US no longer lists satellites as weapons

Satellites are no longer weapons, according to a change in US anti-arms trafficking law. The move gives hope to commercial spaceflight companies wanting to sell their technology on the global market rather than just within the US. However, the focus on Earth-orbiting craft means deep-space missions could still be hampered by onerous security laws.

On 3 January, President Barack Obama authorised a revision of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations law. Since 1999, ITAR listed US satellites and related technology as munitions with strict limits on exports to foreign powers ? much to the annoyance of satellite makers. They say they cannot earn what they need to stay innovative without selling advanced technology abroad.

The updated law takes Earth-orbiting satellites and technologies off the list, although the president retains veto power, and the ruling doesn't apply to some countries, including China, Iran and North Korea.

Free space

Alex Saltman of the Commercial Spaceflight Federation in Washington DC hopes the relaxation of rules will in future be extended to other space-tourism equipment such as crew capsules, which remain restricted by ITAR.

"Space technologies that in the past had primarily military uses, or which had mixed military and civilian uses, are becoming primarily commercial and therefore should be regulated as such," says Saltman. "While there is no immediate effect ? there is nothing that is allowed now that was not allowed a month ago ? we are a big step down the road toward loosening restrictions."

The new rules should also allow US students who aren't citizens to access computer data and documents from US aerospace companies, which they had been denied until now. So says Sara Seager, a planetary scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, whose students design and build small satellites called CubeSats.

But major issues remain, Seager says, such as what will happen to international collaborations on more far-ranging probes. For instance, her students are designing instruments for the OSIRIS-REx mission to an asteroid, and it's unclear how the new rules might impact her non-US students.

"Why did they focus on satellites that orbit Earth and not spacecraft that go beyond Earth?" she says. "It's not clear whether the government can fix this language before it is written up into regulations."

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