By Dan Robitzski
Welcome back to our weekly newsletter highlighting the opinions and perspectives of the SpaceNews community.
Before we dive in, we're asking for your opinions – on the people, companies and accomplishments that have had the most impact on the industry in 2025. We're accepting your nominations for the 2025 SpaceNews Icon Awards through Friday, Sept. 12, and we want to hear who you think deserves to be recognized for innovation and leadership. Learn more about the categories, and submit your recommendations today.
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This week, three former heads of NASA's human space exploration program shared their advice for getting the Artemis missions — and America's crewed space missions writ large — back on track. Doug Loverro, Doug Cooke and Dan Dumbacher wrote an opinion article calling for some "ground truth – someone to 'check our homework'" for the Artemis program if the United States is to maintain its leadership in space rather than ceding it to China as the program faces delay after delay.
As they wrote, "Over the past decade, as critical delay after critical delay has slowed NASA's Artemis schedule – first from the Space Launch System, then the Orion capsule and most recently, irrespective of Flight 10's success, the Starship lander – it has become clear that we are once again about to lose the moon. This time though it's not about a single mission; it's about America's leadership in space."
The three authors then issued a call to action for NASA and political leadership, which they argue have been able to pursue Artemis without "any true mechanism of public scrutiny."
"So, while to us the predicament is crystal clear – that alone can't be the basis for the bold action that will be required if we are right," they wrote. "NASA needs to stand up a truly independent review team immediately to provide an assessment to the acting administrator, the president, and Congress within the next 45 days because, if a "Plan B" is needed, that planning needs to start now."
Their commentary arrived just as former NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine told Congress he doubted the agency could get to the moon before China, a declaration that angered Acting Administrator Sean Duffy. |
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Brian Chow, an independent policy analyst and former senior physical scientist at the RAND Corp., published an article arguing that siloing the Golden Dome, the ambitious and expensive missile defense project, as an American-only affair, would be a mistake.
Rather, he wrote, a Golden Dome for NATO would offer political, financial and tactical advantages that a missile defense system focused solely on the American homeland would not.
Chow wrote:
A NATO Golden Dome is not just a scaled-up American shield — it is a fundamentally different proposition. By addressing the potential countermeasures China and Russia might employ against a Golden Dome and by leveraging the strategic, technical and financial advantages of alliance-wide participation, it strengthens deterrence, is more cost-effective and enhances collective defense.
By inviting NATO allies into the Golden Dome Initiative without delay, President Trump could turn a national project into a historic alliance achievement. Done right, the NATO Dome would not only protect our populations and other assets from missile attacks, but also demonstrate, in the clearest possible terms, that the free world stands united against those who would threaten it. | | |
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 | The Orion spacecraft being prepared for the Artemis 2 mission. Exploration programs would get a sharp funding increase in a House spending bill for fiscal year 2026. Credit: NASA/Rad Sinyak
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Riding on the heels of the EU Space Act, Simon Maynard, a partner at King & Spalding in London, has advice for how the United Kingdom's space industry can keep pace with the progress that's happening around the world. In his opinion article, Maynard offered suggestions for legal frameworks that could help support U.K. competitiveness, such as streamlining the licensing process, reworking liability standards for operators and supporting emerging commercial activity.
As Maynard wrote, the U.K. "ranks second globally in attracting private space investment, securing 17% of all such investments in 2022, behind only the United States. To not only maintain but enhance this position, the U.K. needs to combine regulatory adaptability with legal certainty, providing an adaptable framework that encourages innovation, but which is not so frenetic as to undermine predictability. Streamlining licensing, limiting operator liability and supporting emergent technologies are three key aspects of this challenge, which will help shape the future of U.K. space law. Get them right and, for the U.K. space sector, the sky really will be the limit." |
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Sign up for our other newsletters First Up: The latest civil, commercial and military space news, curated by veteran journalist Jeff Foust. Delivered Monday to Friday mornings. Military Space: Veteran defense journalist Sandra Erwin delivers news and insights for the military space professional. Delivered Tuesday. China Report: Analysis of China's space activities and what it means as one of the United States' top competitors from correspondent Andrew Jones. Delivered every other Wednesday. SpaceNext AI: Exploring the intersection of space and artificial intelligence. Delivered Thursday. Video & Audio: Upcoming live programs, scheduled guests, and recent Space Minds podcast episodes, webinars and other events. Delivered Friday. Marketing Minute: Covering PR, marketing, and advertising trends, upcoming SpaceNews opportunities, and editorial insights for communications and marketing leaders. Delivered monthly. |
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