Challenges of Satellite Security in the Age of Rising Tensions

ACIR is honored to host Dr. Mariel Borowitz for an in-person event entitled “Challenges of Satellite Security in the Age of Rising Tensions.”

The United States heavily depends on satellites during peacetime for communications, navigation, and other essential functions. During wars, satellites play a crucial role in such functions as command and control, reconnaissance, intelligence gathering and targeting. However, satellites are becoming increasingly vulnerable to anti-satellite actions by potential adversaries.

Join ACIR as Dr. Mariel Borowitz, who has worked with the National Security Agency on such issues, explores the challenges the United States confronts in protecting American satellites from the actions of potential adversaries, imperiling our civilian grid system, and neutralizing our military communications and targeting satellites.

Speaker bio: 

Dr. Borowitz completed a detail as a policy analyst for the Science Mission Directorate at NASA Headquarters in Washington, DC from 2016 to 2018. In 2022, she testified to the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Space and Aeronautics in a hearing titled, “Space Situational Awareness: Guiding the Transition to a Civil Capability.”

Her research deals with international space policy issues, focusing particularly on global developments related to remote sensing satellites and challenges to space security and sustainability. Her book, “Open Space: The Global Effort for Open Access to Environmental Satellite Data,” published by MIT Press, examines trends in the development of data sharing policies governing Earth observing satellites, as well as interactions with the growing commercial remote sensing sector. Her work has been published in Science, Strategic Studies Quarterly, Space Policy, Astropolitics, and New Space. Her research has been supported by grants from the National Science Foundation and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

Dr. Borowitz earned a PhD in Public Policy at the University of Maryland and a Master’s degree in International Science and Technology Policy from George Washington University. She has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.