Space –
The United States faces a strategic inflection point: it must act decisively to secure the cislunar domain—the region of space between geosynchronous Earth orbit (GEO) and the Moon—or risk ceding this critical high ground to global competitors like China and Russia. As space becomes increasingly commercialized and contested, a deliberate U.S. strategy is essential to preserve freedom of maneuver, enable economic expansion, and set the normative foundations for responsible behavior beyond Earth orbit.
Drawing from field studies across the United States and Japan and incorporating insights from government, industry, and academic stakeholders, this analysis examines the current strategic environment, innovation trends, supply chain dynamics, and governance gaps shaping the Earth-Moon system. It identifies a growing risk from adversarial civil-military fusion efforts, ambiguous legal regimes, and a lack of cohesive U.S. infrastructure and investment coordination in the cislunar domain. Meanwhile, opportunities abound in infrastructure-first advantages, inspace servicing, assembly, and manufacturing (ISAM), lunar resource extraction, and public-private partnerships that can catalyze a projected over $100 billion cislunar economy.
The paper recommends a comprehensive approach anchored by three integrated Lines of Effort:
- Consolidate U.S. Leadership: Establish a U.S. Department of Space to centralize civil and commercial space governance, create an International Cislunar Infrastructure Bank (ICIB) to mobilize allied investment, and lead new global standard-setting organizations for cislunar operations
- Build and Secure Cislunar Infrastructure: Invest in a domain awareness architecture, resilient communications and navigation systems, and in-space logistics platforms such as depots and reusable transport vehicles to anchor a durable American presence.
- Cultivate the Private-Sector Cislunar Economy: Generate stable demand through long-term government contracts, pass a Space Resources Act to incentivize lunar extraction, expand innovation financing tools, and launch international innovation hubs to align global industry with U.S. standards.
The report also underscores the importance of educational wargaming and artificial intelligence in shaping future cislunar strategies, highlighting the need for scenario-driven learning and autonomous operational capabilities. The time to act is now. The cislunar domain will define the next era of strategic competition, and the United States must lead—or be led.
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