ALSTAR Act

American Leadership in Space Technology and Advanced Rocketry Act or the ALSTAR Act

This bill directs the Marshall Space Flight Center of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) in Huntsville, Alabama, to provide national leadership in rocket propulsion by carrying out specified activities, including:

• contributing to interagency coordination to preserve critical national rocket propulsion capabilities;
• collaborating with industry, academia, and professional organizations to most effectively use national capabilities and resources;
• monitoring public- and private-sector rocket propulsion activities to develop and promote a strong, healthy rocket propulsion industrial base; and
• evaluating and recommending new rocket propulsion technologies for further development.

[Congressional Bills 115th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 5345 Introduced in House (IH)]

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115th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 5345

     To designate the Marshall Space Flight Center of the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide leadership for the U.S. 
       rocket propulsion industrial base, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             March 20, 2018

 Mr. Brooks of Alabama (for himself and Mr. Smith of Texas) introduced 
  the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Science, 
                         Space, and Technology

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
     To designate the Marshall Space Flight Center of the National 
Aeronautics and Space Administration to provide leadership for the U.S. 
       rocket propulsion industrial base, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``American Leadership in Space 
Technology and Advanced Rocketry Act'' or the ``ALSTAR Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds the following:
            (1) Rocket propulsion is an enabling technology for our 
        Nation's future prosperous way of life.
            (2) Rocket propulsion technologies are critical to national 
        security, intelligence gathering, communications, weather 
        forecasting, navigation, communications, entertainment, land 
        use, Earth observation, and scientific exploration.
            (3) The rocket propulsion industry is a source of high-
        quality jobs.
            (4) Multiple Federal agencies and companies are involved in 
        rocket propulsion research, development, and manufacturing.
            (5) Integration, coordination, and cooperation would 
        strengthen the United States rocket propulsion industrial base.
            (6) Erosion of the rocket propulsion industrial base would 
        seriously impact national security, space exploration 
        potential, and economic growth.
            (7) The Marshall Space Flight Center has decades of 
        experience working with other Government agencies and industry 
        partners to study and coordinate these capabilities.
            (8) The Marshall Space Flight Center has made historic and 
        unique contributions--
                    (A) by bringing stakeholders together to work on 
                rocket propulsion industrial base sustainment;
                    (B) of technical expertise to key studies and 
                review boards; and
                    (C) by consistently participating in interagency 
                working groups to address rocket propulsion issues.

SEC. 3. ROCKET PROPULSION LEADERSHIP.

    (a) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that the 
Marshall Space Flight Center is the National Aeronautics and Space 
Administration's lead center for rocket propulsion and is essential to 
sustaining and promoting U.S. leadership in rocket propulsion and 
developing the next generation of rocket propulsion capabilities.
    (b) Leadership in Rocket Propulsion.--The Marshall Space Flight 
Center shall provide national leadership in rocket propulsion by--
            (1) contributing to interagency coordination for the 
        preservation of critical national rocket propulsion 
        capabilities;
            (2) collaborating with industry, academia, and professional 
        organizations to most effectively use national capabilities and 
        resources;
            (3) monitoring public- and private-sector rocket propulsion 
        activities to develop and promote a strong, healthy rocket 
        propulsion industrial base;
            (4) facilitating technical solutions for existing and 
        emerging rocket propulsion challenges;
            (5) supporting the development and refinement of rocket 
        propulsion for small satellites;
            (6) evaluating and recommending, as appropriate, new rocket 
        propulsion technologies for further development; and
            (7) providing information required by national 
        decisionmakers so that policies and other instruments of the 
        Government support the development and strengthening of the 
        Nation's rocket propulsion capabilities throughout the 21st 
        century.
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