UNCLASSIFIED
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Privatization of Space Launch Capability
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Introduction:
Increasing reliance on the private sector, to support maintenance of the National
satellite constellation, is critical to maintaining primacy and effectiveness in defense
support, communications, and the Nation’s cultural sphere of influence. With the current
socio-economic situation of a developing world, resulting in a measured decrease of the
“Superpower Gap” (Foulis n.d.), the United States must seek methods to more
efficiently maintain its overhead capability. The primary method to accomplish this is de–
federalizing of the space launch capability. While this move towards privatization of
spaceflight has been happening since the 1980s (Britannica n.d.), only since the early
