Title 51, National and Commercial Space ProgramsRelease 119-110

§60604 Research Activities

Title 51 › Subtitle VI — Earth Observations › CHAPTER 606 — SPACE WEATHER › § 60604

Last updated Sep 22, 2026|Official source

Summary

NASA, the National Science Foundation (NSF), and the Department of Defense must keep doing basic research about the Sun, the space around Earth, and space weather. They must fund competitive, peer-reviewed projects for research, modeling, and monitoring that follow the science goals in the decadal surveys by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine. NSF, NASA, and NOAA must also do research that crosses scientific fields. Congress supports competitive grants for science centers to bring different fields together and link research with operations. An interagency working group, after advice from an advisory group, must set up ways to move research and models from agencies like NASA, NSF, and USGS into NOAA and DOD operations, improve coordination between modelers and forecasters, and pass forecasters’ needs back to the research agencies.

Full Legal Text

Title 51, §60604

National and Commercial Space Programs, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

(a)Basic Research.—

The Director of the National Science Foundation, the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, and the Secretary of Defense, shall—

(1)continue to carry out basic research on heliophysics, geospace science, and space weather; and

(2)support competitive, peer-reviewed proposals for conducting research, advancing modeling, and monitoring of space weather and its impacts, including the science goals outlined in decadal surveys in solar and space physics conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

(b)Multidisciplinary Research.—

(1)Findings.—

Congress finds that the multidisciplinary nature of solar and space physics creates funding challenges that require coordination across scientific disciplines and Federal agencies.

(2)Sense of congress.—

It is the sense of Congress that science centers could coordinate multidisciplinary solar and space physics research. The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Director of the National Science Foundation should support competitively awarded grants for multidisciplinary science centers that advance solar and space physics research, including research-to-operations and operations-to-research processes.

(3)Multidisciplinary research.—

The Director of the National Science Foundation, the Administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, shall each pursue multidisciplinary research in subjects that further the understanding of solar physics, space physics, and space weather.

(c)Science Missions.—

The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration should implement missions that meet the science objectives identified in solar and space physics decadal surveys conducted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

(d)Research to Operations; Operations to Research.—

The interagency working group shall, upon consideration of the advice of the advisory group, develop formal mechanisms to—

(1)transition the space weather research findings, models, and capabilities of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, the United States Geological Survey, and other relevant Federal agencies, as appropriate, to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the Department of Defense;

(2)enhance coordination between research modeling centers and forecasting centers; and

(3)communicate the operational needs of space weather forecasters of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and Department of Defense, as appropriate, to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the National Science Foundation, and the United States Geological Survey.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

51 U.S.C. § 60604

Title 51, National and Commercial Space Programs

Last Updated

Sep 22, 2026

Release point: 119-110