The National Security Institute is hosting an important discussion on the growing strategic competition in orbital space as congestion, debris, and adversary capabilities threaten the sustainability of satellite-based infrastructure.
As the United States becomes increasingly reliant on space systems for military, economic, and civilian functions, protecting freedom of action in orbit has emerged as a core national security challenge. The discussion will explore how space competition intersects with cyber threats, commercial systems, and great-power rivalry.
Date: May 19, 2026
Time: 12:00 – 1:00 pm ET
Location: Cannon House Office Building, Room 130
27 Independence Ave SE, Washington, DC 20003
Opening Remarks:
- Rep. Mike Turner (R-OH, 10)
Panelists:
- Lieutenant General David N. Miller Jr. – Deputy Chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, United States Space Force
- Eric Nelson – Vice President, Space, Intelligence & Weapon Systems Business Development, Boeing Defense, Space & Security
- Russell Rumbaugh – Deputy Executive Director, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, Aerospace Corporation
Moderator:
- David Gauthier – Chief Strategy Officer, GXO Inc.
Speakers:
Rep Mike Turner (R-OH, 10)
Congressman Mike Turner is a lifelong resident of Southwest Ohio.
His father worked in the manufacturing industry in Dayton for over 40 years, and his mother taught elementary school in the Huber Heights School District. Congressman Turner is the proud father of two daughters.
Growing up, Congressman Turner attended Dayton Public Schools and graduated from Belmont High School. He continued his education in Ohio and received a bachelor’s degree from Ohio Northern University, an MBA from the University of Dayton, and a Juris Doctorate from Case Western University School of Law. In the Spring of 2022, Turner graduated from Georgetown University with a Doctorate in Liberal Studies focused on urban economic development.
Congressman Turner practiced law in Dayton for over 17 years, and in 1991, he opened his own private legal practice specializing in real estate and corporate law.
Turner served as Mayor of the City of Dayton for eight years. During his tenure, he was a strong proponent of neighborhood revitalization and economic development. He created Rehabarama, a private-public partnership to rehabilitate neglected housing in Dayton’s historic neighborhoods, which had a significant economic impact on the region and received national awards. He also improved police response time by 40 percent, added 54 police officers to the force, and established a development fund that awarded over $19 million in grants for housing and job-producing projects, all while maintaining a balanced budget throughout his tenure.
Congressman Turner was first elected to Congress in 2002. In Congress, Turner is a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and has previously served as the lead Republican of the Tactical Air and Land Forces subcommittee as well as the Strategic Forces subcommittee. The subcommittees oversee Army and Air Force acquisition programs, all Navy and Marine Corps aviation programs, nuclear weapons, missile defense, and space systems.
At the time of Congressman Turner’s election, there was no advocate for Wright-Patterson Air Force Base or Ohio’s military installations on the House Armed Services Committee. Congressman Turner filled that void and throughout his time in Congress, Wright-Patt has successfully doubled, adding approximately 19,000 jobs on-base. It remains the largest single-site employer in the state of Ohio. Thousands of additional jobs have been created in the Miami Valley in support of the base. Turner helped secure $182 million in federal funding for the construction of a new National Air and Space Intelligence Center, the Air Force’s primary source for foreign air and space threat analysis.
Turner served as Chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) from 2023 to 2025. Turner was Dayton’s first elected official to serve in a leadership role on a national security committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Most recently, Congressman Turner was selected to sit on the Oversight and Accountability Committee. The Oversight Committee seeks to ensure the efficiency, effectiveness and accountability of the federal government and all its agencies.
In January 2011, Turner was appointed Chairman of the US Delegation to the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Parliamentary Assembly, the inter-parliamentary organization of legislators from the countries of the North Atlantic Alliance. In December of 2014, Turner was elected President of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. He now serves as Vice-Chairman of the Defense and Security Committee of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.
Lieutenant General David N. Miller Jr.
Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr. is the Deputy Chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, United States Space Force, the Pentagon, Arlington, Virginia. In this position, Lt. Gen. Miller is directly responsible to the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Space Operations for the strategies and concepts, requirements, and budget of the United States Space Force.
Lt. Gen. Miller commissioned in 1993 and is a graduate of Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. He has operational experience across spacepower disciplines and has held a range of operational leadership and staff positions. During his career, Lt. Gen. Miller has commanded America’s Guardians and Airmen at the squadron, group and wing levels including the 2nd Range Operations Squadron, Vandenberg Air Force Base, California; the 21st Operations Group at Peterson AFB, Colorado; the 460th Space Wing at Buckley AFB, Colorado; and the Director of Operations and Force Development for U.S. Space Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado. Previously, Lt. Gen. Miller served as the Special Assistant to the Vice Chief of Space Operations, Headquarters, U.S. Space Force, Peterson SFB, Colorado. Prior to his current position, Lt Gen Miller was the Commander, Space Operations Command, Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado.
