Remote Sensing Licences: How NOAA Regulates Commercial Earth Observation Satellites

This Thursday, 15 October, brought a deadline most people outside the Earth observation industry will not have noticed. Under 15 CFR 960.8(g), every holder of a US commercial remote sensing licence must certify by 15 October each year that all the material facts in its licence remain accurate. It is a small duty, but a reminder that every private US imaging satellite, from a single CubeSat to a radar constellation, flies under a Department of Commerce licence.

That licence is one of the least understood authorisations in space law. Operators tend to think first about the FCC for spectrum and the FAA for launch. The remote sensing licence sits beside both and answers a different question: not whether the satellite can transmit or get to orbit, but whether the United States is content for a private company to collect and sell images of the Earth from it. This explainer sets out who needs one, how the 2020 tier system works, how long it takes, and what has changed since.

The legal basis

The statute is the Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992, now codified in 51 USC chapter 601. Subchapter III, sections 60121 to 60126, deals with licensing private remote sensing space systems. Section 60121 gives the Secretary of Commerce the power to license and sets the statutory deadline: a decision within 120 days of receiving an application. The Secretary’s functions are delegated to NOAA by Department Organization Order.

The regulations are in 15 CFR Part 960. The current version was adopted in a complete rewrite published on 20 May 2020, the Licensing of Private Remote Sensing Space Systems rule (85 FR 30790), which took effect on 20 July 2020. The eCFR’s version history shows Part 960 has not been amended since. Everything described below therefore rests on a six-year-old rule, even though the office applying it and the industry it governs have changed a great deal.

Remote sensing licensing also sits inside an international framework. Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty makes the United States responsible for the activities of its non-governmental entities in space and requires “authorization and continuing supervision”. The remote sensing licence is one of the ways the United States meets that duty for imaging satellites.

Who needs a licence

Section 960.2 applies Part 960 to “the operation of private remote sensing space systems within the United States or by a U.S. person.” Three definitions in section 960.4 decide whether a project is caught.

“Remote sensing” means the collection of unenhanced data by an instrument in orbit of the Earth which can be processed into imagery of surface features of the Earth. Instruments used for spacecraft operations, such as star trackers, sun sensors and horizon sensors, are expressly excluded.

A “private remote sensing space system” is an instrument capable of remote sensing that is not owned by the US government, together with everything that supports operating it, receiving its data and preprocessing that data, whoever owns those components.

To “operate” means to have decision-making authority over the instrument. Where several companies are involved, the operator is the one with the ultimate ability to decide what data to collect and to execute that decision, directly or through an arrangement with a ground station or platform owner.

That last definition matters for modern business models. A company that rents capacity on someone else’s satellite, or that buys tasking on a hosted payload, may be the “operator” for licensing purposes if it controls what the sensor collects. NOAA encourages anyone unsure to file an Initial Contact Form and consult informally before applying, and the office will say whether a licence is likely to be needed.

One more point from section 960.2(d): the remote sensing licence does not authorise the use of radio spectrum. The satellite still needs FCC authorisation for its downlinks and telemetry, and the FCC’s debris rules, including the five-year deorbit rule, apply separately.

The three tiers

The central idea of the 2020 rule is that the US government should not restrict data the market can already buy elsewhere. Section 960.6 requires NOAA, within seven days of finding an application complete and after consulting Defense and State, to place the system in one of three tiers:

Tier 1: the system can collect unenhanced data “substantially the same as” data already available from sources not licensed under Part 960, such as foreign operators.

Tier 2: the data is substantially the same as data already available, but only from other US licensees.

Tier 3: the data is not substantially the same as anything available from any domestic or foreign source. This is the category for capabilities that are new to the market.

Applicants can submit evidence of what is already available. A system stays in its tier until NOAA decides it belongs in a lower one, for example because foreign capabilities have caught up. Defense or State can ask for reconsideration of a tier decision, and can escalate a disagreement through the interagency memorandum of understanding annexed to the rule.

What the licence requires

Every licence, in every tier, carries the standard conditions in section 960.8. The licensee must comply with US law and international obligations, operate in a way that preserves national security, and, on request, offer unenhanced data of a country’s territory to that country’s government “without delay and on reasonable terms and conditions”. That last obligation reflects the 1986 UN Principles Relating to Remote Sensing of the Earth from Outer Space, which promise sensed states access to data about their territory.

The standard conditions also include end-of-life disposal “in a manner satisfactory to the President”, notification within seven days of launch, disposal, anomalies or insolvency, prior approval for any change to a material fact, the annual 15 October certification, and access for compliance inspections on at least 48 hours’ notice.

There is also a country-specific condition. The Kyl-Bingaman Amendment, in the 1997 Defense Authorization Act, bars US licences from allowing imagery of Israel more detailed than what is commercially available from other sources. In July 2020 Commerce raised the permitted resolution from 2.0 metres to 0.4 metres ground sample distance, and section 960.8(i) applies that limit to every licensee.

