Sens. Ted Cruz, Roger Wicker, Krysten Sinema and Maria Cantwell have collaborated to create a bill to help NASA direct its human spaceflight activities, SpaceNews reported Friday. The unnamed legislation follows a filed Mars exploration bill in 2017 and will support commercial space initiatives for manned Moon missions by 2024.
Sen. Cantwell said that the bill may also address concerns on the usage of a 24-gigahertz band for 5G services. NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration advised that the frequency may interfere satellite measurements of atmospheric water vapor and compromise weather forecasts.
“We have a challenge that we’re trying to help NASA with, which is not to give away spectrum that allows them and NOAA to have the best forecasting information,†said Cantwell.
The Senate also unveiled the One Small Step to Protect Human Heritage in Space Act to protect Apollo 11 and lunar landing sites.