Eric Nelson
Eric Nelson is vice president, Space, Intelligence & Weapon Systems Business Development, Boeing Defense, Space & Security, where he leads business development, sales management and market positioning in the global missiles and weapons market. In his prior assignment, Nelson served as interim vice president, business development, for Government Services, where he led business development, sales management and market positioning in the global government services market. Concurrently, he served as senior director leading Global Sales and Marketing teams supporting Global Services’ Defense Logistics Services, Special Operations and Sensitive Services organizations in the U.S. and internationally.
Nelson previously served as the director of the Boeing Products Group, a product and service portfolio encompassing cross domain, geospatial, data management, mobility, and proprietary security services. In addition, he successfully led strategic collaboration and engagement initiatives, intellectual property monetization and strategy projects that strengthened Boeing’s defense and security portfolio. He also served as site executive for Boeing’s Herndon, Va., location. Nelson joined Boeing in 2002 and has served in a variety of increasingly responsible roles. He was director of Strategy for Network and Space Systems, developing and coordinating strategies that have driven growth in Boeing’s government and commercial space businesses as well as expansion of the company’s security portfolio. He also oversaw investment for technology development, strategic acquisitions and alliances, leading a series of key acquisitions that included Ravenwing, Kestrel, Digital Receiver Technology, ExMeritus, Argon ST and SMSI. Nelson also served as a senior strategy analyst in Boeing’s Phantom Works division, providing competitive analysis, capture support, lobbying assessments and strategy development for organizations across Boeing’s defense and commercial businesses.
Prior to joining Boeing, Nelson was a manager of technology risk consulting for Arthur Andersen, LLP in Seattle. There, he served a client base that included AT&T, Microsoft and Boeing in the areas of technology risk identification and mitigation, security consulting, management consulting, new product development, scenario planning and competitive intelligence.
Nelson served thirteen years in the U.S. Army as a counterintelligence special agent. His assignments included the 1st Cavalry Division in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, U.S. European Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency.
Nelson holds a bachelor’s degree in liberal arts from Governors State University with concentrations in computer and political science. He attended Northwestern University Kellogg School of Management Advanced Executive Program, Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government – National and International Security Program, Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management System Dynamics program and the Wharton School Critical Decision Making program.
Russell Rumbaugh
Russell Rumbaugh is the deputy executive director of the Center for Space Policy (CSPS) at The Aerospace Corporation. CSPS supports strategic-level customers across the nation’s civil, intelligence, and defense space agencies and conducts policy-level thought leadership research for Aerospace.
Rumbaugh returns to Aerospace after providing distinguished service as the assistant secretary of the Navy for Financial Management and Comptroller. Prior government experience included serving twice in the Office of the Secretary of Defense/Office of Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation (which manages the entire Department of Defense’s resourcing process) and as both professional staff in the Senate and personal staff in the House of Representatives—collective experience providing Rumbaugh an end-to-end view of how U.S. national security is resourced.
Rumbaugh has devoted substantial depth of study to these processes; besides his time at CSPS, he has also worked at the Congressional Research Service and the Stimson Center, which advances international security and collective growth through applied research and independent analysis, global engagement, and policy innovation. He has taught graduate-level courses at Georgetown University, George Mason University, and the University of Maryland. He has published widely, including in the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, Joint Force Quarterly, and the New York Times.
David Gauthier
David Gauthier brings over 27 years of experience in U.S. national security as an intelligence officer, technology innovator, and strategic leader. In 2023 he became the Chief Strategy Officer of GXO, Inc., a full-service consultancy helping space industry innovators grow sustainable solutions for national security. Mr. Gauthier also serves as a Senior Associate (Non-Resident) with the Center for Strategic & Intelligence Studies (CSIS) and a Fellow for the National Security Institute at George Mason University. He was also the Vice Chair for NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space (ACES).
Mr. Gauthier served in the Defense Intelligence Senior Executive Service for nine years prior to his role with GXO, Inc. He was the founding Director of Commercial Operations at the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) and the first-ever Chair of the Intelligence Community’s Commercial Space Council. Mr. Gauthier was also NGA’s Chief Strategy Officer and the Portfolio Lead for Activity-Based Intelligence. Over his career he led intelligence efforts at NGA, ODNI, DIA, and the U.S. Air Force gaining expertise in technical remote sensing, OPIR operations, all-source intelligence, national space policy, and AI.
Mr. Gauthier earned M.S. degrees in both Aerospace Engineering and Telecommunications Science from the University of Colorado at Boulder and a B.S. degree in Electrical Engineering from the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He is a graduate of MIT Sloan’s Executive Education, DoD’s APEX, and ODNI’s Leading the IC; and is the recipient of several awards including a National Intelligence Professional Award, Meritorious Civilian Service Medal, and the Presidential Rank Award.