mr. zamka came to the faa directly from nasa as an instructor pilot of the johnson space center. he's a retired colonel and an anime core and has more than 5,005 hours in fighter attack test research and training aircraft. he was selected as an astronaut in june of 1988 and spent more than 692 hours in space. the third witness is mr. robert nelson, chief engineer international bureau federal communications commission. he's responsible for leading the bureau's work on technical issues including satellite communications and cross-border technical issues. prior to serving as the chief engineer he was the chief of the satellite division and satellites division engineering grant to read before joining the commission mr. nelson had serious engineering positions in the private sector. our fourth witness is mr. pj blunt that jumped professor at a her and space law at the university of mississippi school of law is an adjunct professor in the department of political science at the university. previously

. >> thank you mr. zamka. the chair recognizes mr. nelson for five minutes. >> chairman brooks, ranking member edwards and members of the subcommittee thank you for inviting me to speak with you today about the fcc's role of orbital debris mitigation and how we fit into the government respecting this issue. in 1973 the fcc licensed the first private u.s. communications satellite and the first satellite began operation in the orbit in 1974 slightly more than 40 years ago. under the communications act the fcc is charged with licensing communications and recognized radio transmissions do not stop at the national boundaries and as a result of the activist crafted with an understanding of regulation needed to stand outside of the territorial boundaries of the united states. at the same time, the fcc licensing does not extend to u.s. federal government transmitters which are authorized by n. t. i a end of the congress department. fcc licensing and regulation are governed by the principle of the communications act issuing a license requires

the chair recognizes mr. zamkafor his testimony. >> chairman brooks, ranking member brooks and distinguished members of thank you for inviting me. this is my first opportunity to speak before the subcommittee and i am particularly fortunate to be able to speak about the faa efforts regarding orbital debris mitigation aside from launching reentry, orbital debris poses the highest risk of human spaceflight. during my space missions, we flew upside down and backwards to protect the shuttle goes from orbital debris and even doing that, we had debris strikes and cracks on the windows from the strikes. with the debris mitigation its hopeful to review the operations to which the faa authority applies and where does not read the faa is the sole federal government agency with authority to license commercial space transportation activities. that authority is limited by the commercial space launch act, the reentry of the vehicle. under that authority at the end of the launch, the faa requires the operator to save their vehicl