Conrad C. Lautenbacher, Ph.D., Vice Admiral (USN Ret.) delivered a talk titled “Space Policy and Weather Satellites: A Practical Perspective” to Georgia Tech faculty and students on March 26, 2014. The event was facilitated by the Center for International Strategy, Technology, and Policy (CISTP) and Nunn School Assistant Professor Mariel Borowitz.

Lautenbacher provided a summary of American space policy regarding weather satellites, as well as an overview of the research, procurement, and operational processes that gets these critical assets into orbit. He argued that inefficient policy decisions, namely the U.S. government’s circumscribed use of the commercial space sector, have made sustaining a working weather satellite fleet overly expensive. This high price tag has resulted in data gaps and a low number of operating units. It has also drained resources from related priorities like oceanic and climate research.

Lautenbacher concluded that these shortfalls are best corrected by crafting a weather satellite policy built around private industry. Market competition, he said, would reduce costs and improve the quality of weather data collection, as it has done in the space-based communications and imaging sectors.