42 U.S.C. § 18421 — Study of potential commercial orbital

Page 9162 TITLE 42—THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE § 18421 1 See References in Text note below. shall be responsible for the development of short- and long term strategic plans for main- taining, renewing and extending suborbital fa- cilities and capabilities. (c) Establishment The Administrator shall establish a Commer- cial Reusable Suborbital Research Program within the Space Technology Program that shall fund the development of payloads for sci- entific research, technology development, and education, and shall provide flight opportunities for those payloads to microgravity environ- ments and suborbital altitudes. The Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program may fund engineering and integration demonstra- tions, proofs of concept, or educational experi- ments for commercial reusable vehicle flights. The program shall endeavor to work with NASA’s Mission Directorates to help achieve NASA’s research, technology, and education goals. (d) Report The Administrator shall submit a report annu- ally to the appropriate committees of Congress describing progress in carrying out the Commer- cial Reusable Suborbital Research program, in- cluding the number and type of suborbital mis- sions planned in each fiscal year. (e) Authorization There are authorized to be appropriated to the Administrator $15,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2011 through 2013 to carry out this section. (Pub. L. 111–267, title IX, § 907, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2837.) SUBCHAPTER IX—EDUCATION § 18421. Study of potential commercial orbital platform program impact on science, tech- nology, engineering, and mathematics A fundamental and unique capability of NASA is in stimulating science, technology, engineer- ing, and mathematics education in the United States. In ensuring maximum use of that capa- bility, the Administrator shall carry out a study to— (1) identify the benefits of and lessons learned from ongoing and previous NASA or- bital student programs including, at a min- imum, the Get Away Special (GAS) and Earth Knowledge Acquired by Middle School Stu- dents (EarthKAM) programs, on science, tech- nology, engineering, and mathematics edu- cation; (2) assess the potential impacts on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education of a program that would facilitate the development of scientific and educational payloads involving United States students and educators and the flights of those payloads on commercially available orbital platforms, when available and operational, with the goal of providing frequent and regular payload launches; (3) identify NASA expertise, such as NASA science, engineering, payload development, and payload operations, that could be made available to facilitate a science, technology, engineering, and mathematics program using commercial orbital platforms; and (4) identify the issues that would need to be addressed before NASA could properly assess the merits and feasibility of the program de- scribed in paragraph (2). (Pub. L. 111–267, title X, § 1003, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2838; Pub. L. 111–358, title II, § 205(a), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3995.) Editorial Notes AMENDMENTS 2011—Pub. L. 111–358 amended section generally. Prior to amendment, text read as follows: ‘‘A fundamental and unique capability of NASA is in stimulating science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education in the United States. In ensuring maximum use of that capability, NASA shall— ‘‘(1) establish a program to annually sponsor sci- entific and educational payloads developed with United States student and educator involvement to be flown on commercially available orbital platforms, when available and operational, with the goal of launching at least 50 such payloads (with at least one from each of the 50 States) to orbit on at least one mission per year; ‘‘(2) contract with providers of commercial orbital platform services for their use by the STEM-Commer- cial Orbital Platform program, preceded by the issuance of a request for proposal, not later than 90 days after October 11, 2010, to enter into at least one funded, competitively-awarded contract for commer- cial orbital platform services and make awards with- in 180 days after such date; and ‘‘(3) engage with United States students and edu- cators and make available NASA’s science, engineer- ing, payload development, and payload operations ex- pertise to student teams selected to participate in the STEM-Commercial Orbital Platform program.’’ Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries EFFECTIVE DATE OF 2011 AMENDMENT Pub. L. 111–358, title II, § 205(c), Jan. 4, 2011, 124 Stat. 3996, provided that: ‘‘The amendment made by sub- section (a) [amending this section] shall take effect on October 12, 2010.’’ SUBCHAPTER X—RE-SCOPING AND REVI- TALIZING INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES § 18431. Workforce stabilization and critical skills preservation Prior to receipt by the Congress of the study, recommendations, and implementation strategy developed pursuant to section 1103,1 none of the funds authorized for use under this Act may be used to transfer the functions, missions, or ac- tivities, and associated civil service and con- tractor positions, from any NASA facility with- out authorization by the Congress to implement the proposed strategy. The Administrator shall preserve the critical skills and competencies in place at NASA centers prior to October 11, 2010, in order to facilitate timely implementation of the requirements of this chapter and to mini- mize disruption to the workforce. The Adminis- trator may not implement any reduction-in- force or other involuntary separations of perma- nent, non-Senior-Executive-Service, civil serv- ant employees before September 30, 2013, except