Commercial Spaceflight Federation

The Commercial Spaceflight Federation (CSF) is a Washington DC-based industry trade association founded in 2006 representing the interests of the commercial human spaceflight, commercial satellite, and emerging commercial space transportation industries in the United States. CSF serves as the unified political and policy voice for its member companies before Congress, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), NASA, the Department of Defense, and other federal agencies whose decisions shape the regulatory and contracting environment for commercial space.

CSF membership spans the spectrum of the US commercial space industry: launch vehicle companies (SpaceX, Blue Origin, Rocket Lab, United Launch Alliance), satellite operators, human spaceflight companies, space tourism providers, and space technology startups. This breadth gives CSF a mandate to advocate on a wide range of policy issues: FAA commercial launch licensing reform and streamlining, liability regime modernization for commercial crew, spectrum allocation and orbital slot rights, export control (ITAR/EAR) reform for commercial space hardware, NASA Commercial Crew and Commercial Cargo contracting policy, and emerging regulatory frameworks for debris mitigation and in-space servicing.

CSF played a significant role in advocating for the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 (the Space Act), which recognized US citizens' rights to own resources extracted from asteroids and celestial bodies — landmark legislation that enabled the asteroid mining and lunar resource sectors. The organization also pushed for streamlined FAA launch licensing that helped reduce regulatory barriers for new entrant launch companies.

CSF's political effectiveness derives from member companies' combined revenue, employment, and political influence — aerospace and space companies have manufacturing facilities in Congressional districts across the country, creating broad legislative interest in the sector's health. CSF competes for influence with the Satellite Industry Association (SIA), the Space Foundation, and the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) for policy advocacy on overlapping issues, while generally cooperating on broad pro-space positions.