Publications

Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink’s acknowledgment that the United States has deployed space-control weapons in orbit marks a profound moment for the national security space community.

This significant development reflects the evolving nature of the space domain and underscores the increasingly critical role of space capabilities in U.S. defense and deterrence.

Chris Williams, Chair of the NSSA Moorman Center for Space Studies, addresses the significance of this announcement, the changing security environment in space, and its broader implications for the future of U.S. national security.

Dr. Scott Pace delivered these remarks at a roundtable on satellite cybersecurity and resilience hosted by the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Washington, DC, on January 12, 2026. His keynote examines cyber threats to space systems, the unique challenges of strengthening space cybersecurity, and potential hard and soft law approaches to enhancing cyber resilience, while recommending greater real-time threat intelligence sharing, interdisciplinary workforce training, and expanded capacity building for emerging space nations.

Although many do not realize it, America’s national and economic security, and indeed our very way of life, relies heavily on our space-based infrastructure. But what does “a day without space” look like? What follows is a hypothetical Presidential address to the nation after a nuclear detonation is used to cripple space infrastructure. Hypothetical, but plausible and a vivid reminder of why we can never allow “a day without space” to actually happen…

The paper highlights significant failure modes and vulnerabilities within the Global Positioning System (GPS) and other space- and ground-based PNT sources, emphasizing the importance of ensuring reliability and continuity across these critical systems. A robust and resilient PNT architecture, the paper notes, is essential for a wide range of national applications—including strengthening the effectiveness of the high-priority Golden Dome for America system-of-systems.

Chris Williams, Chair of the NSSA Moorman Center for Space Studies, delivered prepared remarks at the Washington Space Business Roundtable. Williams joined Washington Post reporter Christian Davenport and China expert Dean Cheng for an engaging discussion on China, space, and geopolitics. 

Given the serious challenges to the established international order posed by the Axis of Authoritarians, now is the time to rapidly modernize U.S. national security space policy, strategy, organizations, and capabilities. This book is chock full of actionable recommendations for the Trump administration and the U.S. Congress on how to better posture the U.S. national security space enterprise to assure U.S. space dominance in the face of increasingly sophisticated threats to critical U.S. space systems.

Co-authored by Chris Williams and Sean Kirkpatrick, this paper describes U.S. national security space contributions to Operation Midnight Hammer, the recent U.S. military strike against Iran. The paper notes the critical role that America’s space forces played in the planning for and conduct of the raid. It also calls for allocation of additional resources to help assure U.S. space superiority in light of increasingly capable adversary space and counterspace capabilities.

Navigating Budget Uncertainty: Trump’s FY25 & FY26 Defense Funding by Chris Williams and Mike Tierney provides a timely exploration of the rapidly evolving U.S. defense budget landscape. With detailed insights into recent congressional actions, reconciliation dynamics, and strategic implications, this paper equips NSSA members and stakeholders with a better understanding of the mechanisms, constraints, and evolving pathways shaping national security space funding levels.

This Executive Brief summarizes a recent U.S. Space Force Intelligence Report on Russian and Chinese space and counterspace programs and activities. This information should help inform programmatic and investment decisions for U.S. space companies. 

The FY25 budget reconciliation process marks a potentially transformative moment for national security space. A new analysis from NSSA’s Moorman Center outlines more than $25 billion in proposed mandatory funding for missile defense, space-based sensors, and space superiority initiatives—plus key insights on how this legislation, if enacted, would alter the traditional budget execution process. The paper provides practical context and procedural clarity on what reconciliation means for DoD, Congress, and the broader space industrial base.