U.S. Government Plans Review Of Space Technology Export Controls

COLORADO SPRINGS — The State and Commerce Departments will start a process this summer to update space systems on export control lists, potentially lessening the restrictions on some technologies.

Speaking at the 39 th Space Symposium April 9, Chirag Parikh, executive secretary of the National Space Council, said the upcoming review was needed to reflect rapid changes in space capabilities since the last time space export controls were reformed in the early 2010s.

"It's been over a decade since we had the last significant amount of export control review on space technology," he said. "I think the technology has evolved. I think the global capabilities of space have evolved."

Parikh said the plan is for the State Department and Commerce Department to release an advance notification for potential rulemaking in mid-June. That will consider what technologies currently on the U.S. Munitions List, which is administered by the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR), could be moved to the Commercial Control List, which is under the less restrictive Export Administration Regulations (EAR).

The notification does not mean any technologies will be moved from ITAR to EAR, but it will solicit comment on what technologies should be considered. "We encourage you to provide official responses when that comes out," he said, "and we look forward to being able to further facilitate some of the efforts going on here."

"While we've made progress, technology also moves on. If we don⁘t evolve our export control rules to cover what⁘s happening now, we're going to find ourselves in the exact same place we were a decade ago," said Mike Gold, chief growth officer at Redwire and who previously advocated for export control reforms, during a panel at the FAA Commercial Space Transportation Conference in February.

Parikh said he was aware of the need to keep U.S. companies competitive through updated export controls. "We need to make sure that we have a fair and level playing field so we have competition globally and we can also enable partnerships along the way as well."

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