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Space Government

Please Don't Cut Funds For Space Traffic Control, Industry Begs Congress (theregister.com) 49

Posted by BeauHD from the slated-for-the-chopping-block dept.
Major space industry players -- including SpaceX, Boeing, and Blue Origin -- are urging Congress to maintain funding for the TraCSS space traffic coordination program, warning that eliminating it would endanger satellite safety and potentially drive companies abroad. Under the proposed FY 2026 budget, the Office of Space Commerce's funding would be cut from $65 million to just $10 million. "That $55M cut is accomplished by eliminating the Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) program," reports The Register. From the report: "One of OSC's most important functions is to provide space traffic coordination support to US satellite operators, similar to the Federal Aviation Administration's role in air traffic control," stated letters from space companies including SpaceX, Boeing, Blue Origin, and others. The letters argue that safe space operations "in an increasingly congested space domain" are critical for modern services like broadband satellite internet and weather forecasting, but that's not all. "Likewise, a safe space operating environment is vital for continuity of national security space missions such as early warning of missile attacks on deployed US military forces," the letters added.

Industry trade groups sent the letters to the Democratic and Republican leadership of the House and Senate budget subcommittees for Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies, claiming to represent more than 450 US companies in the space, satellite, and defense sectors. The letters argue for the retention of the OSC's FY 2025 budget of $65 million, as well as keeping control of space traffic coordination within the purview of the Department of Commerce, under which the OSC is nested, and not the Department of Defense, where it was previously managed. "Successive administrations have recognized on a bipartisan basis that space traffic coordination is a global, commercial-facing function best managed by a civilian agency," the companies explained. "Keeping space traffic coordination within the Department of Commerce preserves military resources for core defense missions and prevents the conflation of space safety with military control."

In the budget request document, the government explained the Commerce Department was unable to complete "a government owned and operated public-facing database and traffic coordination system" in a timely manner. The private sector, meanwhile, "has proven they have the capability and the business model to provide civil operators" with the necessary space tracking data. But according to the OSC, TraCSS would have been ready for operations by January 2026, raising the question of why the government would kill the program so late in the game.

Please Don't Cut Funds For Space Traffic Control, Industry Begs Congress More | Reply

Please Don't Cut Funds For Space Traffic Control, Industry Begs Congress

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  • AIDS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by fluffernutter ( 1411889 ) on Saturday July 12, 2025 @06:26AM (#65514874)
    Trump doesn't care what damage his cuts cause. A person who cuts HIV/AIDS support that millions of people will die without clearly feels comfortable enough in his own bubble that the rest of the world can fall apart and he doesn't care.

    • Always good to get the insight of a mind-reader. Telepathy is an unappreciated talent on earth.

      • Did he bother to ask anyone if cutting a billion dollars to a medical aid program would harm people? Is that really a question that needs to be asked?

        • Maybe, maybe not. But disagreeing with you doesn't prove he didn't care.

          • So your argument is that we can not expect Trump to know, or for any of his staff to know, something that is a complete logical inevitability from their actions. Even though every world leader and in fact 80% of the US can see this as the only possible result, if it flies over the Trump administrations head then we should just accept that as a consequence of him being elected.

            • The difference between knowing and not carrying. And the whole 'why'. Knowing how Trump has so often framed these actions, I suspect he sees the US global contribution as substantially out of proportion to that of the rest of the world. Regions severely impacted by AIDS are notably poorer and less able to fund their own programs. Whether we've spent more than we ought to have been expected to I do not know.

              • Ok but it doesn't really matter why he is doing it, since there can't possibly be a good enough reason to let 4 million people die. Even if the US could pay the entire debt by killing 4 million people, that would not be a justification to kill them.

              • I suspect he sees the US global contribution as substantially out of proportion to that of the rest of the world.

