Remarks by CSO Gen. Chance Saltzman at the 40th Space Symposium

Published April 11, 2025
Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AFNS) -- Thank you so much! How’s everybody doing today? I feel great. That might be a surprise to some of you. We’re in the middle of a year-long CR... there’s a rumor that we’ll have a trillion-dollar budget incoming… there’s also these sudden, unscheduled personnel changes… and I’ve got all these space threats to deal with?

But I’m not stressed, because I’ve got a secret weapon. Thanks to Jennifer, my wife, I am stress free. You see, she gave me this stress ball. Whenever I’m feeling anxious, I just squeeze it, and everything gets better.

Who wants it? Here you go, catch! Okay, don’t fight over it…

But I’m really excited to be here for the 40th Space Symposium! Four decades—hard to believe. Congratulations on an incredible milestone!

Speaking of milestones, 66 years ago today—April 9th, 1959—saw the creation of a whole new space profession. That’s because this was the day that NASA announced the names of the Mercury Seven: America’s first astronauts.

The event took place in the new space agency’s first headquarters, in the ballroom of the Dolley Madison House on Lafayette Square, right across from the White House. I’ve been lobbying for the Space Force to move in there… but no luck, yet.

Anyway, the Mercury Seven were Alan Shepard, “Gus” Grissom, John Glenn, Wally Schirra, Scott Carpenter, Deke Slayton, and Gordon Cooper.

They were instantly famous! According to Time Magazine, they were America’s first space celebrities… “Seven men cut of the same stone as Columbus, Magellan, Daniel Boone, Orville and Wilbur Wright…”

By virtue of being the first, these seven military test pilots set the standards, built the processes and established the culture that followed.

As one NASA official later recalled, "I soon learned if you saw someone wearing a short-sleeved Ban-Lon shirt and aviator sunglasses, you were looking at an astronaut..."

Now, those Ban-Lon shirts may have sadly gone out of style, but those sunglasses are still a hit with the cool space crowd to this day.

Seriously, though, a lot has changed since then, and we’re not living in the 1960s anymore. Back then, it made perfect sense to aggregate capability onto small numbers of complex and expensive satellites, secure in the knowledge that they were remote and untouchable.

But the space domain today looks nothing like that benign environment we enjoyed 60 years ago… or even the environment in which I began my career just 34 years ago. In 1965, only 3 nations had the ability to launch rockets into orbit.

Today, there are 15 nations capable of space launch. 88 countries have satellites in orbit, and every nation has access to the benefits of space capabilities.

This means the effort to keep track of what’s being launched into space and how those satellites are being used is becoming tougher. Tougher still when there are actors deliberately being unclear with their intentions.

Potential adversaries have realized the unique strategic advantage of space superiority. They know, as we do, that control of the ultimate high ground is critical to success in all the other domains. This means we must treat space like a warfighting domain… because it very much IS one.

Space has become the central nervous system of Joint and Combined operations. It is a pre-requisite for air superiority, which in turn lays the groundwork for land and sea operations.
And space capabilities are THE critical enabler for modern power projection.

As with other elements of military operations, critical advantages can become strategic vulnerabilities if not safeguarded. Our adversaries recognize that spacepower is a linchpin to success for any conflict among great powers—the first domino that must fall before larger objectives may be achieved. Simply put, space superiority is now a prerequisite for battlefield success.

So, regardless of whether or not you believe space superiority will win the next war, it must be recognized that we will most certainly lose without it.
And by “we,” make no mistake: I mean the United States AND our Allies and Partners around the world.

As Secretary Hegseth recently stated, “America first does not mean America alone.”

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: spacepower is the ultimate team sport… The domain is too big, too complex, too dynamic for a single nation to secure alone. No… space superiority requires an extraordinary degree of trust, coordination, and shared commitment among like-minded nations.

So, cooperation with Allies, Partners, and Commercial entities is not just a good idea. It is essential! Without cooperation we will not be able to achieve our objectives as rapidly and effectively as the security environment demands. I’m reminded of a story…

A teacher once gave every student in a school a balloon with instructions to write their name on it.

Then the teacher had all the balloons placed in the hallway and mixed up. It was at this point the teacher instructed the students to find their balloon. After a hectic search, none of the students were able to find their balloon.

