Orbital debris illustration. Credit: ESA
Credit: ESA illustration

The omnibus spending bill the U.S. Congress enacted in December will provide $10 million in 2021 for the Commerce Department’s Office of Space Commerce to conduct a space traffic management (STM) “pilot program” with other agencies and industries. The program will “develop STM technical prototypes, initiate an open architecture data repository, and perform STM demonstrations and experiments.” 

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Brian Chow (Ph.D. in physics, MBA with distinction, Ph.D. in finance) is an independent policy analyst with more than 180 publications.