Simington Wants Washington to Unleash the Space Economy

WASHINGTON, Nov. 26, 2024 –  Nathan Simington, a Republican serving on the Federal Communications Commission, is advocating for an easier permitting process for space companies hoping to follow the lead of Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Simington, who joined the agency in 2020, noted in a Sunday opinion in The Hill that companies operating in the space industry facec myriad regulatory hurdles to get off the ground. Simington noted that some companies may have to confer with up to seven different federal agencies before launching a rocket.

In order to reduce complexity, Simington asserted that Trump should issue an executive order to streamline space permitting.

“A future Trump administration can, and should, harmonize and simplify the process of getting America’s most exciting startups onto a SpaceX rocket, launched and into operation,” Simington said. “Get every unnecessary cook out of the kitchen. Create a single point of regulatory contact. Create a uniform playbook.”

Simington argued that the incoming Trump administration should take a page from the book of President Obama’s Deputy Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Lori Garver.

“Garver cut red tape, fast-tracked projects, cultivated relationships with private space companies, sourced funding and, most importantly, prevented regulatory retrenchment and agency domain capture in launch,” Simington said. “I am a Trump-appointed Republican regulator, but I have no compunctions about stealing good ideas wherever I find them. Our approach to the next chapter of space innovation should be Garveresque.”

Simington noted that improvements to the FCC’s regulatory environment were readily available, but that a regulatory overhaul of just one agency would not be enough.

He argued that the Trump administration should “create one point of regulatory contact” for companies aiming to launch into the space sector.