September 23,
Hosted Payloads Workshop

The notion of encouraging government payloads to fly aboard commercial satellites, in place of building a government-only platform, has gained support as the demand for space-based information has increased, along with the costs of supplying that demand. Placing national security and intelligence payloads aboard commercial satellites raises unique issues. Concerns over security and reliability are among the issues generally cited when discussing the expanded use of hosted payloads. Perhaps just as significant are questions about how these capabilities will be integrated with existing systems and how they will be procured. On 23 September, DEF in partnership with the George C. Marshall Institute convened a workshop to consider how the concept of "hosted payloads" can contribute to U.S. national security, civil, and commercial space missions.