A New Front in Space Security
Space launches have always faced physical risks — weather, mechanical failure, the unforgiving physics of getting to orbit. Now they face a threat that doesn't show up on a radar screen: cyberattacks targeting the digital infrastructure that coordinates, controls, and communicates with launch vehicles and their ground support systems.
The United States Space Force has responded by establishing dedicated cyber defense squadrons at the two primary launch sites in the continental United States: Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida and Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. The new units are tasked specifically with protecting launch operations from malicious hacks, filling a gap that Space Force leadership has acknowledged exists as the frequency and sophistication of attacks on space infrastructure increases.
The move reflects a broader recognition within the US national security community that space is no longer a sanctuary. The same connectivity that makes modern launch operations more efficient — networked sensors, digital telemetry, cloud-based coordination systems — also creates attack surfaces that adversaries are increasingly capable of exploiting.
Why Rocket Launches Are a Target
From an adversary's perspective, the appeal of targeting launch infrastructure is clear. A successful cyberattack that delays, disrupts, or destroys a high-value launch could achieve strategic effects far out of proportion to the cost of the attack. Military communications satellites, intelligence-gathering payloads, and GPS replenishment missions all travel to orbit on rockets that must pass through vulnerable digital chokepoints before they ever leave the ground.
The threat isn't hypothetical. In February 2022, hours before Russia's invasion of Ukraine began, a cyberattack on Viasat's KA-SAT satellite network disrupted communications for Ukrainian military forces and took out tens of thousands of satellite modems across Europe. The attack demonstrated both the vulnerability of space-adjacent infrastructure and the willingness of sophisticated state actors to target it as part of a broader conflict strategy.
Launch infrastructure is, in some ways, even more exposed than on-orbit assets. Satellites in orbit are physically hardened and operate on specialized protocols, while launch facilities are connected to contractor networks, commercial cloud services, and communications systems that share infrastructure with the civilian internet. The attack surface is larger, the dependencies more complex, and the consequences of interference potentially catastrophic.
