Securing Space: A Plan for U.S. Action

It is impossible to overstate the importance of space to the United States. For Americans, modern life depends on information from the thousands of satellites orbiting the globe, allowing people to do everything from navigating their cars by GPS to growing crops and managing inventory. Satellites are also essential to U.S. national security, enabling the United States to communicate with its military forces, gather intelligence, warn of a potential nuclear attack, and more.

Space is a strategic vulnerability. The United States has more strategic assets in space than any other country. Almost as important, dynamic American companies—particularly SpaceX—have revolutionized space, placing in orbit thousands of commercial satellites on which the U.S. economy increasingly depends. But other countries are following suit. China in particular is on track to have thousands of its own satellites in orbit in the not-too-distant future.

Therefore, space is a strategic imperative. In the increasingly chaotic realm of space, the United States’ position is slipping. In 1957, the Soviet Union’s launch of the Sputnik satellite was a wakeup call, spurring the United States to assume a dominant role in space. Today, nearly seventy years later, the United States is in danger of losing that privileged position. In many ways, the country risks another Sputnik moment.

The United States needs to act now to address threats to space assets; champion space traffic management to support the growing space economy; and incorporate commercial perspectives into civilian and national security space policy.