Civil Space Industrial Base Assessment to be Conducted by NOAA, NASA
A comprehensive assessment of the U.S. civil space industrial base is being conducted by the Commerce Department’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) in partnership with NASA and NOAA. The Office of Space Commerce co-sponsored the study.
"(I)n a period of such rapid development – including our return to the Moon and planned advancement to Mars and our support of the development of a low-Earth orbit economy – those relationships will be more important than ever. We need to know as much as we can about this important industrial sector.”
Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy.
For the purposes of this study, the domestic civil space industrial base consists of nonmilitary/DOD space-related work primarily supporting NASA and NOAA, as well as the Federal Aviation Administration, the Federal Communications Commission, and the Department of Energy, including prime contractors, commercial companies, federally funded research and development centers (FFRDCs), universities, and laboratories.
Civil Space Industrial Base Assessment Methodology
To collect data for the assessment, BIS will deploy a survey instrument to hundreds of U.S. space companies and suppliers. The principal goal of this survey is to better understand the civil space industrial base supply chain network.
The principal goal of this survey is to better understand the CSIB supply chain network. The data collected will help identify the structure and interdependencies of organizations that participate in the CSIB, especially NASA and NOAA systems and subsystems. This effort will enable NASA and NOAA to understand and respond to supply chain deficiencies and disruptions related to diminishing manufacturing sources and material shortages (DMSMS), foreign sourcing and dependencies, cyber security incidents, critical minerals and materials, COVID-19 pandemic impacts, and other challenges. The resulting data and subsequent analysis will allow industry representatives and government policy officials to better monitor trends, benchmark industry performance, and raise awareness of potential issues of concern.
“For decades NASA’s work with the Civil Space Industrial Base has allowed the agency to explore the unknown and achieve technological breakthroughs,” said Bhavya Lal, NASA associate administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy. “Now, in a period of such rapid development – including our return to the Moon and planned advancement to Mars and our support of the development of a low-Earth orbit economy – those relationships will be more important than ever. We need to know as much as we can about this important industrial sector.”
Data and analysis from the survey will allow government officials and industry to better monitor trends and industry performance and raise awareness on potential concerns. BIS will release aggregate data and more information is available on the project website.
(Source: NASA, NOAA, BIS news releases. Images from file)