This bill grants NASA temporary authority to detect, identify, and counter drone threats to its high-risk facilities and assets through September 30, 2031.
Haley Stevens
Representative
MI-11
The NASA C-UAS Act grants the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) temporary authority to detect, identify, and counter drone threats to its high-risk facilities and assets until September 30, 2031. This authority allows NASA to take necessary actions, including intercepting drone communications, after conducting risk assessments of its facilities. The bill mandates coordination with the Department of Transportation to ensure national airspace safety and includes specific privacy protections for intercepted communications. NASA must also regularly report its activities and policies to Congress.
NASA Gets Green Light to Jam and Intercept Drones Near Space Facilities Through 2031
NASA is officially entering the drone-defense game. Under the NASA C-UAS Act, the space agency is granted the power to detect, track, and even hijack the communications of drones that get too close to high-risk sites like launch pads and reentry zones. While federal law usually makes it a crime to mess with someone else’s aircraft or intercept their digital signals, this bill carves out a specific exception for NASA security. If a drone is deemed a "credible threat" to a covered facility, NASA personnel can now step in to monitor or disable it without needing the operator's consent. This authority is temporary, set to expire on September 30, 2031, acting as a decade-long trial run for protecting our space infrastructure from unauthorized eyes in the sky.
The No-Fly Zone 2.0
NASA isn't just going to start zapping every hobbyist drone in the suburbs. The bill requires the Administrator to work with the Department of Transportation to identify exactly which facilities are "high-risk." Think of places like Cape Canaveral or research centers where a stray drone could cause a multimillion-dollar disaster or a security breach. For a drone hobbyist or a professional photographer, this means the stakes just got higher. If you’re flying near these designated zones, NASA now has the legal backing to not only watch your flight path but to "intercept or access" the electronic signals you're using to fly the thing. This is a significant shift from traditional law enforcement roles, giving a scientific agency the kind of tactical power usually reserved for the military or the Department of Homeland Security.
Privacy in the Crosshairs
Because intercepting signals means potentially grabbing data, the bill includes some guardrails to keep things from getting too "Big Brother." Section 2 mandates that any intercepted communications can only be kept for 180 days unless they are needed for a specific investigation or lawsuit. There’s also a requirement that these actions must respect the First and Fourth Amendments—meaning they shouldn't be used to suppress protesters or conduct unreasonable searches. However, the term "credible threat" is a bit of a grey area. For a tech worker living near a NASA facility, this means your drone’s data could end up on a NASA server for six months just because a security guard felt your flight path was a bit too close for comfort.
Keeping the Skies Safe and Accountable
To make sure this new power doesn't go unchecked, NASA has to play well with others. They are required to coordinate with the FAA to ensure their counter-drone tech doesn't accidentally knock a commercial Cessna out of the sky or mess with airport navigation systems. Every six months, NASA also has to head to Capitol Hill to give Congress a briefing on how many drones they’ve intercepted and whether they’ve shared that data with other agencies like the FBI or local police. It’s a classic trade-off: we’re giving the agency more muscle to protect our space program, but it comes with a new layer of surveillance that requires us to trust they’ll only use it when the countdown is actually at risk.