Then, the teacher instructed the students to take the first balloon they find and give it to the person whose name was written on it. Within 5 minutes, every student had their balloon.
The power of cooperation and teamwork will always be greater than individual effort. But unlike this simple exercise, cooperation and teamwork can be difficult, frustrating, time consuming… and… worth every bit of the extra effort.

Now, I believe good relationships are built on trust and an understanding of mutual benefits. However, I also believe good relationships do not just naturally develop.

They require leadership. They require someone to stand up and communicate their interests. Share their direction of travel. Provide a framework upon which to build something that endures.
That’s why I’m pleased to tell you that we have developed an International Partnership Strategy to do exactly that on behalf of the U.S. Space Force.

This document provides a starting point for collaboration. A roadmap for integrating like-minded nations and entities that believe in a safe, secure, and sustainable space domain. And a mechanism for building a strong space coalition—one that can unify our efforts in pursuit of a common vision for the future.

I don’t have to tell this crowd that the space domain is evolving rapidly.

New threats, new technology, and ever-increasing competition… So, the burden is on us—the U.S. and its partners—to be proactive, to be thoughtful, and to lean forward in our approach.
Let me walk you through some of the details you will find in our International Partnership Strategy.

Much of it should not be surprising because it builds on concepts articulated in our Commercial Space Strategy. It aligns with the DoD’s International Space Cooperation Strategy. It takes account of the recent Space Strategic Review, and it works to implement the 2025 Interim National Defense Strategy Guidance.

In essence, our Partnership Strategy specifies the infrastructure for transforming policy into action, ensuring a unified, resilient approach to international space security.
Like any good approach, our Strategy centers on three core goals.

First, “Empowering Partners as Force Multipliers.” That means capitalizing on our individual strengths to mitigate our collective weaknesses.

This is basic economics—every one of our nations and organizations has something to contribute. The trick is in focusing on areas where we have comparative advantage. Maybe it’s space domain awareness or hosted payloads. Maybe it’s launch capacity or even simple geography for a ground station.

I firmly believe that every contribution helps share the burden, and every partner can make a meaningful impact on space security.

Its second goal is to “Enhance Interoperability & Information Sharing.” Individual contributions are far less useful if they can’t fit within the larger whole. And operational knowledge is most useful when held by all operators.

In other words, we need to work closely together, and we need to communicate. Constantly... literally and system to system. We also need our systems, institutions, and processes to be linked—even intertwined with each other, integrated by design. That’s the only way we’re going to support the kind of close collaboration required to keep pace with change in our domain.

While we have work to do, I am proud to say that the Space Force is making strides in this area. The Joint Commercial Operations Cell is a great example of that.

The number of partners with whom we share space domain awareness data has exploded in recent years, which is step one in ensuring we all have the same operational awareness. As of last fall, the JCO was leveraging trained government personnel from 18 partner nations.

Another good case study is our ride share program, and I want to particularly thank Norway and Japan for their excellent work in this regard. They’ve enhanced Coalition capability and saved us all a lot of money in the process.

My favorite part of this program is that it allows international partners to put skin in the game. We are not just TALKING about mission integration—we are literally integrating missions with our partners. We are now learning through practice how to work together, share resources, and accomplish a mission as one team.

Finally, the Strategy’s third goal is “Full-Spectrum Integration”—essentially aligning service-level activities like Force Design, Development, Generation, and Employment to create a more seamless multinational space coalition.

The reality is that the space domain is almost tailor-made for this. By its nature, Space transcends international borders, and regional conflicts have global impacts the second they extend into space… but the inverse is also true. Once you build a constellation… once you build that network… it is not limited to one region. You’ve got capacity to touch multiple regions around the world.

By helping ourselves, we create a tool to help others, and that’s an excellent foundation for partnership in space.

At the end of the day, our International Partnership Strategy is built on one key concept: Coalition operations will be far more successful if we work together well before those contingency operations become necessary. If we're not tightly coupled in our training… if we’re not reconciling our operational concepts… if we’re not integrating our capabilities… we’ll have a very steep learning curve when called upon in crisis or conflict.

That’s a big part of the reason the Space Force brought in a U.K. officer, Air Marshall Godfrey, to lead our Future Concepts and Partnership efforts. His presence has created a daily reminder in the headquarters that we have to stay linked… have to consider what our Allies and Partners might think… have to lead so that others can contribute more effectively.