                That just shows that he's ignorant as well as heartless. If you make a list of countries sorted by the percentage of GNP they give as foreign aid the US doesn't even make the top ten. Trump, though, he just sees that the US has the bigliest number (despite the fact that the US is a distant second to the EU collectively).

              • Re: (Score:2)

                by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

                The difference between knowing and not carrying. And the whole 'why'. Knowing how Trump has so often framed these actions, I suspect he sees the US global contribution as substantially out of proportion to that of the rest of the world. Regions severely impacted by AIDS are notably poorer and less able to fund their own programs. Whether we've spent more than we ought to have been expected to I do not know.

                It's a "soft power" thing. Soft power is not Trump's strong suit - he's a very transactional guy. Soft

      • Always good to get the insight of a mind-reader. Telepathy is an unappreciated talent on earth.

        You don't need to be a mind-reader, just to possess a function pair of ears. Even just one ear will do.
        Have you ever heard Trump say anything that sounded remotely like genuine compassion for another person?

  • Looks like someone wants to move TraCSS to the military.

    • From the source [noaa.gov], page 300.

      To implement this policy directive, DOC was tasked to make releasable portions of the catalog available to the public either directly or through a partnership with industry and/or academia. DOC was also tasked to assess whether statutory and regulatory changes are necessary to affect this change in responsibilities.

      Under the prior administration, DOC was unable to complete a government owned and operated public-facing database and traffic coordination system. In the convening time,

  • Ground control to Major Tom (Score:5, Funny)

    by greytree ( 7124971 ) on Saturday July 12, 2025 @06:34AM (#65514888)
    Ground control to Major Tom
    Our circuit's dead, our funding's gone.
    Can you hear me, Major Tom?
    Can you hear me, Major Tom?
    Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you-

    Here am I floating 'round my tin can
    Far above the moon
    Planet Earth is fucked
    The cunts choose Trump and Musk.
  • Place a tax on every satellite or piece of space debris left in orbit as long as it is in orbit. Currently there are 45,000 objects orbiting earth. That would be a tax of $1,200 per year for each object. This would also provide an incentive for operators to not leave junk in orbit. Some enterprising company could make money collecting up the space junk. You would not have to deorbit it just collect it. If its not a separate trackable object it does not pay the tax. So the collector could charge the junk pro
    • How, pray tell, is the U.S. supposed to enforce a tax on objects launched by/belonging to other nations and located in a place (space), where by international treaty no country possesses sovereignty? And do so ex post facto, at that?

      Maybe, just maybe, they could get away with doing so for future objects launched under the authority of the U.S. as a condition of granting a launch license, but even that would be a hard sell, since a failed launch where a craft breaks up into multiple objects would result n
      • The US prides itself in applying its own laws to its citizens all around the world. There's no reason to expect it couldn't charge a US company a tax on satellites in space. Frankly, a lot of satellites are owned by Elon, I could totally see Trump signing an executive order just to fuck with Starlink.
      • Well they could deny info to other countries unless they pay. Negotiate a treaty with other countries to cover space junk. If they use US rockets to launch they would have to agree to pay. Taxing US companies who left old junk in orbit is not hard just pass the law. The government creates new taxes all the time. Taxing defunct companies is not possible. The government itself is responsible for some of the junk so would have to pay. May tariffs on communications transmitted by Foreign countries that pass th

  • So things are going to get real bad real fast (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Saturday July 12, 2025 @10:31AM (#65515146)
    When Trump was President last time he couldn't do a lot of the really bad shit because he had hired competent people out of habit and they just wouldn't let him do all the crazy shit like try to end birthright citizenship or do a fuck ton of illegal tariffs using fake emergencies or firing everybody in the government so you can replace them with cronies that will let you crown yourself King

    So in order to be able to do all the crazy crap in project 2025 that is just going to wreck the economy like it did in the 1800s where the policies came from he hired yes men the worst kind.

    So you have lunatics like Robert f Kennedy Jr and completely incompetent buffoons like Christi Noem.

