Dear Space Industry Council Members,

Today, President Biden signed an executive order expanding the membership of the National Space Council to include the Secretaries of Education, Labor, Agriculture, and Interior as well as the President’s National Climate Advisor. This expansion marks a renewed focus for the White House as it works to further establish America’s global position in spaceflight and scientific advancement. Further, it conveys the Biden Administration’s intent to utilize the benefits of space broadly throughout American society.

Following the executive order’s release, Vice President Harris convened the first public National Space Council meeting where the group released a framework generally outlining the Administration’s priorities for space. The priorities are organized into two buckets:

  1. Maintaining a Robust and Responsible U.S. Space Enterprise:
    • The United States will maintain its leadership in space exploration and space science.
    • The United States will advance the development and use of space-based Earth observation capabilities that support action on climate change.
    • The United States will foster a policy and regulatory environment that enables a competitive and burgeoning U.S. commercial space sector.
    • The United States will protect space-related critical infrastructure and strengthen the security of the U.S. space industrial base.
    • The United States will defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.
    • The United States will invest in the next generation.
  2. Preserving Space for Current and Future Generations:
    • The United States will lead in strengthening global governance of space activities.
    • The United States will bolster space situational awareness sharing and space traffic coordination.
    • The United States will prioritize space sustainability and planetary protection.
The Chamber welcomes the federal government’s acknowledgement of space’s potential as an economic frontier as well as the need to secure America’s position as the center for ingenuity, entrepreneurship, and commercial activity in space. As the Biden Administration continues to formulate policy surrounding space, the Chamber will remain engaged.

In the coming days, we will be publishing registration information for the Chamber’s Fourth Annual Space Summit, Launch | Expanding Commercial Partnerships, which will be held virtually on Thursday, December 16th. 

Please reach out to Vince Voci (email: vvoci@uschamber.com) or Jack Overstreet (email: joverstreet@uschamber.com) with any comments or questions.