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S. 2634 118th Congress Senate

ASCEND Act

Official title: A bill to require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish a program to acquire and disseminate commercial Earth obs… Show full official titleShow less

Official title: A bill to require the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to establish a program to acquire and disseminate commercial Earth observation data and imagery in order to satisfy the scientific, operational, and educational requirements of the Administration, and for other purposes.

Introduced: July 27, 2023 Introduced by: John W. Hickenlooper Democratic · Colorado See on congress.gov
Science, Technology, Communications Congressional oversightEarth sciencesPhotography and imagingSpace flight and explorationSpacecraft and satellites
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This bill died when the 118th Congress ended
It never became law before the 118th Congress (2023–2024) adjourned, and bills don't carry over to the next Congress. It would have to be reintroduced. You can still save it for reference, but it won't receive updates.
 Everywhere this bill has been 2 steps
Introduced
In committee
Reported out
Passed House
Passed Senate
To President
Became law
Jul 27, 2023
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Jul 27, 2023
Introduced in Senate
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 Latest action July 27, 2023

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

 Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act or the ASCEND Act

This bill provides statutory authority for the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) established the program as a pilot program in 2017 to acquire commercial small-satellite data in support of NASA's earth science research.

 Related & companion bills 2
 Bill text 1 version

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

 Committees of jurisdiction 1
 Lobbying activity 1

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

  • LEWIS-BURKE ASSOCIATES, LLC
    for PLANET LABS PBC (FORMERLY PLANET LABS FEDERAL INC.) · District of Columbia · 1st Quarter 2025 (Jan 1 - Mar 31)

Bodies those filers lobbied

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

 Cosponsors 1
All 1 Republican 1
R
Cornyn, John
Texas · Jul 27, 2023
Cite this page click to expand
APA
U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 2634: ASCEND Act. 118th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/118-S-2634/
MLA
"S. 2634: ASCEND Act." 118th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/118-S-2634/.
Bluebook (legal)
S. 2634, 118th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/118-S-2634/.
Markdown link
[S. 2634: ASCEND Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/118-S-2634/)
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