Jay Clemens
Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch, a senior vice president at Inmarsat, has said she believes that government and commercial organizations should collaborate to build resilient space systems.
Cowen-Hirsch wrote in a blog post published Monday that U.S. government officials and lawmakers continue to increase their commitment to a satellite service model that seeks to increase military satellite communications and boost resiliency in space.
She cited the American Space Renaissance Act proposed by Rep. Jim Bridenstine (R-Oklahoma) in order to advocate the purchase of communications, remote sensing and weather data services from private satellite operators.
She added that lawmakers have begun to include some of the legislation’s language into the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, which in part seeks to transfer space oversight from the Defense Department to the Federal Aviation Administration.
Cowen-Hirsch also quoted Doug Loverro, deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy, as saying DoD plans to change its space policy in an effort to protect military and spy satellites with the use of commercial offerings.
“A fully realized [DoD] and commercial satellite service providers’ collaboration would remove inefficient, siloed acquisition procedures and practices in favor of a more streamlined, consolidated model to enhance the resiliency, as well as the capability and flexibility of systems,” she noted.
