View From Earth to Uchū: The Evolution of Japan’s Space Security Policy and a Blueprint for Strengthening the U.S.-Japan Space Security Partnership By Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young PublishedAugust 23, 2024 As Japan reckons with an increasingly tense security dynamic driven by growing Chinese and North Korean military activity and defense budgets, space capabilities are becoming integral to Japan’s national security. The U.S.-Japan security alliance continues to be at the core of both countries’ approaches to security and stability in the Indo-Pacific, with both seeking to…
View From Earth to Uchū (Japanese translation) 地球から宇宙へ 日本の宇宙安全保障政策の変遷と日米宇宙安全保障の連携強化のための青写真 By Kari A. Bingen, Makena Young PublishedAugust 23, 2024 このレポートは、山本貴明氏の追加サポートを受けて、Google 翻訳を使用して翻訳されました。英語の原文はここからご覧いただけます。 This report has been translated using Google Translate, with additional support from Takaaki Yamamoto. This translation is current as of January 2025. The original English publication can be found here.
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 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 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 No Place to Hide: A Look into China’s Geosynchronous Surveillance Capabilities By Clayton Swope PublishedJanuary 19, 2024 China launched a remote-sensing satellite called Yaogan-41 into geostationary orbit (GEO) on December 15, 2023. Analysts expect the satellite to settle into a position that would allow continuous surveillance of the Pacific and Indian Oceans, as well as Taiwan and Mainland China. Paired with data from other Chinese surveillance satellites, Yaogan-41 could provide China an unprecedented ability…
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…
Jan19 Tactically Responsive Space: A Holistic Approach In September 2023, a new record was set in space launch. Just 27 hours after receiving an order to launch, a team comprised of U.S. Space Systems Command, Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems (which built the satellite) and Firefly Aerospace (which built the rocket) successfully launched a satellite into low Earth orbit. Named VICTUS NOX, the […]
Apr Tactically Responsive Space: A Holistic Approach In September 2023, a new record was set in space launch. Just 27 hours after receiving an order to launch, a team comprised of U.S. Space Systems Command, Boeing’s Millennium Space Systems (which built the satellite) and Firefly Aerospace (which built the rocket) successfully launched a satellite into low Earth orbit. Named VICTUS NOX, the […]