HR2600Passed House

ASCEND Act

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Introduced
In Committee
Passed One Chamber
4
Passed Both
5
Signed into Law
119th
Congress
2025-04-02
Introduced
6
Cosponsors
HR
ⓘ
Type

Sponsor

Jeff Hurd
Jeff Hurd
Republican · CO · Representative
Votes with party: 96.9% (550 recorded votes)

Full profile: /officials/H001100

Source: Congress.gov · FEC

Cosponsors (6)

Members who have signed on to support this bill since introduction. Source: Congress.gov.

Latest Action

The most recent step in the bill's legislative path. Committee Activity below shows referrals and reports; the full action-by-action history including floor proceedings lives at Congress.gov →

Received in the Senate. Read twice. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 344.

2026-02-24

Source: Congress.gov

Committee Activity

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Plain-English Summary

Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act or the ASCEND Act This bill provides statutory authority for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition (CSDA) program run by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Through the CSDA program, NASA acquires remote sensing data and imagery from commercial satellites to support its Earth science research. ( Remote sensing generally refers to the collection of data by instruments in Earth’s orbit, such as satellites, that can be processed into imagery of Earth’s surface.) Under the bill, NASA may establish or modify end-use agreements to allow for broad use of data and imagery acquired under the program, including by individuals outside of NASA (e.g., other federal agencies). The terms of any data or imagery acquisition may not prevent the publication of such data or imagery for scientific purposes or the publication of information derived from it. To the extent practicable, NASA must acquire such data and imagery from U.S. vendors.

Plain-English rewrite of the Congressional Research Service summary published on Congress.gov. Cached and reviewed.

Subjects

Science, Technology, Communications
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Related legislation

Bills by the same sponsor or covering overlapping subjects.