"I heard we were seen as the launch trade association when 75% of member companies were not launch companies," says Dave Cavossa, who became president of CSF in June. "Launch is very important to what we do, but . . . it felt like it was time to mature again, that it's about all of commercial space."
To better represent its diverse membership, CSF created six new industry councils. These will allow the organization to tailor both the info it shares with companies and its advocacy on the Hill to the priorities of specific sectors, though Cavossa acknowledged there will likely be significant overlap on things such as export control and mission authorization.
CSF is also establishing a political action committee, or PAC, that is designed to support pro-commercial space lawmakers in their reelection bids, Cavossa says, noting that having a PAC affiliated with a trade association is very common in other industries. The fund will be able to dole out contributions made by CSF employees, staff at its member companies, and PAC-to-PAC transfers from member companies' own political funds.
"We want to make sure we're there to support those members who step up and say we need to reduce regulation for commercial space to help it grow, we need to grow the NASA budget, we need to grow DoD budget for commercial space," Cavossa says.
#commercial-space #trade-association #political-action-committee #industry-councils #space-exploration
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