Space policy for the new President — whoever it might be

The 2024 election cycle is lurching into the final stretch, with campaigns for the White House, Congress and other offices across the nation in high gear. Candidates are making their appeals, making themselves heard, and some are making waves. But while American citizens are being asked to pick and choose one person, party or campaign promise over another, what is sometimes missing from the political discussion is actual concrete policy proposals. Policy, when addressed, seldom gets into deep detail, and is presented only in broad strokes with soundbite talking points — lacking real granularity or even credibility.

This is especially the case with policy that is highly complex, nuanced, or heavy on technical details, whether it relates to foreign affairs, energy policy or national defense. Unfortunately, our future in space is another policy area that seems to receive limited attention or discussion during campaign years. Given how vital space is to our economy, to national security and to our modern way of life, whoever occupies the White House in January 2025 may want to consider elevating space in the hierarchy of policy topics. Several core concerns illustrate the criticality of space to the future of the United States.

At the top — we must continue to support human spaceflight endeavors to low-Earth orbit (LEO), the moon and, yes, even Mars. This should be a mission priority that both Democrats and Republicans can agree on. Whoever ends up occupying the Oval Office in January should keep us on the track for a future where U.S. businesses develop the LEO economic ecosystem and NASA pioneers the Moon and Mars ecosystem. On a practical and direct level, the U.S. has an imperative to keep pressing on these goals. Pacing competitors like China are serious about similar objectives in space; we cannot be left behind or we will risk delegating future American generations to second-tier status. On a more philosophical level, we need to have a grand national goal that brings clarity and unity, and that inspires new generations of technology leaders while keeping with our culture of boundary-breaking and achievement.

A second political priority should be the continued development of the space economy as an engine of great opportunity for our citizenry, and as an area of awe-inspiring technological accomplishment and expanding prosperity for states, communities and individuals. Space is a part of our economy that not only combines high-tech manufacturing, science, engineering and imaginative creativity towards a positive purpose, but it directly contributes to the national needs and priorities of the nation. As the government looks for more solutions to address swift-moving issues, our space economy can serve as a resource with limitless promise.

If we are to encourage growth in the space economy, we need to bolster the space component of our defense industrial base. The space industrial base, and its needs and importance, cannot be neglected or marginalized as the U.S. works to navigate an increasingly unstable world, and as we seek to reconstitute and rebuild key components of our defense industrial base to shore up our overall preparedness and production flexibility. This is particularly important when considering the ability to source rare but vital raw materials for sophisticated technological production — or ensuring we have enough skilled labor and technical acumen in our workforce in order to study, engineer and produce the highly-capable platforms and components we need in space to support our national security needs. To start, we may need a refreshed look at what one could call a space industrial policy.

And finally, we need to keep a laser-beam focus on the increasing seriousness of space as a defense domain. While the U.S. and much of the modern free world has worked diligently to keep space a domain of peace, cooperation and positive human advancement, the hard truth is that other nations have —– by many different actions and behaviors — worked against that effort.

Whether a country blatantly disregards accepted norms on the issue of space deconfliction or advances space-based weapons for the express purpose of intimidating the world, we can simply no longer ignore the fact that despite our best wishes and actions, other nations wish to offensively militarize space. Fortunately, our national leaders — on both sides of the aisle — have recognized the severity of these concerns and have worked to enhance our ability to defend our interests in space; from the creation of the U.S. Space Force (and now, perhaps, a Space National Guard) to consistently funding national efforts to build deterrence, early warning, situational awareness and resilience in space. This is a growing set of complex issues that the next President and the next Congress should continue to work on together. The threats to present and future U.S. security are too large to disregard.

All of this is to say that among the myriad challenges facing our nation — and I readily recognize there are many — the future of space and our civil, commercial and defense interests in space requires continued and educated attention. Space, and our reliance on it, is too important to be kept on the bottom of the policy pecking order. Policymakers in Washington, DC, certainly have their role in setting objectives for the nation in space — but they are not alone. Industry leaders in the space economy, engineers, scientists and citizens with deep knowledge about programs, policy, technology and history — all of whom remain passionate about space — stand ready to help decision-makers in DC understand key issues and concerns while providing ways and means to advance our interests in space — regardless of who wins on election night.

Grant Anderson, P.E. is the President & CEO of Paragon Space Development Corporation, a recognized leader in life support and thermal control in extreme environments. He holds a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering and an M.S. in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering from Stanford University.