NASA Marshall Positions Dual-Use Space Technologies for U.S. Golden Dome Missile Defense

The increasing overlap between space exploration technology and national defence requirements is creating opportunities for collaboration between U.S. civil agencies and the Department of Defense. NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, located in Huntsville, Alabama, is positioning itself as a potential technology contributor to “Golden Dome for America,” the Pentagon’s envisioned satellite-enabled global missile defence network. Speaking at the Space & Missile Defense Symposium on 6 August 2025, Jason Adam, director of the Human Exploration Development and Operations Office at Marshall, emphasised that several ongoing NASA programmes—originally designed for deep space missions—offer direct applicability to missile defence. These include advancements in rocket propulsion, cryogenic fuel storage, artificial intelligence for mission management, and deployable space structures. The pitch underscores a broader U.S. strategy of leveraging dual-use technologies to accelerate defence capability development while maximising the return on public investment in research and infrastructure.