National Security and the Commercial Space Sector

In this DRAFT report, the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) examines the relationship between U.S. national security and the commercial space sector, with specific focus on the current state of the space launch industry and launch market.  Building on a CSIS annotated briefing released in 2008, entitled Health of the U.S. Space Industrial Base and the Impact of Export Controls, this report describes the importance of the commercial space sector to U.S. national security, catalogues several principal concerns regarding commercial access to space, and provides a framework for analyzing options to improve access to commercial launch services. The report is a vehicle for further discussion of two key issues:  the relationship between the commercial space sector and national security, and the ways in which U.S. policymakers might better manage the nexus between them.

Please submit questions or comments to: spacestudy2010@csis.org. To incorporate your ideas into our final draft, please provide input to CSIS by May 31, 2010.