    These people are evil. But they're also staggeringly incompetent. This means that no matter how much money corporations and lobbyists have the people they are lobbying are going to be so dumb that they can't even do the things they're being bribed to do.

    I don't think anyone especially Trump voters have come to terms with just how badly we fucked up letting him get a second term.

    People are calling him Taco because Trump always chickens out. But they're misunderstanding something.

    First, Trump is a senile old man. He isn't doing anything it's a bunch of heritage foundation goons running the show.

    and second they're not chickening out they are testing the limits of what they can get away with.

    And all the while they're doing that they are completely fucking incompetent because they're a bunch of psychopathic nepo babies.

    In 4 years about half the people reading this will have lost their houses like 2008 on steroids. Only this time they're on to cheap apartments for you guys to move into so you're going to be living down by the river. And I guarantee you anyone reading this has already convinced themselves they aren't going to be in that half. And I'll be voting for Trump in 2028.

    • I'll be keeping your comment handy. And keeping score. Four years from now, we'll see...

      Of course, Trump won't run in 2028, but the future isn't clear to me yet.

      • Unless Trump is so completely senile that all the sane washing in the world can't hide it he will run. And you will vote for him unless you are not american. Which you might be we've got a lot of Russian trolls floating around here trying to lessen the immediate impact of the big beautiful bill so that people will forget it in time for the midterms.

        But you won't make any comments. When you lose your house, again assuming you're American and not a foreign agent or asset, then you're not going to go to a

        • Despite continuing hallucinations from all corners of the extreme, Trump is constitutionally ineligible for reelection in '28. At least many knowledgeable in that are believe so. I agree.

          I'm an American, not a bot or agent. But it's cheap to insert that variable, I understand.

          I don't though the economy is going to tank over the next 4 or even 8 years. But I'm not a fortune teller.

          Things have 'been' real bad. You notice at all?

          Aside from the TDS, you're not making enough sense to excuse you from relying on t

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by caseih ( 160668 )

            Trump advisors have already stated point blank they are actively working on ways to end run the constitution and have him run for a third term. Besides that, he hasn't paid any attention to the constitution up until now, and his base is totally fine with it. We're in a very interesting era now where the constitution, and the rule of law, no longer applies to the most powerful (unless of course they fall out with trump). If Trump runs for a third term, I can pretty much guarantee he'll run for a forth, fi

            • "the next guy is definitely going to use all the power that Trump amassed, along with presidential immunity from law, to its full extent. That is very scary."

              Assuming the next guy is a guy, I'm sure future Presidents will take as examples all that has transpired before. As if ethics are the exclusive province of one political party rather than another. If you think party affiliation is any measure of character you're more deluded than is tolerable in honest company. Prove me wrong.

  • American in 2025 (Score:3, Interesting)

    by ArchieBunker ( 132337 ) on Saturday July 12, 2025 @10:43AM (#65515152)

    What a shit show. Essential services have to beg to continue operating. Notice how a bunch of people died in a Texas flood and they shut up about getting rid of FEMA?

  • Mistake mentions:

    1. "weather forecasting"

    2. "Successive administrations"

    3. suggesting drunken pete can't do the job

    now instead of going down from $65 million to $10 it will go to $0

  • Fee funded (Score:3)

    by Geodesy99 ( 1002847 ) on Saturday July 12, 2025 @01:19PM (#65515438)
    For Traffic Coordination System for Space (TraCSS) to be sustainable long term and not vulnerable to political whims, the funding should be analogous to how aviation works ( like landing fees, gate slot rental, etc. ) which are aligned and proportional to the benefit received. Spread over the entire orbital industry, that amount of money is trivial to players like SpaceX, Amazon, etc. Really no different than tech companies contribution to Open Source software projects for building and maintaining common infrastructure.

  • The companies complaining to Congress about a $55MM cut could easily fund it themselves.

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