It's been great getting to know Godders and his wife, Charlotte. Charlotte is terrific with a beautiful outlook on life. When we first met, she told me how much she truly appreciated the simple things in life… which explains how she came to be with Godders.

I’m joking… Godders has done a great job. He truly represents the interests of all our international partners, and I feel lucky to have him on the Space Staff.

We’ve done some good work up to now, but the publication of our International Partnership Strategy is where the rubber meets the road. How are we going to create the conditions for success, moving forward?

To start, we’re going to embed more of our Allies and Partners in our Force Design from the start. That means integrating across policies & training. That means driving adoption of common international standards and aligning strategies to them. That also means expanding joint exercises, exchanging personnel, and deliberately increasing the way we leverage Ally and Partner capabilities.

Now, just saying that doesn’t mean it will be easy. We understand that we face a number of challenges and risks, here. For example, we need to be mindful of resource constraints, both for us and for those that would work with us. So, we need to be very thoughtful about prioritization to maximize impact with what we have available to us.

Also, I freely acknowledge that I am not happy with our progress in declassifying information. We need to go faster and shift from a mindset of “need to know” to one of “need to share.” The barriers we face are complicated, but they are not insurmountable.

For now, the Space Force will continue to work within the DoD and the interagency to reduce classification levels and to accelerate intelligence and information sharing. We’ll get there, but it’s going to take some time.

So, let’s talk a little bit about how we intend to get after these challenges.

From the perspective of resource prioritization, I’ll point to our efforts to stand up Futures Command and, more importantly, to publish the Objective Force. The Objective Force will be a document that articulates the future operating environment as we see it, and it will spell out the capabilities and capacity we think we require to succeed within that environment.

While this document will be tremendously useful inside the Space Force to align efforts, the real power is in our plan to share it broadly.

I told you we need to empower our Partners to be force multipliers—to find our comparative advantage and capitalize on our individual strengths. Well, the Objective Force is going to state, in very clear and simple terms, the capability that we intend to develop, which will then by extension identify that capabilities that are unaddressed.

That does two things. One, for other spacefaring nations and entities, it tells you what we’re investing in, which creates opportunity. Opportunity to buy in, to cost share, or to contribute. Opportunity to reprioritize your resources elsewhere—to target things that we are not doing. Opportunity to focus on your own strengths to complement what we will bring to the table.
Two, for Industry and the Commercial enterprise, it establishes a demand signal. It tells you the things we are going to need… the capabilities we require to enable our efforts. I am fully aware that the vicissitudes of the federal budgeting process make year-to-year dollars a weak and unreliable signal.

The Objective Force will give you a better one. It defines our direction of travel if not our end goal, and it provides the shape of things to come.

I believe publishing and updating the Objective Force on a routine basis will transform the way we collectively do long-term planning. It will shape national investment, inform IRAD, and provide a point of departure for collaboration and innovation.

This document will not be stagnant—it will evolve as the security environment evolves, and it will provide a constant reference point for those who share our values and vision.

Shifting gears a bit, just as there are no boundaries in space, I believe there are no boundaries to participation in the future of space.

For nations that are interested in space but don’t feel they have the resources, the International Partnership Strategy makes room for you, too. Like I said, everyone can contribute.

There are many forms our partnership can take, from logistics to ground stations to personnel. And I’m sure there are many other such opportunities, perhaps some of which we haven’t even imagined, yet. But maybe one of our Partners has.

About a month ago, I traveled to Tucson, and I talked with the Space Forces South stand-up team, which is already doing some incredible work with our Allies and Partners in South America.
With just a skeleton crew of Guardians and Airmen, the team has led 19 significant security cooperation initiatives across 7 Partner nations.

They’ve helped install telescopes and ops centers across the continent, and they spearheaded a new process for integrating Partner-operated space capabilities with our domain awareness information pipeline.

The Space Force South team has pulled nations like Argentina, Ecuador, and Peru into U.S.-led multinational exercises. And they’ve participated in Partner-led exercises like Brazil’s CRUZ EX and Colombia’s RELAMPAGO.

And perhaps most impressive of all, the team has leveraged Commercial capability to build out the Enhanced Domain Awareness system.

