Along for the Ride: The United States Needs to Prepare Security Standards Now for Commercial Space Travel
Abstract
The concept of regulating the physical security of commercial spaceports has received little attention. Currently, no federal agency is responsible for developing physical security standards or enforcing regulatory compliance within the industry. This thesis examines the need to create and apply ground-based physical security standards to commercial space facilities within the United States. This thesis explores three policy options as potential paths forward if commercial space travel is designated as critical infrastructure and assesses their effectiveness, cost, political challenges, and viability. The analysis determines that taking proactive measures now will mitigate the potential costs and impacts of an attack and would save substantial amounts of money, keep a burgeoning market on track, and could save lives. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that implementing a regulatory approach like the one employed by the Transportation Security Administration's surface transportation program would be effective if it prevents the explosion of one Falcon 9 rocket, or similar, every approximately 188 years.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Mar 01, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1212880
Entities
People
- Jared M. Babin
Organizations
- Naval Postgraduate School