The U.S. government lifted certain restrictions on commercial remote sensing satellite companies on Monday. The changes came from NOAA’s Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs (CRSRA) office, which is a division of the Office of Space Commerce.
CRSA said restrictions in place kept companies from offering their full capabilities to the public. In 2020, CRSA changed the way it regulated licensing for remote sensing systems, and said that the government could only restrict unique capabilities for up to three years for the government to have time to develop mitigations.
CRSA announced Monday that a set of conditions on “the nation’s most capable, unmatched commercial remote sensing systems” expired on July 19. It also reduced global imaging restrictions to permit imaging and distribution for everywhere except less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, removed rapid revisit conditions, and removed all X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) temporary conditions.
CRSA announced Monday that a set of conditions on “the nation’s most capable, unmatched commercial remote sensing systems” expired on July 19. It also reduced global imaging restrictions to permit imaging and distribution for everywhere except less than 1% of the Earth’s surface, removed rapid revisit conditions, and removed all X-Band Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) temporary conditions.