Why Did South Korea Create a New Space Agency? By Jacob Bradley PublishedNovember 8, 2024 On May 27, 2024, South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol announced the creation of the Korea AeroSpace Administration (KASA), which replaced the Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI) as the lead government organization for Korea’s space program and research activities.[i] KASA was created to reorganize disparate Korean agencies to foster greater efficiency and space innovation. Under…
View Why Hasn’t Starliner Returned? By Clayton Swope PublishedAugust 19, 2024 On June 5, 2024, an Atlas V rocket launched Boeing’s Starliner on its first crewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS). Though it successfully docked with the station, Starliner exhibited anomalies related to its propulsion systems, raising concerns about whether the spacecraft could safely return astronauts to Earth. At the time of writing, NASA…
View Why Did China and Russia Stage a Joint Bomber Exercise near Alaska? By Kari A. Bingen PublishedJuly 30, 2024 On July 24, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) intercepted two Chinese Xian H-6K bombers and two Russian Tu-95MS Bear bombers flying near Alaska. Both types of bombers are nuclear capable. The bombers were intercepted by American F-16s and F-35s and Canadian CF-18 fighter jets. While the aircraft remained in international airspace and did not fly into Canadian…
View What Can We Learn from Ariane for Future Space Partnerships? By Clayton Swope, Stephanie Songer PublishedJuly 9, 2024 Europe’s new space launcher, Ariane 6, the product of work across 13 European nations, is expected to make its inaugural flight on July 9. The rocket’s pedigree stretches back about fifty years to the start of the Ariane project to develop an all-European launch system. Though critics charged that the Ariane project was unnecessary and expensive, it produced…
View Is There a Path to Counter Russia’s Space Weapons? By Clayton Swope, Makena Young PublishedJune 28, 2024 Why would Russia, the first nation to put a satellite and human into orbit, want to develop space weapons that could make parts of space unusable for up to a year? At first glance, it may be difficult to decipher Russian motivations. In 1939, British prime minister Winston Churchill famously observed that Russian decisionmaking was…
View Pedal to the Metal: Accelerating Pentagon Integration of Commercial Space By Audrey M. Schaffer PublishedMay 17, 2024 The Department of Defense (DOD) recently released two documents describing a new approach to tapping into private sector space capabilities—the DOD Commercial Space Integration Strategy, issued by the secretary of defense, and the U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Strategy, issued jointly by the chief of space operations and the assistant secretary of the Air Force for space…
View The Pitfalls of Labeling Whole Space Missions as Inherently Governmental By Clayton Swope PublishedMarch 12, 2024 The Department of Defense (DOD) will soon release two strategies aimed at harnessing commercial space capabilities for national security needs. Defense officials have said that the strategy to be released by the U.S. Space Force will categorize certain space missions as “inherently governmental,” with mission criticality influencing which missions fall into this group. While well meaning, this approach does…
View Mission Authorization: Decoding the Space Policy Dilemma By Clayton Swope PublishedJanuary 11, 2024 On November 15, 2023, the White House’s National Space Council released a legislative proposal that would create a licensing process for private sector novel space activities, called mission authorization, consistent with U.S. obligations under the Outer Space Treaty (OST) of 1967. Meanwhile, Congress and a government-chartered space advisory group have offered their own proposals. While all parties acknowledge…
View Another Leap Forward: India’s Historic Moon Landing and the Space Competition Underway By Kari A. Bingen PublishedAugust 30, 2023 Critical Questions is produced by the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), a private, tax-exempt institution focusing on international public policy issues. Its research is nonpartisan and nonproprietary. CSIS does not take specific policy positions. Accordingly, all views, positions, and conclusions expressed in this publication should be understood to be solely those of the author(s)….
View Does the FY24 Budget Request Reflect Defense Priorities? By Kari A. Bingen PublishedMay 30, 2023 This commentary was originally published by the National Security Space Association on May 30, 2023, as part of a compilation of views on the U.S. Space Force budget from national security space experts. While this is the fourth budget request for the U.S. Space Force, it is the first since the release of the Biden administration’s National…
