SB1198

The added category covers property or facilities used for spacecraft launch, landing, recovery or testing, including the specified temporary hazard areas. The construction provision now covers qualifying property as well as facilities and pipelines, including construction equipment and related components. The incorporated definition of spacecraft includes satellites, payloads, crew-carrying objects and specified launch/reentry components. The act itself does not draw a geographic boundary, establish a buffer distance or designate a named site. Final law, section 1; Spacecraft definition, 2013 act section 4.

The bill expands where the existing offenses apply; it does not replace their requirements. Each requires entry or remaining without the owner’s effective consent. Intentionally or knowingly damaging or destroying the facility is a third-degree felony; intentionally or knowingly impairing or interrupting operations is a state-jail felony. Entering or remaining with intent to damage or destroy is a state-jail felony; doing so with intent to impair or interrupt is a Class A misdemeanor. The damage offenses retain defenses for damage that is only superficial, or intent to cause only superficial damage. Existing offenses, 2019 act section 2; Interruption offense; Intent to damage; Intent to interrupt.

The introduced version covered launch, landing and recovery; the Senate substitute added testing. The House’s sole floor amendment replaced the separate FAA-license-or-spaceport-corporation condition with language including a hazard area related to an FAA-authorized launch complex. The conference committee added “temporary” before “hazard area,” and that wording became law. The removed licensing/corporation condition should not be presented as a final requirement. Text versions; Amendment index; House amendment; Official index linking the conference report.

The criminal change applies only to offenses committed on or after September 1, 2025; an offense with any element occurring earlier remains governed by former law. The civil change separately applies only to causes of action accruing on or after that date. Transition provisions, sections 2–4.

Compare the published text versions in the official text index. A change is not attributed to a specific amendment here without a verified record.

Owners of newly covered property gain the existing chapter’s enforcement and civil-remedy framework. People engaging in the specified conduct face criminal penalties and potential civil liability. A corporation or association convicted under the chapter faces a fine of up to $500,000. The chapter also permits restitution for property damage or destruction following conviction, under the referenced restitution procedure. These are existing consequences extended to the new category, not penalties newly invented by this bill. Corporate fines; Restitution; Scope expansion.

An owner who prevails on the chapter’s claim is awarded actual damages and court costs, and may recover exemplary damages—damages intended to punish. Acquittal or nonprosecution is not a defense to the chapter’s civil claim. An organization can also be liable if, acting through an officer, director or manager, it knowingly compensates someone for on-premises conduct constituting one of the listed offenses. That is not automatic liability for every organization associated with a person. Civil liability; Organization liability; Damages.

For these chapter-specific claims, existing law excludes Civil Practice and Remedies Code Chapter 27, which provides an early dismissal procedure for certain speech, petition and association-related suits, and section 41.008’s exemplary-damages limits. This does not mean every defense or constitutional protection disappears. Existing exclusions; Dismissal procedure, 2019 act section 2; Damages limits, 2003 act section 13.06.

The conference fiscal note linked with the enrolled text anticipates no significant state or local fiscal effect, including correctional and enforcement costs. That is an estimate, not a promise of zero cost or proof that the law has prevented damage. Earlier criminal-justice statements reported a fiscal-2024 baseline of nine arrests, two adult community-supervision placements and one adult state correctional admission across the existing offenses; those are not forecasts of new spaceport cases. Final-version fiscal note; Criminal-justice impact statement.