The new rules heavily benefit two American companies Maxar a optical imagery provider and Umbra Lab a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery provider both have satellite systems that were being seriously restricted by the old regulations.
The new regulations will actually allow Umbra Lab to sell 25 cm synthetic aperture radar data (SAR) freely. This is a clear windfall for Umbra Lab which is the only company expected to produce <25 cm SAR data any time soon.
Maxar and Umbra Labs both had executives sitting on the Advisory Committee on Commercial Remote Sensing (ACCRES) which helped draft the new deregulated policy.
The full text of the rules can be found here. The new regulations are very good news for commercial SAR, the new rules will let U.S. companies fight for a larger piece of the global SAR market.
More information here:
- https://spacenews.com/remote-sensing-industry-welcomes-revamped-regulations/
- https://breakingdefense.com/2020/05/commerce-slashes-restrictions-on-remote-sensing-sats/
- https://s3.amazonaws.com/public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-10703.pdf