Spacelift Washington: White House may seek executive fix to ease space export crisis

WASHINGTON, D.C. Sept. 25 – The Clinton administration may wait until Congress leaves on its fall campaign recess next week to attempt an executive order remedy to ease the current bottleneck in satellite exports. The temporary solution would be to remove several parts and components of space satellites now on the State Department Munitions List and transfer the equipment to Commerce Department commercial jurisdiction. The prediction was made September 19th at an Export Controls Symposium in Washington sponsored by the Space Transportation Roundtable. The group supports commercial space development in the U.S. .

“Don’t be surprised at the move,” predicted Air Force Col. David Garner of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. “The Executive Branch will change export jurisdiction after the recess, but this is just a short term solution,” said Garner, with the DTRA’s Space Launch Monitoring division. The ultimate solution would be to remove space communications satellites from the munitions category and transfer the vehicles to other commercial regimes. Such a change, however,of an entire class of export would require a legislative modification. Congress moved satellites and other space exports from the Commerce to the State Departments in 1998 after a congressional report suggested illegal technology transfer of U.S. space technology had occurred while under Commerce jurisdiction..

The stricter munitions export process has forced export licenses to be required for the most elementary of space export discussions, including the exchange of technical data on satellite or launch vehicle performance. The unwieldy and tedious licensing process has caused several U.S. commercial space partners to seek non-U.S. suppliers to avoid the red tape and delays. The result has been a depression of previously robust U.S. commercial space exports.

The whole export process needs revamping, with an eye towards both protecting valid U.S. national security concerns and the needs of commercial industry to sell spacecraft and spacecraft systems aboard. “What we need is a clean sheet approach,” said Garner. “A brief period for a such a change will come when the next Congress comes in,” Garner suggested. ‘It’s costing us more than $1 million per year for industry to implement their compliance programs (for the new export license requirements),” added Jefferson Hofgard with the Boeing Company. “The marketplace doesn’t wait.” .