Report: U.S. Space Leadership at Risk From Poor Coordination

U.S. Space Leadership Seen At Risk
Aviation Week

A preliminary version of an upcoming report on the link between national security and U.S. commercial launch capabilities warns that U.S. leadership in space is threatened by poor coordination in setting space policy.

The Center for Strategic and International Studies is seeking website comment on its report — “National Security and the Commercial Space Sector” — in the hope that several ongoing government space policy reviews will incorporate the best advice on sound commercial launch policy in their findings.

“We do not have a very sophisticated approach to industrial security and technology,” said John Hamre, president of CSIS and a former deputy U.S. defense secretary, during an event in Washington April 30. Presenting what he said were his personal views on the subject, Hamre charged that export-control techniques set up to keep the Soviet Union from using valuable U.S. defense technology don’t work today, when modern communications make it much more difficult to contain industrial secrets.

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