Special Counsel Alexis Sáinz will moderate a teleconference on NASA’s Directive on the Use of the International Space Station for Commercial & Marketing Activities on November 5, hosted by the American Bar Association’s Committee on Space Law. The NASA directive opens Low Earth Orbit (LEO) to more private sector initiatives. The program will briefly touch on the history of commercialization of the International Space Station and existing programs, as well as changes and commercial opportunities the recent directive brings. The directive is part of NASA’s Plan for Commercial LEO Development, which was developed utilizing, in part, recommendations from recent market studies that were contracted by NASA with 12 different companies, including Axiom Space, Inc.; Blue Origin, LLC; The Boeing Company; Deloitte Consulting; KBRWyle; Lockheed Martin Corporation; Maxar Technologies; McKinsey & Company; NanoRacks, LLC; Northrop Grumman; Sierra Nevada Corporation and Space Adventures, Inc.
Ms. Sáinz serves as one of the Chairs of the American Bar Association’s Committee on Space Law. Ms. Sáinz co-authored the chapter “Commercial Satellite Programs” in the Routledge Handbook of Space Law (2016). She holds a J.D. from the George Washington University Law School, an M.S. in Computer Science from American University and her undergraduate degree from Dartmouth College.
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