LAND REMOTE SENSING POLICY ACT OF 1992 Public Law 102-555, as amended LAND REMOTE SENSING POLICY ACT OF 1992 555 111–314 Statute Compilation United States House of Representatives Office of the Legislative Counsel text/xml EN Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain. GPO Statute Compilations USLM converter, version 20210527.1 2021-10-15 Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992 1849 102 1992-10-28 LAND REMOTE SENSING POLICY ACT OF 1992 [Public Law 102-555] [As Amended Through P.L. 111–314, Enacted December 18, 2010] [Currency: This publication is a compilation of the text of Public Law 102-555. It was last amended by the public law listed in the As Amended Through note above and below at the bottom of each page of the pdf version and reflects current law through the date of the enactment of the public law listed at https://www.govinfo.gov/app/collection/comps/] [Note: While this publication does not represent an official version of any Federal statute, substantial efforts have been made to ensure the accuracy of its contents. The official version of Federal law is found in the United States Statutes at Large and in the United States Code. The legal effect to be given to the Statutes at Large and the United States Code is established by statute (1 U.S.C. 112, 204).]
AN ACTTo enable the United States to maintain its leadership in land remote sensing by providing data continuity for the Landsat program, to establish a new national land remote sensing policy, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1.1 [15 U.S.C. 5601 note] SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the “Land Remote Sensing Policy Act of 1992”.1

In section 1, there is an erroneous period following the word “SECTION” that appears in law; however, such period is not represented in the XML and pdf versions.

SEC. 2. [15 U.S.C. 5601] FINDINGS. The Congress finds and declares the following: (1) The continuous collection and utilization of land remote sensing data from space are of major benefit in studying and understanding human impacts on the global environment, in managing the Earth's natural resources, in carrying out national security functions, and in planning and conducting many other activities of scientific, economic, and social importance. (2) The Federal Government's Landsat system established the United States as the world leader in land remote sensing technology. (3) The national interest of the United States lies in maintaining international leadership in satellite land remote sensing and in broadly promoting the beneficial use of remote sensing data. (4) The cost of Landsat data has impeded the use of such data for scientific purposes, such as for global environmental change research, as well as for other public sector applications. (5) Given the importance of the Landsat program to the United States, urgent actions, including expedited procurement procedures, are required to ensure data continuity. (6) Full commercialization of the Landsat program cannot be achieved within the foreseeable future, and thus should not serve as the near-term goal of national policy on land remote sensing; however, commercialization of land remote sensing should remain a long-term goal of United States policy. (7) Despite the success and importance of the Landsat system, funding and organizational uncertainties over the past several years have placed its future in doubt and have jeopardized United States leadership in land remote sensing. (8) Recognizing the importance of the Landsat program in helping to meet national and commercial objectives, the President approved, on February 11, 1992, a National Space Policy Directive which was developed by the National Space Council and commits the United States to ensuring the continuity of Landsat coverage into the 21st century. (9) Because Landsat data are particularly important for national security purposes and global environmental change research, management responsibilities for the program should be transferred from the Department of Commerce to an integrated program management involving the Department of Defense and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. (10) Regardless of management responsibilities for the Landsat program, the Nation's broad civilian, national security, commercial, and foreign policy interests in remote sensing will best be served by ensuring that Landsat remains an unclassified program that operates according to the principles of open skies and nondiscriminatory access. (11) Technological advances aimed at reducing the size and weight of satellite systems hold the potential for dramatic reductions in the cost, and substantial improvements in the capabilities, of future land remote sensing systems, but such technological advances have not been demonstrated for land remote sensing and therefore cannot be relied upon as the sole means of achieving data continuity for the Landsat program. (12) A technology demonstration program involving advanced remote sensing technologies could serve a vital role in determining the design of a follow-on spacecraft to Landsat 7, while also helping to determine whether such a spacecraft should be funded by the United States Government, by the private sector, or by an international consortium. (13) To maximize the value of the Landsat program to the American public, unenhanced Landsat 4 through 6 data should be made available, at a minimum, to United States Government agencies, to global environmental change researchers, and to other researchers who are financially supported by the United States Government, at the cost of fulfilling user requests, and unenhanced Landsat 7 data should be made available to all users at the cost of fulfilling user requests. (14) To stimulate development of the commercial market for unenhanced data and value-added services, the United States Government should adopt a data policy for Landsat 7 which allows competition within the private sector for distribution of unenhanced data and value-added services. (15) Development of the remote sensing market and the provision of commercial value-added services based on remote sensing data should remain exclusively the function of the private sector. (16) It is in the best interest of the United States to maintain a permanent, comprehensive Government archive of global Landsat and other land remote sensing data for long-term monitoring and study of the changing global environment.
[Section 3 was repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.]
SEC. 4. REPEAL OF LAND REMOTE-SENSING COMMERCIALIZATION ACT OF 1984. The Land Remote-Sensing Commercialization Act of 1984 (15 U.S.C. 4201 et seq.) is repealed.
<num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="I">TITLE I—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">LANDSAT </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Sections 101 through 105 were repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote> <num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="II">TITLE II—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">LICENSING OF PRIVATE REMOTE SENSING SPACE SYSTEMS </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Sections 201 through 205 were repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote> <num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="III">TITLE III—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">RESEARCH, DEVELOPMENT, AND DEMONSTRATION </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Sections 301 through 303 were repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote> <num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="IV">TITLE IV—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">ASSESSING OPTIONS FOR SUCCESSOR LAND REMOTE SENSING SYSTEM </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Section 401 was repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote> <num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="V">TITLE V—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">GENERAL PROVISIONS </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Sections 501 through 508 were repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote> <num style="-uslm-dtd:enum" value="VI">TITLE VI—</num><heading style="-uslm-dtd:header">PROHIBITION OF COMMERCIALIZATION OF WEATHER SATELLITES </heading><editorialNote style="-uslm-dtd:legis-comment"><b>[</b>Sections 601 and 602 were repealed by section 6 of Public Law 111–314. See Law Revision Counsel's disposition tables for those provisions that were included in title 51, USC as enacted into law by section 3 of such Public Law.<b>]</b> </editorialNote>