Commercial satellite companies discussed the evolving Commercial Augmentation Space Reserve (CASR) program and the challenges of building a government-industry partnership prepared for a “one bad day” scenario at SATELLITE 2025.
Kratos VP of Space Domain Awareness Greg Caicedo said CASR capabilities must be integrated into the broader enterprise at all times — not held in reserve for crisis: “If you think you can just wait until the bad day, when you’re in the fog of war, you’re not going to be able to manage through that.” He also called for government to incentivize commercial companies to invest ahead of demand: “The government is going to incentivize businesses like ours. That is the important balance that we need to get from a partnership standpoint.”
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Viasat SVP of Government Strategy Rebecca Cowen-Hirsch said the CASR model needs a different commercial logic: “Excess capacity is not a commercial business model.” She described CASR as “commercially available space resiliency provided by commercial capabilities integrated into architectures” — meaning the relationship must be built in peacetime, not switched on at crisis. She emphasized that with the current threat environment, the industry is already under attack: “It’s understanding what the relationship with government means, and what the risk proposition is.”
Planet Federal Senior Technology Strategist Jared Newton highlighted the CASR pilot program launched by U.S. Space Force System Command in late 2024 as a step forward — but noted the gap between a paid pilot and sustained investment: “The gap between paying to do that pilot and then investing in having that capability as a commercial thing that you can bring online for a contract that doesn’t exist yet, is a tough sell.”
Newton said the field will likely narrow to a core group of companies: “It’s not going to be 500 companies. It’s going to be a couple of core companies providing capabilities across different pillars. The sooner that those companies are engaging with the government in a tangible way, the better it will be.” VS
