Government Space Resiliency Front and Center at Washington Space Business Roundtable

The topic of improved resiliency for space communications was the main topic at a forum discussion organized by the Washington Space Business Roundtable. Speakers addressed the accelerating rate of technological change in space, and how, in response, government and industry are collaborating more closely.

Skot Butler, President of IGC talked about how the pace of technological change is affecting space policy. He pointed out that while it took decades for technologies like electricity and the internal combustion engine to change society, mobile and cloud computing have done so over the past 5-7 years. To keep up in such an environment, government is now looking to procure services rather than just bandwidth from commercial operators to ensure they get the latest technology in orbit.

Other speakers included:

Dr. David Hardy – Assistant Deputy Undersecretary of the Air Force for Space

Todd Harrison – Director of Defense Budget Analysis, Center for Strategic and International Studies

Chirag Parikh – Deputy Director, Counter Proliferation at the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency

Colonel Sidney Connor – Deputy Director, Space Programs, Assistant Secretary for Acquisition

Please see below for the video.