Annie Fixler & Mariam Davlashelidze
Space systems are as vital as electricity to our everyday lives, but their cybersecurity is not similarly prioritized by the federal government. President Joe Biden’s final cybersecurity executive order, issued January 16 — a directive President Donald Trump appears likely to maintain — noted that space systems play a “pivotal role… in global critical infrastructure and communications resilience,” but stopped short of designating space as a critical infrastructure in itself. In so doing, the White House missed yet another opportunity to adequately prioritize the security and resilience of these essential systems.
Space Systems Are Vital to Everyday Life
In addition to satellite communications, other critical infrastructure, including energy, water, and finance, rely on space-based systems. The global positioning system (GPS), for example, provides precise timing of industrial control systems and financial trades. When Moscow disabled the operations of the American satellite company Viasat in February 2022 as Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv’s military communications were degraded. Thousands of customers across Europe lost internet access, and the operations of thousands of wind turbines in Central Europe were hampered.
A World Economic Forum report from April 2024 projected that the global space economy will triple to $1.8 trillion by 2035. The report contends that this growth will be the result not just of increased reliance on space-based assets for communication and national defense, but also of consumer activities like ride-sharing apps and food delivery. “Space will play an increasingly crucial role in mitigating world challenges, ranging from disaster warning and climate monitoring, to improved humanitarian response and more widespread prosperity,” the report projects.
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