While the U.S. satellite industry has largely welcomed a space export control reform proposal released by the U.S. State Department in May, the emerging commercial suborbital spaceflight industry is raising concerns about a provision that could restrict their ability to export such vehicles. The draft of the revised Category 15 of the Munitions List issued by the State Department on May 24 includes "man-rated sub-orbital, orbital, lunar, [and] interplanetary" spacecraft. That would include vehicles like Virgin Galactic's SpaceShipTwo and XCOR Aerospace's Lynx suborbital spacecraft, keeping them under the jurisdiction of the International Traffic in Arms Regulations (ITAR) and thus making it more difficult for those companies to carry out plans to sell or operate those vehicles outside the United States.
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