Thursday, June 19 | 8:30 AM ET | 2025 International Space Development Conference
Location: Rosen Centre Hotel, 9840 International Dr, Orlando, FL 32819
Delivering the first keynote address at the 43rd International Space Development Conference (ISDC), TechFreedom’s Jim Dunstan and Libertas Institute’s Rees Empey unveiled a new joint project: “A Blueprint to Launch.” The project aims to roll out state “regulatory sandboxes” for outer space companies.
“Governments looking to regulate the next generation of outer space companies often are forced to use existing regulations that just don’t fit well with these new technologies and services,” said TechFreedom Senior Counsel Jim Dunstan, a commercial outer space attorney with over 40 years of experience. “Regulators end up doing ‘goofy stupid stuff,’ as one aerospace veteran told me, that seriously impedes progress in building out a space economy.”
“It’s important to understand that these regulatory sandboxes don’t waive public safety regulations,” continued Dunstan. “They won’t let you build a rocket test stand in your suburban backyard. Instead, they’ll allow regulators, working with industry, to cut through red tape and inappropriate regulations.”
“A regulatory sandbox allows space industry entities to temporarily offer their products and services in a controlled environment for three or more years,” said Rees Empey, Senior Director of State Government Affairs at the Libertas Institute. “Regulatory sandboxes have proven effective in Financial Technology and other sectors, and space is the next logical place to find ways to unburden this important sector of the U.S. economy.”
The Blueprint to Launch team has already drafted bills for New Mexico and Oklahoma, as well as a Model Bill that can be adapted for all states.
Download A Blueprint to Launch here, and if you know anyone in the aerospace industry, ask them to fill out the questionnaire on the website that is being used to build the case for state regulatory sandboxes.
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Find the registration on our website, and share it on Twitter and Bluesky. We can be reached for comment at media@techfreedom.org. Read our related work, including:
- Libertas Institute: ‘Your State Needs a Sandbox’ Webpage
- We need a National Space Council to chart our future in outer space, SpaceNews (Jan. 23, 2025)
- Regulating Outer Space: Of Gaps, Overlaps, and Stovepipes, Center for Growth and Opportunity (July 10, 2023)
- Tech Policy Podcast #349: The State of Space Exploration (July 25, 2023)
- Regulating the space economy is vital for America’s continued global leadership, Washington Examiner (July 15, 2023)
- Written testimony before the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology on U.S. leadership in commercial space (July 13, 2023)
- Tech Policy Podcast #348: The State of Space Regulation (July 11, 2023)
About TechFreedom: TechFreedom is a nonprofit, nonpartisan technology policy think tank. We work to chart a path forward for policymakers towards a bright future where technology enhances freedom, and freedom enhances technology.
About Libertas Institute: Libertas Institute is an award-winning think tank that has changed 100+ laws—two dozen of them the first of their kind in the entire country—and improved the lives of millions.
