Exploring the Unknown - NASA's History Office

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OBSERVING THE EARTH FROM SPACE
products:
• Basic Fee. A fee paid by each user on each standard data product it purchases from
the U.S. system operator. These fees would vary in proportion to the costs incurred in
producing that product. They would be paid by users of both real-time and retrospective
data. Other factors such as timeliness, the placing of special orders and special
handling could be reflected in a surcharge schedule.
[10] • Royalty Fee. A fee paid by each U.S. and foreign user and foreign ground station
operator on the reproduction or resale of Landsat standard data products.
• Direct Reception Fee. One or more fees paid by foreign ground station operators
receiving data directly from U.S. land remote sensing satellites. Examples of such fees
are: (1) an annual access fee like the $200,000 fee per station per year currently being
paid by Landsat station operators, and (2) a transmission fee paid by foreign ground
station operators for data transmitted to and received by the foreign ground stations.
This latter fee would be based on the amount of data requested.
Upon the completion of pricing studies, a proposed pricing schedule will be developed
based on these types of fees, and possibly others, for consideration by the Program
Board and the Land Remote Sensing Satellite Advisory Committee.
Since a substantial shortfall is projected between annual revenues and the estimated
annual costs of running an operational system of between $100 and $400 million per year,
Federal financial assistance likely will be required. In this event, the Federal government
could provide various types of capital and operating assistance to a private or government
corporation, whichever institutional option is eventually chosen. Such Federal capital
assistance could include grants, equity guarantees, and Federal loan and loan guarantees.
Federal operating assistance could include Federal support of research and development,
purchase guarantees, appropriations, free services and tax incentives.
Whether for the Interim or Fully Operational System, three possible options for
Federal agencies to share in the costs of financing the operational land remote sensing
system are under consideration:
• NOAA could budget for all “core” 9 and special system costs;
• NOAA could budget for “core” system costs and user agencies would budget for
special system capabilities; 10
[11] • User agencies could fund individually a predetermined portion of all “core” and
special system costs.
A decision on the preferred financing option will weigh, on the one hand, the benefits
of having a mechanism that forces agencies to make trade-offs between land remote
sensing data and other sources and, on the other hand, the advantages of focusing responsibility
for the program and budgeting in one agency.
Institutional Approaches to Eventual Private Sector Ownership and Operation
1. Institutional Alternatives
Several institutional options exist for achieving the goal of eventual ownership and
operation by the private sector of our civil land remote sensing satellite activities. The four
9. The “core” system includes the space and ground segment elements necessary to meet the common
needs of the majority of users.
10. Special system capabilities include stereoscopic coverage.