106 STAT. 4164

PUBLIC LAW 102-555—OCT. 28, 1992

15 USC 5602.

(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 proad civilian, national security,
commercial, and foreign policy interests in remote sensing will
best be served by ensuring that Landsat remains an unclassi-
fied 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 hi 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 research-
ers, 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 dis-
tribution 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.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

In this Act, the following definitions apply:

(1) The term "Administrator" means the Administrator of
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

(2) The term "cost of fulfilling user requests" means the
incremental costs associated with providing product generation,
reproduction, and distribution of unenhanced data hi response
to user requests and shall not include any acquisition, amortiza-