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NOAA LISTENING SESSION ON COMMERCIAL REMOTE SENSING REGULATIONS, July 25, 2024, virtual, 2:00-4:00 pm ET
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NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) division will hold a listening session on July 25, 2024 from 2:00-4:00 pm ET to get feedback from the regulated community and the public about the revised commercial remote sensing regulations that went into effect in 2020.
More information is in the Federal Register announcement, which is reproduced below and says in part:
Public Listening Session Regarding the Regulation and
Implementing Practices of the Licensing of Private Remote Sensing Space
Systems
AGENCY: National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),
Department of Commerce.
ACTION: Notice of public listening session.
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SUMMARY: The Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA)
division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s
(NOAA’s) Office of Space Commerce will hold a virtual listening session
for the regulated community and the public to provide input on
regulations regarding Licensing of Private Remote Sensing Space
Systems, and implementing practices. During the session, the regulated
community and the public may express their thoughts about any
challenges or concerns experienced by the regulated community
stakeholders in understanding or meeting the requirements of the
regulations. Representatives from CRSRA will be present during the
listening session and may ask clarifying questions, but will not
discuss or address the merits of any comments provided.
DATES: The public listening session will be held on July 25, 2024, from
2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Eastern Time.
ADDRESSES: The session will be accessible via GoToWebinar!.
Registration is required for all participants and can be found at:
https://register.gotowebinar.com/register/6212511616942256213. Webinar
access instructions will be provided by email following registration.
For those wishing to make comments during the listening session, please
indicate this preference on the registration form. Participants
accessing the webinar are strongly encouraged to log/dial in at 15
minutes prior to the start time.
Written comments summarizing or elaborating upon spoken remarks may
be submitted up to 14 days following the conclusion of this listening
session. Comments may be submitted electronically via email to
space.commerce@noaa.gov.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Sarah Brothers, Commercial Remote
Sensing Regulatory Affairs, 1401 Constitution Ave. NW, Room 31027,
Washington, DC 20230, sarah.brothers@noaa.gov, (771) 216-4112.
SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: Licenses for the operation of private remote
sensing space systems are issued by CRSRA pursuant to 51 U.S.C. 60101
et seq. (the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992). The implementing
regulations are at 15 CFR part 960.
The regulations at 15 CFR part 960 were revised in its entirety in
2020, and the new regulations became effective on July 20, 2020. In the
approximately four years since the effective date of the new
regulations, CRSRA has identified elements of the regulations that,
upon implementation, yielded unexpected consequences or high
administrative burdens to both CRSRA and the licensee.
CRSRA has also observed trends in the private remote sensing sector
that may warrant novel or creative regulatory approaches. For example,
CRSRA observed that the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic,
which was declared shortly prior to the release of 15 CFR part 960,
accelerated existing trends pertaining to virtual and distributed
private remote sensing system operations and the extensive use in
system operations of cloud computing resources and infrastructure.
Similarly, CRSRA is seeing an increasing number of applications for
hosted payloads and, as these activities increase, anticipates
unexpected complications will arise therefrom.
The upcoming listening session allows CRSRA to hear from the
regulated community and the public regarding insights, challenges,
concerns, and recommendations pertaining to the regulations and their
implementation, including during pre-application consultation,
application and license issuance, license sustainment (e.g., license
modification and annual certification periods), and license transfer
and termination.
For this listening session, we anticipate hearing from the
regulated community and the public about the following topics:
Challenges or concerns experienced by stakeholders in
understanding or meeting the requirements of 15 CFR part 960, the
conditions of the license, and the implementation practices followed
between pre-application consultation and license transfer or
termination;
Recommendations for regulatory or implementation practice
approaches or alternatives that could address any challenges or
concerns, or that could continue to streamline 15 CFR part 960; and
Recommendations to improve 15 CFR part 960 and its
implementation to
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address existing or emerging business plans or models, concepts of
operations, or system configurations, or other trends in the private
remote sensing industry.
The public is reminded that CRSRA expects participants of the
session to conduct themselves appropriately. At the beginning of the
session, the moderator will explain how it will be conducted and how
and when registered participants can provide spoken comments. CRSRA
will structure the session so that all members of the public who have
registered in advance and indicated a preference to speak during
registration will be able to comment; it is anticipated that
approximately 5 minutes will be allocated to each speaker for comments.
Should requests to comment exceed the time allocated, an additional
public listening session will be organized and notice provided.
Participants are expected to respect the ground rules, and those that
do not may be asked to leave.