View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2024 By Clayton Swope, Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young, Madeleine Chang, Stephanie Songer, Jeremy Tammelleo PublishedApril 17, 2024 Welcome to the seventh edition of Space Threat Assessment by the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). For the last six years, CSIS has used open-source information to produce an annual assessment of threats to U.S. national security space systems posed by foreign government capabilities. Each report in this series catalogs yearly trends, uses, and advancements of…
View Featured Space Threat Assessment 2025 By Clayton Swope, Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young, Kendra LaFave PublishedApril 25, 2025 Welcome to the 2025 Space Threat Assessment by the Aerospace Security Project. This resource for policymakers and the public leverages open-source information to assess key developments in foreign counterspace weapons. Drawing on eight years of collected data and analyses, this report describes trends in the development, testing, and use of counterspace weapons and enables readers…
View Space and Security: A Conversation with Sean O’Keefe By Todd Harrison, Sean O'Keefe PublishedNovember 16, 2015 Todd Harrison sat down with former NASA Administrator Sean O’Keefe to discuss how the U.S. military’s increasing reliance on space-based capabilities raises a number of issues, such as how to deter threats and increase cooperation with partners and allies in space.
View If Russia is Selling, the Pentagon Should Keep Buying — Rocket Engines, That Is By Todd Harrison PublishedMay 18, 2016 What’s the rush? Before hastily cutting off the engines we need, Congress should set the conditions for a better American space launch market.
View Next Steps for Japan-U.S. Cooperation in Space By Todd Harrison, Zack Cooper PublishedOctober 28, 2016 The space domain is increasingly important to Japan and the United States for both military security and economic prosperity. Space has also become a key enabler for the projection of military power, allowing mobile forces to be networked over greater distances and across all regions of the globe. What are the next steps for Japan – U.S. cooperation in the space domain?
View MUOS-5 highlights a critical U.S. vulnerability in space By Todd Harrison PublishedNovember 7, 2016 A strange thing happened in July when the U.S. Navy’s MUOS-5 satellite was on its way to geosynchronous orbit. The thruster it was using to raise its orbit stopped working unexpectedly.
View NASA in the Second Space Age: Exploration, Partnering, and Security By Todd Harrison, Nahmyo Thomas PublishedNovember 30, 2016 How does the world’s leading federal space agency adapt to changes in the space domain? If NASA is no longer operating in a peaceful sanctuary, how should its goals in exploration and global partnerships change?
View Beyond the RD-180 By Todd Harrison, Andrew Hunter, Kaitlyn Johnson, Thomas G. Roberts, Evan Linck PublishedMarch 21, 2017 This report explores how the United States came to depend on the Russian RD-180 rocket engine as part of the Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle (EELV) program, realistic options for the engine’s replacement in the coming decade, and potential space launch acquisition strategies for the future.
View Implications of Ultra-Low-Cost Access to Space By Todd Harrison, Andrew Hunter, Kaitlyn Johnson, Thomas G. Roberts PublishedMarch 21, 2017 To understand a future where the cost of access to space is only a fraction of what it is today, CSIS turned to a curated group of space experts, including launch providers, satellite manufacturers, government analysts, space law practitioners, and military strategists. This report details trends in low-cost access to space, identifies key opportunities for further cost reductions and policies needed to spur innovation, and explores new military missions that would be enabled if these trends lead to significant reductions in the cost of access to space.
View Ultra-Low-Cost Access to Space: What it Means and When it’s Coming By Todd Harrison, Andrew Hunter PublishedMarch 22, 2017 In this video, CSIS experts Todd Harrison and Andrew Hunter explore the unique trends in low-cost access to space, identify key opportunities for further cost reductions and policies needed to spur innovation, and explore new military missions that would be enabled if these trends lead to significant reductions in the cost of access to space.
