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The New Space Rush: The Final Frontier for the Economy and National Security

Panel Description

Humanities high water mark in space was in 1972 with the last of the Apollo missions. Since then no humans left Earth’s orbit and and all efforts on the ISS or from our Satellites seemed so very linear and exploratory. All indications are that we are entering a new age of exploration and human expansion into space with humans soon returning to the moon, Mars and perhaps soon afterwards even the asteroids. Explore the new national security and economic realities of this new space rush in our closing keynote discussion with the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the US Space Force.

Bob Gourley, CTO, OODA
Lisa Costa, Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the US Space Force

Panelists Biographies

Bob Gourley is the former CTO for the Defense Intelligence Agency and is currently the Co-Founder and CTO of OODA LLC.  Bob has received the Infoworld top CTO award and was named one of the top 100 “Tech Titans” in DC by Washingtonian magazine.

X: @bobgourleyBob Gourley | LinkedIn

By Bob Gourley:

Lisa Costa is a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the first permanent Chief Technology and Innovation Officer (CTIO) of United States Space Force. In this role, she is charged with unlocking and harnessing innovation to leverage increased speed and advantage. She is responsible for developing strategy and policy to advance Science and Technology and Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation; employing cutting edge technologies to digitally transform the USSF; assuring USSF information technology needs are met; effectively managing USSF data; and conducting analysis supporting all USSF staff elements.  Prior to her current CTIO role, she served as Director, Communications Systems and Chief Information Officer for U.S. Special Operations Command (USSOCOM), MacDill Air Force Base, Florida. Dr. Costa also served as the Senior Director of Innovation and Technology at Engility Corporation where she brought big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to client verticals. She served as the Vice President of Intelligence and Chief Scientist at PlanetRisk, a global leader in 365/24/7 real-time predictive risk analytics.

As a member of the Defense Science Board on numerous Task Forces and Summer Studies, Dr. Costa helped shape the US model for homeland security, special operations’ role in countering terrorism, developed novel approaches to WMD early warning, and championed the use of publicly available information for great power competition. Dr. Costa was MITRE’s Chief Scientist for every Combatant Command and Defense and Service Intelligence agency in the DoD.  She was on the OSD Senior Technical Experts Group and led MITRE’s Independent Research and Development (R&D) to develop patented, globally licensed work in advanced data analytics.  Dr. Costa was responsible for establishing the largest data repository and AI-enabled data mining capability outside the National Capital Region in support of special mission unit target adjudication.  As Director of the Non-Traditional Information and Knowledge Exploitation cell at USSOCOM, she led multidisciplinary teams to develop worldwide intelligence assessments. These efforts were at the request of Combatant Commanders to the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff. This model was used for developing intel/ops centers across the globe.

Lisa Costa | LinkedIn

United States Space Force @ X

By or Featuring Lisa Costa: 

Additional OODA Loop Resources

Commercial Space: Innovation, Regulation, and International Collaboration:   The upcoming OODAcon 2023 panel – “The Space Edge – Defining New Opportunities, Economies, and Risks” – will dig deep into the emerging opportunities, economies, and risks associated with the rapid development of space-based technologies, resource acquisition, and shift from the public to private sector.  After decades of stagnation, space innovation keeps pushing the boundaries of the possible with new firsts emerging on a monthly basis. Following is a compilation of OODA Loop original analysis and resources on the revolution evolution of the Commercial Space industry sector.

The Future of Space: National Security, Cybersecurity, and AI/ML: Exploring the new national security and economic realities of The New Space Rush will be the closing keynote discussion with Lisa Costa, the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of the US Space Force at OODAcon 2023.  Following is a compilation of recent OODA Analysis of the future of space, national security, cybersecurity and artificial intelligence and machine learning – the implications of which OODA CTO Bob Gourley will be discussing with Costa next week.

Space Exploration Milestones of Note in 2023:  A compilation of the space exploration milestones featured here at OODA Loop in 2023.

For additional OODA Loops News Briefs and Original Analysis on Space Exploration, go to OODA Loop | Space

The Executive’s Guide to Space

The rapid pace of innovation in space is producing real capabilities which can be leveraged for businesses in every sector of the economy. There is a growing excitement over the many developments in the space industry, giving rise to many questions about how these developments will impact markets overall. This guide is meant to assist strategic planners in assessing developments in the space sector. For more see:  The Executive’s Guide To Commercial Use of Space

Security In Space and Security of Space

The last decade has seen an incredible increase in the commercial use of space. Businesses and individual consumers now leverage space solutions that are so integrated into our systems that they seem invisible. Some of these services include: Communications, including very high-speed low latency communications to distant and mobile users. Learn more at: OODA Research Report: What Business Needs To Know About Security In Space Also see: Is Space Critical Infrastructure, and the special report on Cyber Threats to Project Artemis, and Mitigating Threats To Commercial Space Satellites

Daniel Pereira

About the Author

Daniel Pereira

Daniel Pereira is research director at OODA. He is a foresight strategist, creative technologist, and an information communication technology (ICT) and digital media researcher with 20+ years of experience directing public/private partnerships and strategic innovation initiatives.