About

Dr. Nate Dailey

I am a space strategist with thirty-five years across national security, civil, and commercial space. I was principal author of MITRE's International Space Strategy, co-chair the International Astronautical Federation's committee on space traffic management, and was elected to the International Academy of Astronautics in 2026.

Portrait of Dr. Nate Dailey in a dark suit and striped tie

I am Chief Strategist for Space Program Development and Integration at The MITRE Corporation. I hold a Doctor of International Affairs from the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), and I bring thirty-five years of experience in government and industry to the place where international strategy, national security, and space technology meet.

I began my career at CBS News, covering the United Nations Security Council during the Balkans and Somalia crises. I then served as an Army Russian linguist and as the National Security Agency's representative to the Joint Staff's Balkans Intelligence Task Force, supporting the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs and the Secretary of Defense on force protection and Dayton Peace Accords compliance. Over the next two decades I worked across the national security space and intelligence enterprise: building the analysis the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency used to defend its future collection architecture at Northrop Grumman, leading independent program assessments of major National Reconnaissance Office acquisitions at BAE Systems, leading business development for NGA programs at Praxis Engineering, and advising Boeing's chief enterprise architect on a global network modernization program.

Since joining MITRE in 2017 I have advised the U.S. Space Force, U.S. Space Command, the National Reconnaissance Office, NASA, the Office of Space Commerce, the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, and DHS CISA. As coordinator of the NRO Director's Acquisition Strategy Council, I helped shape more than $200 billion in major system acquisitions. I was principal author of MITRE's International Space Strategy and contributed to the Space Integrated Deterrence Framework. As a core member of MITRE's Center for Strategic Competition, I led a speaker series that brought Joseph Nye, Anne-Marie Slaughter, John Ikenberry, and more than twenty other scholars to MITRE and its government sponsors.

My SAIS doctoral thesis designed an International Space Reference Architecture that links a country's space policy to the capabilities it fields and to their mission, economic, environmental, and diplomatic effects. I briefed it at the UN World Space Forum and have since developed it into a living system that updates itself when news events require changes to the architecture. I use it to analyze allied and partner capabilities for space acquisition architectures and to study how Artemis Accords members can combine their space capabilities to greatest effect. I also designed research that pairs high-performance computing and AI with lunar base scenarios to forecast space policy, governance, and warfare twenty years out, which is where the films on this site come from.

In 2026 I was elected an Associate Member of the International Academy of Astronautics, Section 4, Social Sciences, and served as a subject matter expert on the IAA delegation to the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space. I co-chair the International Astronautical Federation's Technical Committee 26 on Space Traffic Management, contribute to the IAA permanent committee on space traffic management, and am International Regional Vice President of the Space Force Association. I have lectured at Chatham House, Meridian International Center, and Johns Hopkins SAIS, and spoke at the U.S. Institute of Peace's 2023 program on China and strategic instability in space.

More than sixty of my papers, monographs, and articles are published, including MITRE technical papers, International Astronautical Congress, AMOS, and AIAA papers, and a 2025 article in Acta Astronautica. My work has been covered in Breaking Defense, SpaceNews, and The Space Project. I have also written two book-length studies of the American space enterprise and The Long Interval, a three-volume work of analytical fiction about the future of space.

Positions and memberships

  • Chief Strategist, Space Program Development and IntegrationThe MITRE Corporation, 2017 to present
  • Associate Member, Section 4, Social SciencesInternational Academy of Astronautics, elected 2026
  • Co-Chair, Technical Committee 26, Space Traffic ManagementInternational Astronautical Federation
  • Fellow (FRAeS)Royal Aeronautical Society
  • International Regional Vice PresidentSpace Force Association
  • Subject matter expert, IAA delegationUN COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee, 2026

Education

  • Doctor of International AffairsJohns Hopkins University SAIS, 2021
  • Master of International Public PolicyJohns Hopkins University SAIS, 2020
  • Master of Public Administration and PolicyAmerican University School of Public Affairs, 2019
  • B.S., Social SciencesPace University, 1991
  • Certified Enterprise ArchitectCarnegie Mellon University

Profiles

Talks and events

  1. October 2026 · Antalya, Türkiye 77th International Astronautical Congress IAF Technical Committee 26 session on space traffic management; NORMSAT paper
  2. September 2026 · Maui, Hawaii AMOS Conference COSMIC Framework presentation
  3. May 2026 · Venice, Italy Veneto Space Meetings
  4. February 2026 · Vienna, Austria 63rd session, UN COPUOS Scientific and Technical Subcommittee Subject matter expert, International Academy of Astronautics delegation
  5. February 2026 · Austin, Texas 12th Annual Space Traffic Management Conference, University of Texas at Austin Introduced the keynotes by UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini and Dr. Mariel Borowitz
  6. April 2025 · Washington, D.C. SAIS Stellar Connections, Johns Hopkins SAIS Featured speaker
  7. February 2025 · London Chatham House Space Security Conference Panel with UNOOSA Director Aarti Holla-Maini and EU Special Envoy for Space Marjolijn van Deelen
  8. February 2023 · Washington, D.C. U.S. Institute of Peace, China and Strategic Instability in Space Speaker
  9. 2022 to 2024 · Paris, Milan, and Maui International Astronautical Congress and AMOS Conference Papers at IAC 2022 and IAC 2024 and at AMOS 2022, 2023, and 2024

Short biography for event programs

Third person, about 70 words. Free to reuse.

Dr. Nate Dailey is a space strategist with thirty-five years across national security, civil, and commercial space. He was principal author of MITRE's International Space Strategy, co-chairs the IAF Technical Committee on Space Traffic Management, and was elected an Associate Member of the International Academy of Astronautics in 2026. A Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, he holds a Doctor of International Affairs from Johns Hopkins SAIS.