AUGUST 2025
How Can the U.S.
Government Safeguard
Commercial Satellites
from Threats?
By Clayton Swope
Introduction
Though the Founding Fathers could not have anticipated today’s global security landscape, they
did navigate a complex threat environment with similarities to the twenty-rst century. The young
United States emerged in a world where state and nonstate actors posed security risks to U.S.
commercial and civilian interests both domestically and abroad, leaving a long-lasting impact on U.S.
defense policymaking. In the centuries since, in peacetime and war, the United States has repeatedly
demonstrated its resolve to protect and safeguard its national equities—its people, territory, economic
interests, and national infrastructure—using its combined military power and civil capabilities. There
should be no doubt that those imperatives to protect and defend extend into space, no more or less
than they extend into other areas beyond U.S. national borders, such as the high seas.
As of 2025, there are around 10,000 active satellites orbiting the Earth, with the preponderance
privately owned. Moreover, over 7,000 satellites are owned and operated by a single U.S. company—
SpaceX. Over the next ve years, the number of satellites in orbit will likely skyrocket, with tens
of thousands of additional satellites—mainly for satellite communications—launched primarily by
companies from the United States and China. As the number of satellites in orbits grows, so do the
threats they face. The sharp growth in the number of satellites owned and operated by the private
sector creates challenges as to how the U.S. government can best protect and defend private sector
equities in space.
