Publications
The Moorman Center for Space Studies, with input and guidance from the NSSA Membership and Board of Advisors, periodically publishes scholarly and position papers in an effort to advance national security space thought leadership and strengthen the national security space enterprise on the whole.
August 21, 2023
Strategic Implications of China's Cislunar Space Activities
May 30, 2023
Assessing the U.S. Space Force Budget
This report provides critical analysis and insights on the President's budget request for FY 2024 from noted experts Marc Berkowitz, Kari Bingen, Steve Kitay, John Paul Parker, JR Riordan, and Mandy Vaughn. These comments identify noteworthy advances and shortfalls in the USSF’s budget request, and provide a guide to better understanding key budgetary and programmatic trends.
February 22, 2023
Redesigning Space Forces for Deterrence and Warfighting
Future space forces must be structured and postured to complicate an adversary’s risk calculus, present a difficult targeting challenge, and enable forces to evade, operate through, degrade gracefully, and prevent attack to enable deterrence by both denial and punishment as well as warfighting across the conflict spectrum.
June 21, 2022
United States Space Command: Progress and Opportunities
This paper highlights some of the key challenges and opportunities facing USSPACECOM and encourages the President, Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff, Secretary of the Air Force, Chief of Space Operations, Director of National Intelligence, Members of Congress, and others to provide the financial, personnel, materiel and other resources in support of USSPACECOM, given the increasing importance of the Command’s mission.
April 2, 2022
NSSA Space Strategic Review Letter
The National Security Space Association (NSSA) commends the Biden administration’s decision to conduct a “Space Strategic Review”. The prestige, influence, prosperity, security, and defense of the United States depend upon the conduct of activities in outer space.
February 22, 2022
Leveraging Commercial Space Capabilities for U.S. National Security
The United States continues to debate how to improve the capability, affordability, agility, and resilience of its force structure and posture for national security space activities to address current and emerging threats to the freedom of space. Freedom of access to, passage through, and operations in space are now contested by nations with inimical interests and hostile intentions.
June 24, 2021
Bipartisan Next Steps in National Security Space
Recent years have witnessed landmark changes in U.S. national security space management, organization, programs, and activities -- the most noteworthy of which were the creation of the U.S. Space Force (USSF) as a new armed service to organize, train and equip space forces and re-establishment of the U.S. Space Command (USSPACECOM) to plan and conduct joint and combined military space operations.
May 27, 2021
Help Wanted: A National Security Space Community in Need of a Workforce
You don’t have to search for long to find articles about the dearth of STEM graduates here in the US. Or how many people will be needed in the workforce of the future that will fill high tech, multi-disciplinary and agile teams. It’s not a deep Google search to find references of the National Security implications of limited STEM interest (and other critical fields) needed for complex systems to come to fruition.
December 6, 2020
Sustaining U.S. National Security Space Leadership: Considerations for the Biden Administration
The United States is the world’s leader in the exploration and use of outer space. America’s preeminent position in space has provided strategic advantages envied around the world. Since the beginning of the space age, the U.S. has leveraged those advantages to protect and advance U.S. interests and values, defend our nation against foreign threats, enhance public safety, and gain knowledge about our universe and the planet we live on.
November 12, 2020
Space Warfighting Culture: A White Paper
There has been a vigorous discussion and debate over the past several decades about whether our nation needs a separate military service for space. In December of 2019, a bipartisan majority in both houses of Congress passed the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for Fiscal Year 2020 and the NDAA was signed into law on December 20, 2019.
October 29, 2020
Establish Governance and Align Security Policies and Programs to Enable U.S. National Security Space Missions
The United States is engaged in a great power competition and confronting an increasing array of threats from state and non-state actors. The imperative to deter the threat or use of force in space, acquire advanced capabilities that outpace the threat and sustain U.S. comparative advantages in space, and plan and execute space operations to deter or if necessary prevail in a conflict involving space, provides an unprecedented opportunity for the federal government to work together and with the private sector in novel ways to address security challenges and opportunities.
June 18, 2020
Acquiring Space Capabilities with Agility and Discipline at the Speed of Relevance
Threats to space assets have reemerged with great power competition. Consequently, the U.S. national security space community is debating what capabilities are needed to counter the threat and how to acquire those capabilities as quickly and efficiently as practicable.
April 11, 2020
NSSA COVID-19 Position Paper
In addition to the established threats to our national security space systems from adversarial nations like China and Russia, the United States national security space industrial base is now further impacted by an unprecedented threat: the COVID-19 pandemic.
February 11, 2020
NSSA Mission Objectives
NSSA is committed to shaping a vibrant national security space enterprise and cultivating a network that fosters dynamic collaboration for the greater good of our nation and our allies.