Former DoD official says government in ‘critical role’ to buy from commercial space firms

Jamie Morin of the Aerospace Corp. Credit: AIAA

---

AIAA ASCEND, Las Vegas — If the government wants to harness the dramatic expansion of commercial space companies, it must adapt its requirements and acquisition approaches, according to a former Pentagon official.

While commercial companies have experienced a “massive influx of capital” in recent years, that has now crested, Jamie Morin, vice president of defense strategic space at the Aerospace Corp., told attendees here during his David W. Thompson Lecture in Space Commerce.

“From a governmental perspective, there is an opportunity here to embrace a moment where these companies are increasingly eager to partner with the government and to gain significant government revenue,” he said.

The government too is interested, Morin noted, pointing to intelligence agencies, the Pentagon and NASA as some of those urging greater use of commercial technology.

He detailed recommendations that would allow the government to best leverage commercial space companies, including being cautious about making acquisition decisions based on comparisons of current commercial technology to technology that traditional contractors could develop years from now.

“The developmental process may be five or seven years, so what we really need to be able to do is forecast,” Morin said. “You’ve got to be willing to take some risk here and make some assumptions about where things are going to go.”

He told attendees that the government should also rethink its requirements process “in a way that recognizes the need for greater agility.”

“The act of writing those requirements in some respect is selecting the winner,” Morin noted. “In government, we have all of these legal and ethical restrictions put around the acquisition process to protect against corruption. We don’t do as much of that on the requirements side.”

“One critical recommendation here is to put more weight in developing requirements in terms of thinking about time,” Morin said, noting the 70-80% solution that arrives in two years could be better than a 90% solution that takes five years.

He advocated for an approach “that involves buy a little, try a little and then buy a lot more.”

He added: “We can have lower barriers to buy a little than we do for buy a lot.”

He stressed that companies are eager to see the government put funding behind its plans.

“The government is in a critical role here, and if it wants this stuff, it’s got to be able to buy it,” Morin said.