As commercial actors rapidly expand humanity’s presence beyond Earth, one critical question emerges: who governs space?

In this episode of NatSec EmTech, Prof. Laura K. Donohue sits down with Sarah Banco, formerly of SpaceX, to unpack the evolving legal, geopolitical, and technological landscape of commercial space exploration.

Join us for a fascinating conversation at the intersection of national security, emerging technology, international law, and the future of humanity in space.

Watch the episode on our Center website here or the podcast site below:

What if the future of space isn’t driven by innovation but by 60-year-old treaties, fragmented regulatory regimes, and a legal vacuum no one’s rushing to fill? 

As commercial space activity accelerates and geopolitical stakes rise, the question is no longer whether space law matters but whether it’s ready for what’s coming next? In this episode, Professor Laura K. Donohue is joined by Colonel Todd Pennington (USAF, Ret.) and together they breakdown the foundations of space law from ownership and sovereignty to liability, regulation, and the growing role of private actors. As commercial expansion accelerates and geopolitical competition intensifies, legacy frameworks are being pushed far beyond what their drafters ever envisioned.

Watch the episode on our Center website here or the podcast site below:

In this conversation, Tom McSorley, currently General Counsel at the NATO Defence Innovation Accelerator for the North Atlantic (DIANA), and formerly with SpaceX unpacks the tension between innovation and regulation, sovereignty and partnership, ambition and restraint.

We examine the biggest regulatory inhibitors facing the United States, explore what the space ecosystem could look like 15 years from now, and wonder whether point-to-point travel through space across Earth’s surface is closer than we think?

Listen to the episode one on our website or on our beacon site below.