Somerset Times

The House of Representatives has passed H.R. 6219, the Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act (ASCEND Act). This legislation aims to permanently authorize the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition program within NASA.

Introduced by Congressman Tom Kean, Jr. (NJ-07) and Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (OR-01), the bipartisan bill provides statutory authority for the program, which was initially established as a pilot in 2017. The program acquires commercial small-satellite data to support NASA's earth science research.

"Passing the ASCEND Act demonstrates our strong commitment to NASA's commercial operators and public-private partnerships," said Congressman Kean. "These efforts are essential for advancing human exploration and ensuring America’s leadership in space innovation. The ASCEND Act will provide access to data sets and imagery from the commercial space sector, supporting critical scientific research and paving the way for a sustainable future for generations to come. I thank my House colleagues for supporting my bill and look forward to seeing this on the Senate floor soon."

Congresswoman Bonamici also expressed her support: "The bipartisan ASCEND Act is a commonsense solution to help researchers benefit from the vast, high-quality data available from commercial satellites to better understand climate change, natural disasters, and earth sciences. I’m grateful that the House passed this legislation and I will continue advocating with Rep. Kean for the Senate to schedule a vote on the bill."

The ASCEND Act would establish CSDA as a permanent program within NASA’s Earth Science Division, direct NASA to expand procurement licenses for federal agencies' access to high-quality Earth remote sensing datasets and imagery, promote new datasets acquisition for various applications, and require an annual report to Congress on commercial data products' uses and impacts.

Congressman Kean serves on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee.