Exclusive-Biden administration to ease restrictions on space-related exports to allies

By Karen Freifeld

(Reuters) -The Biden administration is easing export restrictions on U.S. commercial space companies to ship certain satellite and spacecraft-related items to allies and partners on Thursday, two people familiar with the matter said.

The changes are intended to make it easier for the growing U.S. commercial space industry to expand sales while also protecting national security and foreign policy interests.

U.S. space companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX, and large defense contractors with space units like Lockheed Martin (NYSE:), L3Harris Technologies (NYSE:) and Boeing (NYSE:), could benefit from the new rules.

Certain items involving remote sensing spacecraft or space-based logistics assembly, and servicing spacecraft will no longer need licenses for shipment to Australia, Canada, and the United Kingdom, one person said.

The rules could also help the U.S. push ahead with the trilateral AUKUS security pact between Britain, the U.S. and Australia formed in 2021 to respond to China’s growing power in the Indo-Pacific region. Part of the pact is focused on technology sharing.

Some less sensitive satellite and spacecraft parts and components will no longer require licenses for shipment to over 40 countries, the person said. The countries include Canada, Australia, Japan, South Korea and most of the European Union, the second person said.

In addition, the Commerce Department will do away with license requirements for the least sensitive items like electrical connectors for most of the world, but not countries of concern like Russia and China, the people said.

The changes will be made in new rules due out from the Commerce Department on Thursday, the first person familiar with the matter said.

The rules come in response to an advanced notice of proposed rulemaking from nearly five years ago and a December 2023 National Space Council request.

After the 2019 notice came out, SpaceX urged the US to consider ways to “streamline export control regulations for US commercial space industry to lower administrative burden, decrease regulatory compliance costs and increase exports thereby bolstering the US space commercial sector and industrial base.”

The easing is expected to help expand SpaceX’s footprint abroad as it develops Starship, the company’s reusable next-generation rocket.

SpaceX and officials from the Pentagon and Australia are discussing plans to test-land a Starship rocket off the coast of Australia and bring it ashore for recovery, Reuters reported in July. The Starship arrangement could open the door to a greater SpaceX presence in Australia.