Looking Across the Entire Space Enterprise

Colorado Springs, Colo. Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Okla.) on Tuesday announced comprehensive legislation that aims to look at national security space, civil space, and commercial space together, and maximize the contributions of each. What generally happens is that the congressional science committees oversee NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, while the armed services committees look at Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellites or the ground architecture for GPS, “but it doesn’t appear that there’s a lot of oversight over the entire enterprise, where there are synergies that can be had, and there are areas where we actually have duplicative efforts,” said Bridenstine, a member of the House Armed Services Committee and the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. “Information dominance is the way you fight and win wars. And the Chinese and Russians have recognized that a lot of our dominance depends on space. They are rapidly developing, testing, and fielding technologies and capabilities to deny us that advantage,” Bridenstine told Air Force Magazine. “What we have to do is make sure we’re moving forward faster than they are, so we can stay ahead.” The bill, which Bridenstine says he does not expect to pass in its entirety, would require the President to develop doctrine about how to respond to hostile acts against US and allied space assets, and require the Secretary of Defense to develop a strategy for enhancing automation and increasing interoperability between systems that share space and cyberspace situational awareness across the DOD.