Space

We All Benefit From a Whole of Government Approach to Space

U.S. government and private sector investments in space programs have enabled a $400 billion per year global economy supporting hundreds of thousands of highly skilled American workers. Space activities are essential to modern life: They extend communications to every point on Earth; underpin our digital economy with navigation and timing capabilities; enable critical weather forecasts; provide a deeper understanding of our planet, solar system, and universe; and revolutionize U.S. national security capabilities, providing America’s armed forces a significant advantage.

These capabilities are accomplished across three interconnected sectors — civil space, commercial space, and national security space — requiring cross-government policies and investment.

AIA Cross-Government Space Priorities

• Maintain a competitive regulatory environment. Continuously assess regulations, including licensing and export controls, to ensure a competitive U.S. regulatory environment.
• Strengthen the space supply chain. Enhance the resilience of the space supply chain and industrial base, including supporting specialty manufacturers and securing critical components and materials. The government should also identify and invest in strategic shortages and bottlenecks to advance space system development and proliferate the supply of unique components. Implement state-of-the-art security measures, anti-tamper protections, and safeguards against foreign investments from adversarial nations to protect the industrial base.
• Invest in space infrastructure. Strengthen national assets that enable the commercial space industry, such as spaceports and waters systems. Ensure resiliency and improved capabilities for domestic transportation methods used by manufacturers, including water transit systems and spaceports. Understand and plan for the dramatic increase in both size and cadence of launch vehicles and work to accommodate commodities and range scheduling at space launch complexes around the country.