115th CONGRESS 2d Session |
To designate the Marshall Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide leadership for the U.S. rocket propulsion industrial base, and for other purposes.
March 20, 2018
Mr. Brooks of Alabama (for himself and Mr. Smith of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology
To designate the Marshall Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide leadership for the U.S. rocket propulsion industrial base, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
This Act may be cited as the “American Leadership in Space Technology and Advanced Rocketry Act” or the “ALSTAR Act”.
Congress finds the following:
(1) Rocket propulsion is an enabling technology for our Nation’s future prosperous way of life.
(2) Rocket propulsion technologies are critical to national security, intelligence gathering, communications, weather forecasting, navigation, communications, entertainment, land use, Earth observation, and scientific exploration.
(3) The rocket propulsion industry is a source of high-quality jobs.
(4) Multiple Federal agencies and companies are involved in rocket propulsion research, development, and manufacturing.
(5) Integration, coordination, and cooperation would strengthen the United States rocket propulsion industrial base.
(6) Erosion of the rocket propulsion industrial base would seriously impact national security, space exploration potential, and economic growth.
(7) The Marshall Space Flight Center has decades of experience working with other Government agencies and industry partners to study and coordinate these capabilities.
(8) The Marshall Space Flight Center has made historic and unique contributions—
(A) by bringing stakeholders together to work on rocket propulsion industrial base sustainment;
(B) of technical expertise to key studies and review boards; and
(C) by consistently participating in interagency working groups to address rocket propulsion issues.
SEC. 3. Rocket propulsion leadership.
(a) Sense of Congress.—It is the sense of Congress that the Marshall Space Flight Center is the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s lead center for rocket propulsion and is essential to sustaining and promoting U.S. leadership in rocket propulsion and developing the next generation of rocket propulsion capabilities.
(b) Leadership in rocket propulsion.—The Marshall Space Flight Center shall provide national leadership in rocket propulsion by—
(1) contributing to interagency coordination for the preservation of critical national rocket propulsion capabilities;
(2) collaborating with industry, academia, and professional organizations to most effectively use national capabilities and resources;
(3) monitoring public- and private-sector rocket propulsion activities to develop and promote a strong, healthy rocket propulsion industrial base;
(4) facilitating technical solutions for existing and emerging rocket propulsion challenges;
(5) supporting the development and refinement of rocket propulsion for small satellites;
(6) evaluating and recommending, as appropriate, new rocket propulsion technologies for further development; and
(7) providing information required by national decisionmakers so that policies and other instruments of the Government support the development and strengthening of the Nation’s rocket propulsion capabilities throughout the 21st century.