Space Force Should Hire Commercial Tracking Services ASAP: 2021 NDAA

The Trump administration, with full DoD support, has been trying to offload the mission of warning commercial and foreign space operators about potential on-orbit collisions to the Commerce Department.

One of the key policy questions at hand is how much DoD, and eventually Commerce, should rely on the increasing capabilities for space object tracking and analysis available from commercial firms. Indeed, as I reported just Wednesday, Space Force chief Gen. Jay Raymond says the Space Force is “beginning to leverage” such commercial capabilities and expects to expand reliance on commercial providers in future.