Tier 2 and Tier 3 licences add more. The licensee must be able, at all times, to comply with “limited-operations directives”, which require it to limit collection or distribution temporarily during periods of heightened national security concern or where needed to meet international obligations. In the industry this has long been called shutter control. To be ready for such a directive, the operator must be able to use NIST-approved encryption with keys of at least 256 bits for tracking, telemetry and control links and for the affected data, and must take measures consistent with industry best practice to prevent and detect unauthorised access. That is one of the few binding cybersecurity requirements in US space regulation, a point worth keeping in mind when reading the voluntary approach in the Satellite Cybersecurity Act.

Tier 3 systems can also receive temporary conditions requested by Defense or State. Under section 960.10, each lasts no more than a year, can be extended twice, and so cannot exceed three years in total unless the Secretary of Defense or State personally asks for more. In August 2023, when the first set of these conditions reached their limit, NOAA removed 39 of them, including all temporary conditions on X-band synthetic aperture radar systems. A small number were kept at the request of the Secretary of Defense and must be revalidated each year.

Finally, section 960.11 is a quiet but important protection. No other conditions may be included in a licence, or imposed afterwards, except through the modification and enforcement procedures in the rule. The 2020 rule replaced open-ended, negotiated licences with a closed list.

How long it takes

The timetable in the rule is tighter than the statute. Under section 960.5, NOAA has seven days to decide whether an application is complete. Under section 960.7, it then has 60 days to grant or deny the licence. The Secretary “will presume that the applicant will comply” unless there is “specific, credible evidence to the contrary.” If 60 days pass without a decision, the applicant can ask for the licence to be granted, and NOAA must grant it within three days unless it has that specific, credible evidence or both sides agree to extend.

In practice the office now moves faster still. A January 2025 Commerce report on its space accomplishments said NOAA had reduced approval timelines to an average of 21 days, eliminated dozens of licence conditions, and started building an online portal. A Paperwork Reduction Act notice published the same month named that portal the Commerce Licensing and Compliance System for Space and said application, modification, notification and compliance forms would move onto it.

The statute has not caught up. Section 60121(c) still allows 120 days. The Commercial Remote Sensing Amendment Act of 2025 (H.R. 1325), sponsored by Representative Frank Lucas with Representative Zoe Lofgren, would cut that to 60 days and require Commerce to report every application and licence by tier, with reasons for each tier decision, along with all conditions imposed. The House passed it by voice vote on 24 March 2025. According to the bill status record, it was referred to the Senate Commerce Committee the next day and has not moved since.

Enforcement uses the authorities in 51 USC 60123(a). Section 960.16 prohibits operating without a licence, breaching a condition, giving false information or changing a material fact without approval.

An office on the move

The office that runs this system has had a turbulent few years. Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs sat within NOAA’s satellite service for most of its existence. Following a November 2022 decision, it was merged into the Office of Space Commerce, which became a NOAA staff office. The Office of Space Commerce’s own legal page describes it, under Department Organization Order 25-5, as “the principal unit for commercial space policy and regulatory activities within NOAA and the Department”, with remote sensing licensing among its functions.

Then came Executive Order 14335 of 13 August 2025, “Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry”. Section 6(b) directed the Secretary of Commerce, within 60 days, to “elevate the Office of Space Commerce into the Office of the Secretary.” When Secretary Lutnick appointed Taylor Jordan as director on 2 December 2025, Commerce said it was “working to establish” the office within the Office of the Secretary. NOAA’s FY2027 budget justification now proposes transferring the Office of Space Commerce, with 45 positions and about $53.2 million, from NOAA to Departmental Management.

For licensees, the legal test stays the same wherever the office sits. What may change is priorities. Section 5 of the same executive order asked Commerce to propose a process for individualised mission authorisation for novel space activities not covered by existing regimes. If the Office of Space Commerce becomes that authoriser as well as the remote sensing licensor, imaging licences will be one part of a larger Commerce authorisation function, sitting next to new activities such as the in-orbit servicing missions discussed in our piece on mission authorisation.

What I would watch

The first is whether Commerce reopens Part 960. The 2020 rule was written before very-low-orbit imaging, large commercial radar constellations and hyperspectral services became mainstream. A July 2024 listening session asked industry how the rule and its implementing practices were working, and the office has also sought views on satellite disposal requirements. Neither has produced a proposed rule yet.

The second is the Senate. H.R. 1325 is short and uncontroversial, and it would put the 60-day practice into statute and require tier-by-tier transparency. If the 119th Congress ends without Senate action, it lapses.

The third is the reorganisation. Moving the office into the Office of the Secretary is meant to raise its profile. The risk is disruption to a small licensing team that has, by its own figures, become fast. Applicants should watch for any change in contact points, the portal, or delegation orders.

The fourth is the tier system itself. As foreign commercial imagery improves, more US systems should drift down to Tier 1, and the national security conditions should shrink. The annual report that H.R. 1325 would require is the best way to see whether that is happening. Without it, outsiders cannot easily tell.

Anuj KumarEditor-in-Chief

Anuj Kumar is the founder of Legal Desire Media and publishes Fashion Law Journal and Space Law Journal.

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