42 USC Chapter 159 - SPACE EXPLORATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND SCIENCE

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Sec. 18301. Findings. 18302. Definitions. SUBCHAPTER I—POLICY, GOALS, AND OBJECTIVES FOR HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT AND EXPLORATION 18311. United States human space flight policy. 18312. Goals and objectives. 18313. Assurance of core capabilities. SUBCHAPTER II—EXPANSION OF HUMAN SPACE FLIGHT BEYOND THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION AND LOW-EARTH ORBIT 18321. Human space flight beyond low-Earth orbit. 18322. Space Launch System as follow-on launch vehicle to the Space Shuttle. 18323. Multi-purpose crew vehicle. 18324. Utilization of existing workforce and assets in development of Space Launch System and multi-purpose crew vehicle. 18325. NASA launch support and infrastructure modernization program. 18326. Development of technologies and in-space capabilities for beyond near-Earth space missions. 18327. Report requirement. SUBCHAPTER III—DEVELOPMENT AND USE OF COMMERCIAL CREW AND CARGO TRANSPORTATION CAPABILITIES 18341. Commercial Cargo Development program. 18342. Requirements applicable to development of commercial crew transportation capabilities and services. SUBCHAPTER IV—CONTINUATION, SUPPORT, AND EVOLUTION OF THE INTERNATIONAL SPACE STATION 18351. Continuation of the International Space Station through 2020. 18352. Maximum utilization of the International Space Station. 18353. Maintenance of the United States segment and assurance of continued operations of the International Space Station. 18354. Management of the ISS national laboratory. SUBCHAPTER V—SPACE SHUTTLE RETIREMENT AND TRANSITION 18361. Sense of Congress on the Space Shuttle program. 18362. Retirement of Space Shuttle orbiters and transition of Space Shuttle program. 18363. Disposition of orbiter vehicles. SUBCHAPTER VI—EARTH SCIENCE 18371. Interagency collaboration implementation approach. 18372. Transitioning experimental research to operations. 18373. Decadal Survey missions implementation for Earth observation. 18374. Instrument test-beds and venture class missions. SUBCHAPTER VII—SPACE SCIENCE 18381. Technology development. 18382. Suborbital research activities. 18383. In-space servicing. 18384. Decadal results. 18385. On-going restoration of radioisotope thermoelectric generator material production. 18386. Collaboration with ESMD and SOMD on robotic missions. 18387. Near-Earth object survey and policy with respect to threats posed. 18388. Space weather. SUBCHAPTER VIII—AERONAUTICS AND SPACE TECHNOLOGY 18401. Aeronautics research goals. 18402. Research collaboration. 18403. Goal for Agency space technology. 18404. National space technology policy. 18405. Commercial Reusable Suborbital Research Program. SUBCHAPTER IX—EDUCATION 18421. Study of potential commercial orbital platform program impact on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. SUBCHAPTER X—RE-SCOPING AND REVITALIZING INSTITUTIONAL CAPABILITIES 18431. Workforce stabilization and critical skills preservation. SUBCHAPTER XI—OTHER MATTERS 18441. National and international orbital debris mitigation. 18442. Reports on program and cost assessment and control assessment. 18443. Eligibility for service of individual currently serving as Administrator of NASA. 18444. Counterfeit parts. 18445. Information security.

The table below lists the classification updates, since Jan. 3, 2012, for the contained sections. If there are multiple sections, they are presented in section number order (original document order).

The most recent Classification Table update that we have noticed was Thursday, January 3, 2013

An empty table indicates that we see no relevant changes listed in the classification tables. If you suspect that our system may be missing something, please double-check with the Office of the Law Revision Counsel.

How To Use

Multiple entries for a section are listed most recent first, within the section.

The Session Year indicates which session of Congress was responsible for the changes classified. The Congress number forms the first part of the Public Law number; each Congress has two sessions.

Abbreviations used in the Description of Change column:

An empty field implies a standard amendment.
"new" means a new section or new note, or all new text of an existing section or note.
"nt" means note.
"nt [tbl]" means note [table].
"prec" means preceding.
"fr" means a transfer from another section.
"to" means a transfer to another section.
"omitted" means the section is omitted.
"repealed" means the section is repealed.
"nt ed change" and "ed change" - See the Editorial Classification Change Table [pdf].

The Public Law field is linked to the development of the law in the Thomas system at the Library of Congress.

The Statutes at Large field is linked to the text of the law, in the context of its volume of the Statutes at Large, at the Government Printing Office. Please note that it takes a while for these pages to get posted, so for very recent legislation, you need to look at the "enrolled" version at the Thomas site.

The Statutes at Large references have been rendered in the format used as page numbers in the Public Law web pages to which we link, to facilitate copy-paste into browser "find on this (web) page" tools. We are still working on a more direct link facility.

For serious comparison work, we suggest copying all or a portion of the Public Law text into your favorite text editor, for convenient content traversal and window control.

Sections with change type "new" are a special case, still under development. All are now listed, at the title level only.

You will find that occassionally a specific update you notice in a Public Law listed in a classification table will already have made it into the Code. We assume this is an artifact of the LRC edit process. The LII does not edit the LRC content.

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General Reference

Refer to the LRC (Law Revision Council) for explanations about the US Code from the folks who put it all together.

You can look for information about what it is and is not, which titles are positive law, the schedule of Supplements, etc. Under download you can find the source data we use here (GPO locator files), as well as, PDF files that look just like the paper books (these may be rather large).

Refer to the Thomas site for changes that have not yet made it into the classification tables.

42 USC	Description of Change	Session Year	Public Law	Statutes at Large

42 USC Chapter 159 - SPACE EXPLORATION, TECHNOLOGY, AND SCIENCE

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