1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Accessing Satellite Capabilities to Enable New Discoveries Act or the ASCEND Act . 2. Commercial satellite data (a) Findings Congress makes the following findings: (1) Section 60501 of title 51, United States Code, states that the goal for the Earth Science program of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (referred to in this section as NASA ) shall be to pursue a program of Earth observations, research, and applications activities to better understand the Earth, how it supports life, and how human activities affect its ability to do so in the future. (2) Section 50115 of title 51, United States Code, states that the Administrator of NASA shall, to the extent possible and while satisfying the scientific or educational requirements of NASA, and where appropriate, of other Federal agencies and scientific researchers, acquire, where cost effective, space-based and airborne Earth remote sensing data, services, distribution, and applications from a commercial provider. (3) The Administrator of NASA established the Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Pilot Program in 2019 to identify, validate, and acquire from commercial sources data that support the Earth science research and application goals. (4) The Administrator of NASA has— (A) determined that the pilot program described in paragraph (3) has been a success, as described in the final evaluation entitled Commercial SmallSat Data Acquisition Program Pilot Evaluation Report issued in 2020; (B) established a formal process for evaluating and onboarding new commercial vendors in such pilot program; (C) increased the number of commercial vendors and commercial data products available through such pilot program