This is an incredible step forward in Partner integration in South America. It builds on the Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) program to deliver a data portal for unclassified information sharing.

It aligns us all to a common operating picture—something we can use to tailor and deconflict individual contributions in the region.

Using this portal, Partners can submit and track TacSRT requests. They can subsequently disseminate and provide feedback on TacSRT products. It includes built-in tools for data analysis and electromagnetic spectrum operations.

In short, it implements the vision we define in our International Partnership Strategy with nations that are relatively new to the space domain and its operations.

Occasionally, the team has had to get creative. I know for a fact they’ve successfully jury-rigged some capability from a Marriott ballroom at one point. But their results speak for themselves.
In collaboration with Partner nations—often at their request—our team in SOUTHCOM has supported detection and tracking of narcotics operations. It’s led in-theater humanitarian assistance and disaster relief. It’s even countered malign influence, helping Peru to identify and defeat interference and jamming of PeruSAT from China and Russia.

This is sterling work, and I wanted to share their story because it exemplifies the values and approach we have codified in our Strategy. It doesn’t matter if you’re able to build your own constellations or have billions of dollars to invest.

If you have an interest in space and a willingness to contribute, then we want to work with you.

While my focus here today is on our International Partnership Strategy, I do want to touch briefly on our Commercial partners as well.

One of the first things the Mercury team did, even before selecting the first astronauts, was to reach out to industry for help building the spacecraft. 20 different companies—big and small—answered the nation’s call.

As a result, the first three Mercury spacecraft were designed and built in 10 months, with another two months added for refinements from NASA and the astronauts themselves.
That’s one year from contract to completion…we would still be impressed by producing a government vehicle, let alone a spacecraft that quickly.

We need that same spirit of delivery as we work with our Commercial partners today, as well. I told you that the International Partnership Strategy is built on concepts from our Commercial Space Strategy. This is all part of our larger pivot to our approach to “exploit what we have, buy what we can, and only build what we must.”

Our overriding objective is to rapidly get capacity and capability into the hands of Combatant Commanders, and we need your help to do it.

I like to think of the two strategies I’ve mentioned as distinct but complementary—necessary building blocks in the future of a secure and sustainable space domain. I am not alone in this.
Just last month, Congress voted to give the Space Force $40 million to purchase additional commercial surveillance, reconnaissance and tracking services—the same services that fueled our team in SOUTHCOM.

The funding was included as an add-on to the fiscal year 2025 continuing resolution funding the Federal government. The addition of this money represents a Congressional vote of confidence in our efforts to tap into the Commercial space market for the collective good.

It shows that our national leaders understand the value of our Partnerships and is working with us to expand those relationships.

Now, I’ve said this before, but the U.S. government is not a natural innovator. Industry—especially smaller enterprises—can move at a speed that the U.S. Government cannot match.
We see great value in these sorts of nontraditional partners, and we’re hard at work finding ways to include them in our conversations on evolving the Space Force.

For over five years now, the U.S. Space Force has taken responsibility for American military space operations… leading the charge for space security. Now, we take the next step… and we do so hand in hand with our Allies and Partners.

With the International Partnership Strategy as our foundation, we are not just preparing for the future. We are shaping it.

We know that one of our greatest advantages is our global network of Partners, united in securing the space domain that underpins modern life… and we intend to strengthen that network whenever and wherever possible.

It’s a domain that we first dared to reach for some 66 years ago, with the Mercury Seven astronauts. And it’s a domain we may never fully explore. But working together, I do plan to make us better every day.

If you get the chance, you should stop by the Mercury Seven Astronauts Memorial at Launch Complex 14 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station… it is an important reminder of their legacy of success and their ties to today’s U.S. Space Force.

And, although it only lists the seven astronauts who served in that revolutionary space program, the memorial is also a tribute to everyone who contributed to its success – government, Commercial industry, and academia alike.

The Mercury Seven were pioneers of space exploration. They represented the triumph of teamwork, and partnership, and steely determination to go above and beyond.

I’m proud that today’s Guardians continue that legacy of excellence in space… and that they continue to do it though a commitment to teamwork, and partnership and, yes, a steely determination to go above and beyond.

And if they succeed, they will do it as part of our Space Team—a collection of like-minded nations… of Allies and Partners who understand the benefits of peace through strength in space.

Thank you so much, and Semper Supra!

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