Diane Howard, National Space Council head of commercial space policy, addressese the Space Mobility conference in Orlando, Fla., on Jan. 30, 2024. (Theresa Hitchens / Breaking Defense)
SPACE MOBILITY — The Space Force, National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and NASA need to move more quickly to provide “real” resources and funding to developing space mobility and logistics, a senior official at the White House National Space Council (NSpC) said today.
Diane Howard, NSpC head of commercial space policy, told the Space Mobility Conference in Orlando, Fla., that while there has been some progress, government agencies are not moving out fast enough to pursue these new capabilities that “have the potential to transform commercial, civil and national national security space activities.”
“[I]n order to take advantage of the opportunities for leadership and innovation that are in front of us, the status quo is not good enough,” she said.
Howard led the NSpC’s effort to develop both a legislative proposal and an administration framework to establish a new system for regulating novel space activities, including mobility and logistics missions such as on-orbit servicing and in-space refueling — missions that the Space Force and US Space Command consider key to enabling “dynamic space operations” necessary in any future fight in space with China.
While noting that all the current “messaging is exactly right,” Howard said that isn’t moving the ball fast enough to maintain US leadership.
“We cannot expect this mission area to to develop just from concepts and oversight. We can’t expect to bridge the valley of death through S&T [science and technology] programs and industry accelerator programs,” she said. “We need to identify and prioritize resources, funding and personnel. We need requirements for the use of mobility and logistics. And we need roadmaps with prioritized lines of effort and initiatives. We need creative acquisitions strategies with public-private partnerships and cost and risk shares.
“We need government organizations like Space Force, NASA, NRO and others to get us off the block,” she stressed, with “clear strategy, clear policy, clear requirements and real funding.”
Howard urged industry to come forward to talk with government stakeholders, including the NSpC, to “communicate” the challenges and roadblocks they see to pushing space mbility and logistics capabilities forward, and help find tools to overcome them.
“We want to hear from you,” she said.
Why cloud modernization is critical to multi-domain operations
JADC2 is a forcing function, driving digital transformation of network infrastructure.
Space Force working with SpaceX to closely watch falling Starlinks
The Space Force today circulated a fact sheet explaining what the service called a “proactive” and “collaborative” effort to keep tabs on Starlink re-entries as SpaceX begins to de-orbit some 100 early variants.
