42 U.S.C. § 18405 — Commercial Reusable Suborbital Re-

Page 9161 TITLE 42—THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE § 18405 National Partnership for Aeronautics Testing, to develop and implement joint plans for those elements of the Nation’s research, development, testing, and engineering infrastructure that are of common interest and use. (b) Federal Aviation Administration The Administrator shall continue to coordi- nate with, and work closely with, the Adminis- trator of the Federal Aviation Administration, under the framework of the Senior Policy Coun- cil, in development of the Next Generation Air Transportation Program. The Administrator shall encourage the Council to explore areas for greater collaboration, including areas where NASA can help to accelerate the development and demonstration of NextGen technologies. (Pub. L. 111–267, title IX, § 903, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2835.) § 18403. Goal for Agency space technology It is critical that NASA maintain an Agency space technology base that helps align mission directorate investments and supports long term needs to complement mission-directorate funded research and support, where appropriate, mul- tiple users, building upon its Innovative Part- nerships Program and other partnering ap- proaches. (Pub. L. 111–267, title IX, § 904, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2836.) § 18404. National space technology policy (a) In general The President or the President’s designee, in consultation with appropriate Federal agencies, shall develop a national policy to guide the space technology development programs of the United States through 2020. The policy shall in- clude national goals for technology development and shall describe the role and responsibilities of each Federal agency that will carry out the policy. In developing the policy, the President or the President’s designee shall utilize external studies that have been conducted on the state of United States technology development and have suggested policies to ensure continued competi- tiveness. (b) Content (1) At a minimum, the national space tech- nology development policy shall describe for NASA— (A) the priority areas of research for tech- nology investment; (B) the basis on which and the process by which priorities for ensuing fiscal years will be selected; (C) the facilities and personnel needed to carry out the technology development pro- gram; and (D) the budget assumptions on which the policy is based, which for fiscal years 2011, 2012, and 2013 shall be the authorized level for NASA’s technology program authorized by this chapter. (2) The policy shall be based on the premise that the Federal Government has an estab- lished interest in conducting research and de- velopment programs that help preserve the role of the United States as a global leader in space technologies and their application. (3) CONSIDERATIONS.—In developing the na- tional space technology development policy, the President or the President’s designee shall consider, and include a discussion in the re- port required by subsection (c), of the fol- lowing issues: (A) The extent to which NASA should focus on long term, high-risk research or more incremental technology development, and the expected impact of that decision on the United States economy. (B) The extent to which NASA should ad- dress military and commercial needs. (C) How NASA will coordinate its tech- nology program with other Federal agencies. (D) The extent to which NASA will con- duct research in-house, fund university re- search, and collaborate on industry research and the expected impact of that mix of fund- ing on the supply of United States workers for industry. (4) CONSULTATION.—In the development of the national space technology development policy, the President or the President’s des- ignee shall consult widely with academic and industry experts and with other Federal agen- cies. The Administrator may enter into an ar- rangement with the National Academy of Sciences to help develop the policy. (c) Report (1) Policy Not later than 1 year after October 11, 2010, the President shall transmit a report setting forth national space technology policy to the appropriate committees of Congress and to the Senate Committee on Appropriations and the House of Representatives Committee on Ap- propriations. (2) Implementation Not later than 60 days after the President transmits the report required by paragraph (1) to the Congress, the Administrator shall transmit a report to the same committees de- scribing how NASA will carry out the policy. (Pub. L. 111–267, title IX, § 906, Oct. 11, 2010, 124 Stat. 2836.) § 18405. Commercial Reusable Suborbital Re- search Program (a) In general The report of the National Academy of Sciences, Revitalizing NASA’s Suborbital Pro- gram: Advancing Science, Driving Innovation and Developing Workforce, found that sub- orbital science missions were absolutely critical to building an aerospace workforce capable of meeting the needs of current and future human and robotic space exploration. (b) Management The Administrator shall designate an officer or employee of the Space Technology Program to act as the responsible official for the Com- mercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program in the Space Technology Program. The designee 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