What do penguins and US space industry suppliers have in common? It’s safer for both to travel in packs.
For penguins, that’s called a waddle. For suppliers, the pack takes the form of the Commercial Space Federation’s Space Supply Chain Council (S2C2), a new organization established on Wednesday to advocate for companies across the US space ecosystem in DC.
One band, one sound: Since January, the Trump administration has moved to include the commercial sector in key civil and defense programs.
- Its proposed NASA budget, released last week, wants to shift many of the agency’s responsibilities to the commercial sector.
- President Donald Trump also signed an executive order in April directing the DoD to lean more on the commercial sector when building its defense capabilities.
With other policy decisions, however, the administration has done some damage—not least by proposing vast reductions to NASA and Space Force budgets, and launching a global trade war. On Wednesday, 50% tariffs on steel and aluminum for all US trading partners except the UK went into effect, driving up the price of the raw materials that make up many rocket bodies and satellites.
S2C2’s goal is to make sure that legislators and regulators in Washington understand how these policies affect the space industry.
The council’s founding members—National Air Cargo, Applied Aerospace, and Statasys—are involved in logistics, space subsystems, and 3D manufacturing, respectively. CSF wants to grow the council to represent companies across the industry, from software and service providers, to power and propulsion companies. CSF President Dave Cavossa told Payload that the organization could include as many as 100 businesses in the next year.
“I want to make sure [regulators] know how big and broad the commercial space industry is here in the United States,” Cavossa said. “The NASA budget, the defense budget, the Space Force budget, [all] has an impact on all of these companies—not just the prime contractor.”
On the plus side: Day-to-day the council will attempt to educate legislators on critical space topics such as export controls, anti-competitive behaviors, FCC and remote sensing licensing, and mission authorization. Luckily for S2C2, the suits in Washington seem eager to learn.
“Everybody within this administration is very receptive to commercial space right now,” Cavossa said. “They all want to hear what we have to say, and they’re looking for quick wins and easy things they can do to fix the policy.”
