15 U.S.C. § 5601 : US Code - Section 5601: Findings

Search 15 U.S.C. § 5601 : US Code - Section 5601: Findings

The Congress finds and declares the following:
(1) The continuous collection and utilization of land remote
sensing data from space are of major benefit in studying and
understanding human impacts on the global environment, in
managing the Earth's natural resources, in carrying out national
security functions, and in planning and conducting many other
activities of scientific, economic, and social importance.
(2) The Federal Government's Landsat system established the
United States as the world leader in land remote sensing
technology.
(3) The national interest of the United States lies in
maintaining international leadership in satellite land remote
sensing and in broadly promoting the beneficial use of remote
sensing data.
(4) The cost of Landsat data has impeded the use of such data
for scientific purposes, such as for global environmental change
research, as well as for other public sector applications.
(5) Given the importance of the Landsat program to the United
States, urgent actions, including expedited procurement
procedures, are required to ensure data continuity.
(6) Full commercialization of the Landsat program cannot be
achieved within the foreseeable future, and thus should not serve
as the near-term goal of national policy on land remote sensing;
however, commercialization of land remote sensing should remain a
long-term goal of United States policy.
(7) Despite the success and importance of the Landsat system,
funding and organizational uncertainties over the past several
years have placed its future in doubt and have jeopardized United
States leadership in land remote sensing.
(8) Recognizing the importance of the Landsat program in
helping to meet national and commercial objectives, the President
approved, on February 11, 1992, a National Space Policy Directive
which was developed by the National Space Council and commits the
United States to ensuring the continuity of Landsat coverage into
the 21st century.
(9) Because Landsat data are particularly important for
national security purposes and global environmental change
research, management responsibilities for the program should be
transferred from the Department of Commerce to an integrated
program management involving the Department of Defense and the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
(10) Regardless of management responsibilities for the Landsat
program, the Nation's broad civilian, national security,
commercial, and foreign policy interests in remote sensing will
best be served by ensuring that Landsat remains an unclassified
program that operates according to the principles of open skies
and nondiscriminatory access.
(11) Technological advances aimed at reducing the size and
weight of satellite systems hold the potential for dramatic
reductions in the cost, and substantial improvements in the
capabilities, of future land remote sensing systems, but such
technological advances have not been demonstrated for land remote
sensing and therefore cannot be relied upon as the sole means of
achieving data continuity for the Landsat program.
(12) A technology demonstration program involving advanced
remote sensing technologies could serve a vital role in
determining the design of a follow-on spacecraft to Landsat 7,
while also helping to determine whether such a spacecraft should
be funded by the United States Government, by the private sector,
or by an international consortium.
(13) To maximize the value of the Landsat program to the
American public, unenhanced Landsat 4 through 6 data should be
made available, at a minimum, to United States Government
agencies, to global environmental change researchers, and to
other researchers who are financially supported by the United
States Government, at the cost of fulfilling user requests, and
unenhanced Landsat 7 data should be made available to all users
at the cost of fulfilling user requests.
(14) To stimulate development of the commercial market for
unenhanced data and value-added services, the United States
Government should adopt a data policy for Landsat 7 which allows
competition within the private sector for distribution of
unenhanced data and value-added services.
(15) Development of the remote sensing market and the provision
of commercial value-added services based on remote sensing data
should remain exclusively the function of the private sector.
(16) It is in the best interest of the United States to
maintain a permanent, comprehensive Government archive of global
Landsat and other land remote sensing data for long-term
monitoring and study of the changing global environment.