Pentagon, NASA: Demolished Barriers Preventing Joint Space Projects

Driving the changes are actions by Moscow and Beijing to challenge US space interests with anti-satellite weapons, blocking capabilities and other potentially hostile technologies. These secret systems, often operated by specially trained forces focused on space domination, threaten U.S. military and private assets in orbit, according to a series of reports from the Pentagon, the White House National Space Council and study groups. of industry. As a result, the Pentagon intends to extract civilian knowledge and programs to help gain advantage in this emerging domain of warfare.

Space force is at the center of the action. General John Raymond, the new chief of operations of the military branch, recently unveiled a research partnership with NASA aimed at protecting satellites from lasers or cyberattacks. Finally, as reported by government and industry officials on the issue, civil-military cooperation is expected to extend to the defense of NASA’s planned bases on the lunar surface, as well as to the protection of operations. planned to extract water or minerals.

Large and small contractors are maneuvering to seize opportunities to merge military and non-military technologies. They include established military suppliers who already have a foothold in both camps, such as Northrop Grumman Corp.

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, the Dynamics unit of Leidos Holdings Inc.

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and Elon Musk’s Space Exploration Technologies Corp. Smaller companies, such as Maxar Technologies Holdings Inc., a manufacturer of astrobotics robots, Inc., and small satellite producer Blue Canyon Technologies, recently acquired by Raytheon Technologies Corp.

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, also seek to diversify in the same way.

Building on NASA and early military technology, Northrop Grumman has demonstrated the commercial utility of connecting a new propulsion system to an aging satellite with depleted fuel reserves, as a way to keep this spacecraft in orbit beyond. of its expected useful life. Tom Wilson, Northrop’s vice president of strategic space systems, “is very excited about where it will go” in terms of government acceptance of refueling and orbiting options.

“We have a lot of conversations,” he said, “with the Department of Defense, the national security community and NASA.”

The most dramatic evidence of the change in American policy is “seeing how the barriers between civilian, military and commercial space collapse in terms of an integrated strategy for our country,” Pam told a thought Melroy, a former astronaut and former Pentagon and industry official. tank conference in january.

“Things go from ideas to real programs,” said Joel Sercel, a space entrepreneur who previously worked for the Pentagon and NASA.

Industry and government officials said they expect the trend to accelerate under President Biden, mainly because lawmakers and the military appear strongly behind this approach so embedded in a disputed military scenario.

“We now have those potential adversaries seeking to deny our use of space” for military and commercial purposes, General David Thompson, the Pentagon’s deputy chief of space operations, said during an industry conference last year .

When President Dwight Eisenhower created NASA as an independent agency in 1958, he exerted strong military and congressional pressure to be part of the Pentagon, said historian Susan Eisenhower, who has written books on her leadership style. avi. Instead, he “wanted a firewall between them” to allow countries to share science, he said in a talk late last year.

For more than six decades, the U.S. government followed this principle despite movements in Beijing and Moscow to combine military and civilian efforts. The U.S. Astronaut Corps has always included many military officers, some former NASA scientists quietly shared data with their military counterparts, and the space shuttle fleet, now withdrawn from NASA, should launch satellites. of the Pentagon. But today, veteran industry and government experts describe the cooperation as much more extensive, covering emerging capabilities such as repairing and reusing satellites in orbit or moving them with nuclear propulsion. Intelligence agencies are more involved than ever in harnessing civil technology, including artificial intelligence, robotic capabilities, and production knowledge.

“Yes, we do science, exploration and discovery,” NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said at a government and industry meeting in September. He highlighted the joint operation of the Pentagon and NASA. “What I hope people take away from this discussion,” Bridenstine said, referring to NASA, is that “we are an instrument of national power.”

George Stafford, co-founder of Blue Canyon, sees that NASA and the Pentagon use the same common small satellite nuclei for various applications. Military leaders need the knowledge of NASA to achieve some of their goals. For example, “they have to turn to NASA to get the experience they need” to operate around the moon, Stafford said in an interview. “It has to be this kind of relationship,” he added, because “our opponents are expanding their reach” to try to control the space around the moon.

Steve Cook, vice president of the Dynetics group, sees the orbital transfer of cooled fuel, the 3D image of the moon’s surface and nuclear propulsion as core technologies spanning future military and NASA missions. The White House and Space Force policy guidelines, he said, are aimed at leveraging the country’s best technical capabilities to establish human advances on the Moon and ultimately project U.S. power more into space. . Others see the priority in identifying benign foreign satellites from potential weapons.

Some veteran experts in space remain skeptical about how quickly tangible changes will materialize. There are a number of “very interesting and enjoyable theoretical arguments” about this interagency teamwork, said Doug Loverro, who has held senior leadership positions at NASA and the Pentagon. “But the world isn’t there yet.”

For Dan Jablonsky, chief executive of Maxar, more mundane goals, such as mounting telescopes and reusing vehicles in space, open up huge possibilities for different parts of the U.S. government. Howard McCurdy, a space historian who teaches at the American University, sees the inevitable blurring of clear distinctions between civilian and military initiatives taking place in France, Japan, and other countries.

“You’ll see more dual-use civilian and military technology” from countries around the world, he said.

Some goals are more aspirational than immediately realistic. NASA and the Space Force are ultimately planning joint programs to protect Earth from potentially cataclysmic collisions with asteroids. The Pentagon has hired a contractor to design a mini space station to investigate manufacturing and in-orbit training.

Write to Andy Pasztor to [email protected]