From Recreational Boaters to Astronauts The Coast Guard has the responsibility— and authority—to keep waterways safe by lCdr tanner stiehl Chief, Prevention Law Branch Seventh District U.S. Coast Guard O n January 1, 2021, the United States Senate passed the William M. (Mac) Thornberry National Defense Authorization Act of 2021.1 Hundreds of pages in length and covering a wide range of topics, it included a particular provision regarding the creation of a two-year pilot program for safety zones in the Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). 2 While that provision may have seemed short and simple, it spurred a necessary conversation about the Coast Guard’s authorities in the EEZ. In the months and years since the passage of that bill, the Coast Guard has taken significant steps to define what those authorities are from a domestic and inter- national perspective. Before digging too deeply into the actions the Coast Guard has taken, it is important to dis- cuss the text of the bill itself and why these authorities were needed in the first place. In the bill, Congress directed the Coast Guard to “establish safety zones to address special activities” in the EEZ.3 These special activities include, “space activi- ties, including launch and reentry … .” This directive has far-reaching ramifications that involve significant U.S. and interna- Crew Dragon Demo-2 mission, which splashed down in the Gulf of Mexico on August 2, 2020.5 In that widely publicized event, many boaters crowded around the cap- sule during the recovery operation.6 Although there were no resulting casualties, it exposed some potential weaknesses in the govern- ment’s legal and regulatory framework. Currently, NASA has a contract with SpaceX to send its astronauts to the International Space Station until 2030. 7 The spe- cific reentry sites that NASA and SpaceX have provided to the Coast Guard for these types of missions are all within the EEZ.8 Therefore, these weaknesses must be addressed for splash-down operations to continue. Historically, the Coast Guard has used safety and security zones to deter spectators, onlookers, or poten- tial nefarious adversaries from getting too close to ves- sels, facilities, and other targets. This not only includes navigable waterways, but also space launch and recovery operations. Safety zones are described as, “water area, shore area, or water and shore area to which, for safety or SpaceX’s recovery ship, Go Searcher, prepares to retrieve the company’s Crew Dragon from the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 miles off the Florida coast, March 8, 2019. SpaceX’s inaugural flight with NASA’s Commercial Crew Program, known as Demo1, is the first flight test of a space system designed for humans and built and operated by a commercial company through a publicprivate partnership. NASA photo by Cory Huston tional law. However, from an opera- tional perspective, this language is necessary to ensure the safety of launch and reentry operations for NASA and other SpaceX missions, at least in the present and immediate future.4 While space launch and reentry operations have been a recurring concern for decades—the Coast Guard has recovered U.S. space objects since 1955—there had not been a specific need for safety zones in the EEZ in recent memory. This all changed with the recovery of the 42 Proceedings Summer 2023
