports are set out in 14 C.F.R. Part 420 and are described in more detail on the AST website. As of September 2018, 11 spaceports held active launch site operator licenses (see Table 1 ). Several additional applications are pending. Some spaceports are located at government launch facilities. For example, Cape Canaveral Spaceport uses facilities leased from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station and NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Others, such as Midland International Air and Space Port, are located at commercial airports. Still others, such as Spaceport America, were purpose-built as commercial spaceports. Most licensed launches currently use just three of the licensed sites: the Cape Canaveral Spaceport in Florida; the California Spaceport, located at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California; and the Midatlantic Regional Spaceport (MARS), located at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The other eight sites are used infrequently or are not yet operational. For example, a suborbital test launch in August 2018 from Spaceport America was the first licensed launch from that location since 2013, and construction of the Houston Spaceport, licensed in 2015, has not yet broken ground. As part of its licensing process, AST requires launch providers to carry third-party liability insurance. Its method for calculating the required insurance amount is based on estimating the maximum probable loss from a claim, up to a statutory cap of $500 million. In the event of a loss greater than the required insurance amount, the federal government indemnifies licensees for up to an additional $3.1 billion. AST's method for estimating the maximum probable loss has drawn congressional attention because of the potential cost to the federal government if a claim exceeded the insured amount (to date, none has). Section 102 of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act (CSLCA, P.L. 114-90 ) mandated an update to AST's methodology. Congress also periodically reconsiders the policy of indemnification. Initially enacted in 1988 for a five-year period, the indemnification provision has been extended repeatedly, most recently through September 2025 by subsection 102(d) of the CSCLA. To date, only a handful of commercial space launches, all of them suborbital, have had humans on board. Several companies are now actively developing crewed spacecraft, including two that are expected to start carrying astronauts to the International Space Station as soon as 2019, several that are intended to be suborbital, and at least one designed to be capable of flights beyond Earth orbit.