NASA Reorganizes to “Ignite the Orbital Economy”

Scaling Safety and Cybersecurity Discipline Will Determine NASA’s Future Success

Earlier this year, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced a reorganization effort that restores its “mission directorates” in a way that agency leaders hope will position itself for an ambitious future. The moves, whose influence can be traced back to a December 2025 executive order “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” will streamline efforts toward five new objectives recently unveiled by NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman. Taken in tandem, these steps aim to ignite a commercial orbital economy that advances scientific exploration, but NASA can only get there by scaling the safety and cybersecurity discipline that the agency has forged over the years. 

“The National Aeronautics Space Act of 1958 charged NASA with an important and sustainable mission that really holds true today: expanding human knowledge of phenomena in the atmosphere and in space,” said Renee Wynn, former Chief Information Officer at NASA and Partner at Elara Nova. “This Space Act aimed to preserve the role of the United States as a leader, while cooperating with other nations in the peaceful application of space research. It also included performance, speed, safety, efficiency of aeronautical and space vehicles, and today we benefit from NASA’s accomplishments with greater safety and sustainability on our airplanes.” 

The reorganization returns the Exploration Systems Development Mission Directorate and the Space Operation Mission Directorate to a single Human Spaceflight Mission Directorate, a single structure previously held before the directorates were split apart in 2021. The other consolidation is the Space Technology Mission Directorate and the Aeronautics Research Mission Directorate, which is becoming a single Research and Technology Mission Directorate.  

The Science Mission Directorate, however, remains the same.  

“The bottom line is NASA will return to a mission directorate structure that aligns with its current budget and workforce levels,” Wynn said. “The current administration laid out five ambitious objectives: the Artemis and Moon Base programs, a Space Reactor Office for nuclear power in space, an aim to ignite the orbital economy and launch more missions of science and discovery, among others. This reorganization enables NASA to focus its current workforce on meeting these five objectives.” 

Lessons Learned from a Commercial Transition 

The five objectives seek to revitalize an agency that has accomplished remarkable feats since its founding: ranging from enabling the first American to orbit the Earth in 1962 and putting boots on the moon in 1969, to building and operating the International Space Station and launching the Mars Rover Program. 

But those achievements have not come without setbacks. The Challenger and Columbia disasters, in 1986 and 2003 respectively, resulted in the loss of 14 total astronauts and contributed to the decision to end the shuttle program. 

“There wasn’t a replacement for the shuttle program when it was retired in 2011,” Wynn said. “The United States had to turn to Russia to buy seats on their Soyuz rocket to get to the ISS to the tune of roughly $80 million a seat. This meant U.S. astronauts needed to be trained in Russia, and so from a business perspective NASA needed a new alternative to get space. They got to work on the Commercial Crew Program, which led to the next launch from American soil in May of 2020.” 

NASA had long facilitated commercial opportunities through its scientific experiments and exploration activities in space. But turning to commercial launch providers to even get to space was a significant culture shift for the agency. 

“NASA went from being a maker to being a partner in helping and mentoring commercial partners develop something they can buy, in this case rockets to get to the ISS,” Wynn said. “But NASA had a real concern over whether the culture of the commercial sector truly understood what it’s like to lose an astronaut in the pursuit of space exploration. So, they took a tiered risk and milestone-based approach, where commercial launch providers first brought cargo to the ISS and then crew. In this way, NASA helped SpaceX and Boeing achieve success.”  

Now that a projected $1.8 trillion commercial space economy is taking hold, NASA is seeking to replicate the success of transitioning to commercial solutions through other programs like Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) to deliver scientific payloads to the lunar surface and the Commercial Low Earth Orbit Development program that seeks to design and deploy private commercial space stations to replace the International Space Station once it retires in 2030.  

Cybersecurity and Space Exploration Safety 

As NASA hands off more of its operational footprint to industry, the agency is also expanding the number of partners with access to its data, networks and mission-critical systems. But this increased reliance on commercial partners also carries potential ramifications for NASA and other government agencies that depend on its science and research, including the Air Force and Space Force.  

It’s a risk that became front of mind for NASA and its government partners during Wynn’s tenure as CIO. 

“Cybersecurity in space is a lot like glitter,” Wynn said. “If I have glitter on my hands and I go to shake someone else’s hands, they now have glitter on their hands. When NASA was exchanging data with a commercial partner or another federal agency, they were getting a very glittery packet of data because of the way NASA was treating cybersecurity at the time. This was a problem because cybersecurity is inherently tied to the confidentiality, integrity and access to data that is the heart of scientific discovery in space.” 

While necessary, the culture shift toward a stronger cybersecurity posture was not easy.  

“NASA recognized we cannot afford to put astronauts on the ISS at risk due to a cybersecurity incident, because lives are very much on the line in human space exploration as everything astronauts depend on for survival in space is provided to them through technology,” Wynn said. “So, I made it a point that we were going to be doing a culture change, and NASA would be a cybersecurity culture by the time I left the agency. There were times NASA got an ‘F’ on its report card for cybersecurity but now, NASA has strong cybersecurity measures in place that align with the agency’s historical focus on safety.”  

Cybersecurity requirements are now written into NASA’s Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR), which means its commercial partners are contractually obligated to maintain a high-level cybersecurity posture, as well.  

“NASA approached the cybersecurity problem as both a crisis and an opportunity to bring another culture shift that prioritized safety,” Wynn said. “Space exploration will always be highly risky, and this is part of NASA recognizing the third-party risk of working with commercial partners and working to mitigate that risk. Now, if you’re getting a NASA contract, you have to do your part for cybersecurity and those measures need to be enforced.” 

Reorganizing to Close Industrial Gaps 

NASA has identified supply chain and industrial capacity gaps that the agency says needs to be filled as it redirects its focus on the five objectives laid out by Administrator Isaacman, all of which will require support from commercial partners. Some progress has already been made, but other challenges remain as the agency looks to scale data-intensive science missions deeper into space. 

“We’ve had a bottleneck in launchpad availability, but that is something the private sector has been working on,” Wynn said. “The private sector is also good at building satellites for earth observation, data computing, and transfer capabilities, which has been another historical choke point. One remaining supply chain risk that will need to be addressed, however, is ensuring we have enough chips that are of a good pedigree.” 

Now, these reorganizational steps will help facilitate public-private partnerships to fill capability gaps and achieve mission objectives laid out by Administrator Isaacman.  

“The Space Reactor Office for nuclear power in space is a good example of how this reorganization supports the agency’s future ambitions,” Wynn said. “Deep space exploration will require nuclear power, and that is an industrial capacity gap that will need to be filled. Now NASA will need to continue working with its partners to leverage commercial innovation while embracing NASA’s history of safety and cybersecurity culture.” 

Now, Elara Nova exists as a strategic advisory firm to help facilitate both reorganizational efforts and cross-collaboration between public-private partnerships. 

“Elara Nova has deep experience in space and a cadre of individuals vested in the mission of the United States government,” Wynn said. “Elara Nova offers a wealth of knowledge that enables both our commercial and government clients to really advance their objectives and be part of the Artemis generation. That opportunity comes with a responsibility to honor the taxpayer dollars behind NASA’s mission and the culture of safety the agency has built over decades, which requires the same discipline from its commercial partners.” 

Elara Nova is the trusted global security partner delivering decisive advantage. Learn more at elaranova.com