Today, TechFreedom filed comments in response to the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s (OSTP) Request for Information (RFI) on a national science and technology strategy for U.S. activities in cislunar space (the region beyond geostationary orbit and out to the vicinity of the Moon). In our comments, we note the technical standards, research, and development the U.S. government should prioritize to help advance a robust, cooperative, and sustainable ecosystem in cislunar space over the next 10 to 50 years.

“OSTP’s focus in the current endeavor should be to both utilize existing commercial space capabilities and to foster research and development of new commercial capabilities in cislunar space,” said James E. Dunstan, TechFreedom’s General Counsel. “Science alone cannot be the ultimate driver for cislunar development.” 

“A top-down, government procured program for developing cislunar space will suffer the same fate as each attempted return to the Moon since Apollo,” Dunstan continued. 

“In all of these areas, the government should support basic research efforts, but fully engage with commercial industry to both draw from their expertise and develop exit strategies to fully transition the technology to the private sector for commercial implementation,” Dunstan concluded. 

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TechFreedom is a non-profit, non-partisan 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.

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