Commerce is piloting a single approval for activities in orbit that no rulebook clearly covers, and says outright that holding one will have no legal effect

Repair a satellite in orbit, refuel one, move a dead one, manufacture something up there, and no American licence obviously covers what you are doing.

The Office of Space Commerce, which sits inside NOAA at the Commerce Department, published a notice on 19 August inviting United States entities to volunteer missions for a pilot of what it calls Space Commerce Certification. The framework is meant for in-space activities that existing regulatory frameworks do not clearly or straightforwardly govern. Interested operators email a summary of a planned mission. Expressions of interest close 45 days after publication, which is scheduled for 20 August.

The office says it will be highly selective, and that it will prioritise missions critical to industry advancement, sufficiently likely to occur, and representing high-utility use cases.

The unusual part

Most agencies do not tell you upfront that the thing they are about to give you is worth nothing.

This one does. The notice states that the pilot is voluntary and non-binding on all participants, and that the grant of a certificate during the pilot will, on its own, have no direct legal effect. The Federal Aviation Administration and the Federal Communications Commission each keep full discretion over whether and how to take a certificate into account. Participants must still satisfy every existing licensing requirement at both agencies independently.

What the office is buying with that candour is a working test. Selected participants complete a certification application, the office reviews it alongside the other agencies to find areas of interagency concern, works with the applicant on adjustments, and then issues a certificate that may carry recommended best practices. Participants give feedback on the process afterwards.

Where it is meant to end up

Two specific destinations are named. Information submitted through the certification process could serve as a basis for satisfying or waiving FCC rules on matters such as orbital debris mitigation, and it could substitute for certain portions of the FAA payload review. The office says the pilot may let both agencies work out with more specificity how to fold the certificate into what they already do.

The legal authority cited is Section 5 of Executive Order 14335, on competition in the commercial space industry, and the work follows a proposal the office released in March. The agencies listed as coordinating are the FAA, the FCC, the Department of War, the State Department and NASA, plus others as needed.