5 takeaways from POLITICO’s Go for Launch event

The space economy affects everyone in the United States, from satellites processing ATM transactions to defending against weapons in orbit.

On Tuesday, POLITICO’s Go For Launch event touched on these topics as well as others, including how Space X chief Elon Musk’s personality could affect U.S. space launch capabilities and whether top space leaders approve of Arizona Sen. Mark Kelly — a former astronaut — as Kamala Harris’ potential vice president.

Here are our five takeaways from the event:

Losing sleep over Russia's space nuke

A nuclear explosion by Russia in space could destroy Washington’s assets in orbit and slow down the United States’ launch capability, U.S. officials warned.

The Pentagon earlier this year warned that Russia is looking to put an “indiscriminate” nuclear weapon in space , and the Biden administration has been in talks with Russia and allied nations to try to stop Moscow from putting an anti-satellite nuclear weapon in orbit.

Richard DalBello, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s director for space commerce, said a nuclear explosion in space could degrade other technologies “super dosed” with prolonged radiation around them and thus cease to function — creating space debris. Thousands of space assets “will die,” he said, adding it will add to the mounting uncontrolled space debris.

Space debris could shrink the opportunity for companies to launch their technologies into space even as the practice becomes more routine, said Kelvin Coleman, the FAA’s associate administrator for commercial space transportation.

Debris making its way into low-Earth orbit becomes a bigger concern for his agency since it closes the opportunity to schedule “safe and successful” launch windows, Coleman said. That’s in addition to the herculean task the agency takes to segregate large swaths of airspace or distribute air traffic elsewhere during space vehicle launches.

With debris becoming a hazard, “I know there would be more delays” of launches, he said.

“We run collision avoidance analysis for each activity,” Coleman said, adding that analyses “would probably render … windows that are smaller.”

A presidential space ticket

Political leaders in the space sector are over the moon that Kelly — a former astronaut — has emerged as a top contender to become Harris’ running mate.

Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) said that Kelly is one of the most impressive people he knows, touting the Arizona Democrat’s extensive knowledge of national security, consistency and character.

Kelly paused his training as commander of Space Shuttle Endeavour’s final mission after his wife, former Rep. Gabby Giffords, was shot during an event with constituents outside a grocery store in Tucson, Arizona.

After taking time to care for Giffords, Kelly resumed his training and commanded the mission just months later: “He’s close to a national hero, so he’d be a perfect, amazing pick,” Hickenlooper said.

NASA Administrator Bill Nelson also said he thought Kelly would be a good pick to become Harris’ vice president: “Mark was this incredible force of standing by her through all that time, and I think that’s a testimony to his character,” Nelson said. “So I think Mark can be good at whatever.”

He also praised Harris’ decision to keep the National Space Council that the Trump administration established in 2019 and noted that Harris represented California in the Senate — a state that has three NASA centers.

“I had lengthy talks with her about space,” Nelson said. “She’s a space aficionado.”

Elon is all right with NASA

Nelson isn’t concerned that billionaire eccentric Musk is the head of SpaceX, one of the U.S. government’s main launch providers, even as he espouses his political views publicly.

“If it gets in the way, it would bother me quite a bit,” Nelson said when asked if Musk’s personality could affect U.S. launch capability. “The good news is that Elon leaves the running of SpaceX to Gwynne Shotwell, and she is fantastic,” he added, referring to the company’s chief operating officer.

Nelson said he has spoken with Musk and Blue Origin head Jeff Bezos multiple times, calling them both “agreeable.”

“Both of them understand the importance of what we're doing, and I'm very confident in both of those companies,” Nelson said. “And the proof’s in the pudding. Look at the success of the Falcon 9. Look at the success of our commercial partners.”

SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket — which has successfully launched dozens of missions in recent months — recently suffered a rare failure, raising concerns that the U.S. government relies heavily on few major industry partners for its space launch capabilities.

But Nelson isn’t sweating it.

“I’m not worried about the Falcon 9. They knew exactly what happened,” he said. “They know exactly what the problem was, and they got it fixed.”

Checking on China

Thousands of additional satellites are expected to be put in orbit in the coming years, with the U.S. and China leading the way. But the communication to avoid collisions isn’t adequate, U.S. officials warned.

The U.S. has invited China on several occasions to sit down and have a technical conversation about space traffic control and space traffic safety, according to DalBello: “As of today, they haven't accepted that invitation,” he said. “We're wondering what they're thinking.”

Beijing is poised to launch a 10,000-satellite constellation that would be close to the Starlink orbit and potentially near both the Chinese and the U.S. space stations, DalBello added, calling it a major safety issue.

Tom Stroup, president of the Satellite Industry Association, is confident that the U.S. can assess where assets in space are at any given time. But he’s more worried about future communications information about satellites, “between not only allies, but potentially between allies and adversaries.”

China’s space workforce also appears to be much larger than the United States’: Some 300,000 people have worked on China's space projects, according to Chinese state media , about 17 times more than NASA’s workforce.

“If we don’t invest our time, energy and money into training the next workforce into our pipeline of space, then I think that’s going to be one of our no. 1 threats out there,” said Meghan Allen, senior vice president of Washington operations for Space Foundation.

Show ’em the money

Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) wants Congress to invest more in agencies critical to helping the U.S. lead the way in outer space.

Moran, the ranking member of a key Senate Appropriations Committee panel with jurisdiction over space issues, said that the U.S. is “not investing enough” in space. The senator is the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies, with jurisdiction over the budget of NASA.

The senator stressed that while this was a good amount, often space issues get left out of defense spending, something he said needs to change in order to address evolving threats.

“We keep spending a lot of money, but we have to make certain that the priority — I would put first defense, and defense now includes space, that’s where we ought to be spending more money to protect our country,” Moran said.

The need for more spending comes as Congress looks to increase NASA’s budget, part of an effort to boost U.S. space investments as Russia and China increasingly pose threats to satellites and other space infrastructure.

Hickenlooper, speaking on the same panel, agreed with Moran, noting that “space is both defense and domestic. … We can unite forces there.”

Oriana Pawlyk, Christine Mui, Paul McLeary and Miles J. Herszenhorn contributed to this report.