On July 21, Forward Defense Deputy Director Mark Massa and Peter L. Hays, professor of space policy at George Washington University, were quoted in a Forbes article on nuclear threats to space assets. Hays was quoted on the threat of a Russian detonation in space, stating “I believe the Russian nuclear ASAT is primarily intended to hold proliferated LEO [low Earth orbit] satellites like Starlink at risk.” Hays’s recently published issue brief, “Modernizing space-based nuclear command, control, and communications,” was extensively cited in this article.
Massa was quoted on the destructive risk of a nuclear detonation in space and the potential international response, stating that “such an action would demand a forceful response from the United States and the international community leveraging all tools of national power.”
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