As launch costs have dropped and activity in orbit proliferates, regulators are taking on more

responsibilities to keep pace. Take the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

NOAA is the Commerce Department's arm that currently regulates

commercial remote sensing, overseeing, for example, companies engaged in satellite imagery.

In 2018, its role was expanded dramatically, as NOAA's Office of Space Commerce was tasked with

taking over non-military space tracking from the Defense Department to monitor orbital activity

and help commercial civil and foreign space operators

avoid crashes. The man overseeing the transition, Richard Dalbella, is director of

Noah's Office of Space Commerce. He says the process is raising key questions, including how

much data the government should buy and at what price.

These are all very young markets. So the government is a major buyer is coming into the

marketplace. We know that when governments enter marketplaces they tend to have a

warping effect at least temporarily. I mean obviously if the government wants to buy a computer it knows that it has a very well developed

a very sophisticated marketplace and understands price and understands capability.

We are not in that situation. So the market that we are coming to is a new market with new players

and quite frankly the same thing is happening internationally.

So what is an observation worth to us, to anyone?

The transition, which is expected to take years, will result in tracks, which stands for

traffic coordination system for space.

On this episode, monitoring the heavens and what the relationship between public and

private sectors should look like to do it. I'm Morgan Brennan and this is manifest space.

Joining me now, Richard Del Bello, Office of Space Commerce Director.

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