By Marina Malenic
A trade association representing the U.S. aerospace industry is advocating that the incoming Obama administration maintain U.S. supremacy in space technologies by developing an integrated approach to civil, commercial and national security space programs.
“Given our dependence on space assets and increasing international competition, it is critical that space issues be seamlessly integrated into national policy,” Aerospace Industries Association President Marion Blakely said yesterday at a media roundtable following release of an AIA report on space priorities.
The report recommends that military and civilian space capabilities be viewed as a “single enterprise” under a national advisory council that would report directly to the president.
“It’s got to go to the highest level,” said AIA Vice President J.P. Stevens, stressing the need for “presidential involvement.”
AIA’s Space Council prepared the report as a space primer for the new administration.
According to a source close to President-elect Barack Obama’s transition team, Obama is putting together a group of experts to coordinate space policies. The source said specific individuals have not yet been chosen for the panel.
The report also reiterates prior AIA themes such as the need for budget stability in space programs from year to year; the need to relax export control for space-related hardware components; and the need to maintain U.S. supremacy in space technologies.
The report warns that several countries now have the “vision and resources to equal or even supplant our dominance” in space.
The report also urges the new administration to bridge capability gaps in earth observation technologies, including climate measurement satellites.