OUTPACE in Space Act

This Act may be cited as the Optimizing United States Technology to Preempt Adversarial Communist Expansion in Space Act or the OUTPACE in Space Act.

It is the sense of Congress that—

(1) the commercial space transportation industry and the emerging hypersonic industry will remain a critical component of the competitiveness of the United States;

(2) to support the growth of the industries described in paragraph (1), the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration should ensure that such industries have access to the national airspace while maintaining aviation safety; and

(3) the Administrator should continue to ensure public health and safety, and improve airspace management access for commercial space and hypersonics users.

Not later than 60 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, in collaboration with the Secretary of Defense and other relevant department heads, shall brief Congress on—

(A) plans to meet the growing airspace needs of commercial space and hypersonics;

(B) plans to maintain current and future air traffic operations in the national airspace system while meeting the needs described in subparagraph (A); and

(C) a process for implementing section 630 of the FAA Reauthorization Act of 2024 (Public Law 118–63).

The Administrator shall estimate the resources needed to accomplish the goals described in paragraph (1) and identify any legislative barriers or recommendations to ensure sufficient airspace access for commercial space and hypersonics.

Upon enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a blanket waiver of 450.101(c) for all reentry vehicles until a final rule is published as described in subparagraph (D).

Not later than 3 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue advanced notice of a proposed rulemaking to amend sections 450.101, 450.108, and 450.135 of title 14, Code of Federal Regulations, to ensure that, with respect to conditional expected casualty for reentry vehicles, risk considerations support the development and authorization of overland launch and reentry operations.

Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a notice of proposed rulemaking, as described in subparagraph (B).

Not later than 1 year after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall issue a final rule based on the proposed rule issued under subparagraph (C).

Not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall initiate the process to develop or update regulations to ensure that risk considerations support the development and authorization of overland launch and reentry operations.

To enable high cadence launch and reentry operations by United States licensed companies, the Secretary of Transportation shall, using the authority under chapter 509 of title 51, United States Code, maximize use of performance-based requirements and issue, not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, advisory circulars that provide alternative methods of compliance that are limited by prescriptive approaches, including for the determination of the probability of failure requirements and regulations with preset timelines.

The Secretary of Transportation shall prioritize equitable and efficient integration of commercial space operations into the national airspace system, and take all steps to safely increase the annual cadence of domestic commercial launches and reentries.

Not later than 90 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary shall submit to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a report on specific planned actions and required resources to meaningfully increase the ability of the national airspace system to support launch and reentry operations, with specific detail on how many additional launches and reentries per year such improved processes and technologies would enable compared to current baselines.

Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration may appoint qualified candidates with specialized knowledge in aerospace engineering or related fields to positions in the Office of Commercial Space Transportation within 30 days of identifying a such a qualified candidate without regard to competitive service requirements, examinations, or public notice.

Not later than 45 days after the date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator shall provide to the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate a briefing on the implementation of this subsection.

Administrator shall maintain on the website of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation the following information:

(i) How long vacancies for positions described in paragraph (1) have been pending.

(ii) How many vacancies at the Office of Commercial Space Transportation have been addressed using the authority under such paragraph (1).

Neither the Secretary of Commerce nor the Secretary of Transportation may carry out any research or a development initiative related to commercial space activities with any entity of concern, a foreign business entity, or a foreign country of concern.

In this section:

The term entity of concern has the meaning given such term in section 10114 of the Research and Development, Competition, and Innovation Act (42 U.S.C. 18912).

The term foreign business entity means an entity that is—

(A) organized under, or otherwise subject to, the laws of a foreign country of concern;

(B) a governmental organization of a foreign country of concern; or

(C) owned or controlled (as such term is defined in section 800.208 of title 31, Code of Federal Regulations, or a successor regulation) by—

(i) any governmental organization of a foreign country of concern; or

(ii) any other entity that is organized under, or otherwise subject to, the laws of a foreign country of concern.

The term foreign country of concern has the meaning given such term in section 9901 of title XCIX of division H of the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2021 (15 U.S.C. 4651).