Overlap in the development of space capabilities presents a host of opportunities for expanded cooperation between NASA and the Department of War (DOW), the head of the nation’s civilian space agency said.
“NASA’s mission and national security are inseparable,” agency Administrator Jared Isaacman told the National Security Space Association’s Defense and Intelligence Space Conference in February 2026.
Both NASA and the DOW, along with agencies including the Department of Commerce, were directed to pursue several actions aimed at strengthening national security, streamlining programs and aligning partnerships with policy in a December 2025 White House executive order titled “Ensuring American Space Superiority.”
Isaacman, sworn into his position in December 2025, highlighted the history of cooperation between NASA and the DOW during his presentation at the Reston, Virginia, conference, Air & Space Forces Magazine reported. The military spearheaded the first U.S. forays into space during the 1940s.
In the decades that followed, NASA and the U.S. Air Force have hitched rides on each other’s rockets and today, both are exploring operations around the moon. Isaacman suggested cooperation in areas such as reactor design, power conversion, cooling and transport.