[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4693 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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119th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4693
To require the Secretary of Defense to carry out an operational pilot
program under the Hybrid Space Architecture initiative to evaluate the
use of commercially available orbital data center services and space-
based cloud computing capabilities relevant to national security space
and joint mission requirements, and for other purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 4, 2026
Mr. Cruz (for himself and Mr. Hickenlooper) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Armed
Services
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of Defense to carry out an operational pilot
program under the Hybrid Space Architecture initiative to evaluate the
use of commercially available orbital data center services and space-
based cloud computing capabilities relevant to national security space
and joint mission requirements, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Nodes, Enterprise Workloads, and
Hybrid Operations, Resilience, Integration, Zero-Trust, Orbital
Networks Act'' or the ``NEW HORIZON Act''.
SEC. 2. OPERATIONAL PILOT PROGRAM ON ORBITAL DATA CENTER SERVICES.
(a) Findings.--Congress makes the following findings:
(1) Modern national security space missions generate
increasing volumes of data from space-based sensors, platforms,
and constellations, placing growing demands on terrestrial data
transport, processing, and analysis infrastructure.
(2) Reliance on ground-based data processing can introduce
latency, bandwidth constraints, and vulnerabilities that may
degrade the timeliness, resilience, and effectiveness of
military and intelligence operations in contested environments.
(3) Commercial industry is developing orbital data center
and space-based cloud computing capabilities that enable in-
space data processing, storage, and analytics, which may reduce
latency, enhance resilience, and improve mission outcomes.
(4) The Department of Defense has identified the need for
hybrid architectures that integrate space, terrestrial, and
commercial capabilities to support joint and national security
missions.
(5) An operational pilot program is necessary to evaluate
the military utility, operational integration, and transition
potential of orbital data center services through real-world
mission use cases before any broader adoption or sustained
acquisition.
(6) Maintaining a competitive and resilient domestic
industrial base for orbital infrastructure, including satellite
platforms, communications systems, and in-space computing
capabilities, is important to accelerating innovation and
supporting operational resilience.
(b) Pilot Program.--
(1) In general.--Not later than 1 year after the date of
the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Defense (referred
to in this Act as the ``Secretary''), acting through the
Director of the Defense Innovation Unit, shall carry out an
operational pilot program under the Hybrid Space Architecture
initiative to evaluate the use of commercially available
orbital data center services and space-based cloud computing
capabilities relevant to national security space and joint
mission requirements.
(2) Purposes.--The purposes of the pilot program shall be--
(A) to assess the military utility of orbital data
center and space-based cloud computing services;
(B) to evaluate the operational integration of such
services into existing and planned Department of
Defense space and joint architectures;
(C) to examine the resilience, latency, security,
and mission assurance benefits of in-space data
processing;
(D) to inform the potential transition of such
services into sustained programs of record or
operational use;
(E) to evaluate concepts of operations for the
protection and defense of orbital data center assets
against kinetic, nonkinetic, and cyber threats;
(F) to assess the asset protection strategies and
vulnerabilities of orbital data center infrastructure;
and
(G) to evaluate the integration and operational
performance of interoperable, commercially provided
orbital infrastructure components sourced from multiple
vendors across the hybrid space architecture ecosystem.
(3) Scope.--In carrying out the pilot program, the
Secretary may--
(A) employ commercially available orbital data
center services in support of real-world mission
scenarios, including intelligence, space domain
awareness, command and control, data transport, and
other national security applications;
(B) conduct testing, demonstration, and limited
operational employment necessary to assess technical
performance and operational viability; and
(C) support integration activities required to
evaluate interoperability with the Department of
Defense's space, ground, and network systems.
(4) Acquisition authority.--The Secretary shall encourage
competitive participation from a diverse set of nontraditional
defense contractors and commercial space providers.
(5) Security and resilience measures for sensitive and
classified information.--In carrying out the pilot program, the
Secretary shall ensure that any orbital data center services
used to process, store, or transmit sensitive or classified
information have in place--
(A) cybersecurity protections, including zero-trust
architecture, encryption, identity and access
management, continuous monitoring, and protections
against insider threats;
(B) risk-management measures--
(i) to address supply chain vulnerabilities
and foreign ownership, control, or influence;
and
(ii) that achieve compliance with
applicable Department of Defense cybersecurity
and authorization requirements;
(C) resilience and mission assurance capabilities,
including redundancy, failover, operation in degraded
or contested environments, and rapid reconstitution or
replacement capabilities;
(D) protections against cyber, electronic warfare,
counterspace, and other nonkinetic threats;
(E) secure telemetry, tracking, and command links
and associated command-and-control systems, including
authenticated command uplinks, encrypted telemetry and
data links, anti-spoofing and anti-jamming protections,
resilient cryptographic key management, protected
timing and navigation inputs, and secure software and
firmware update mechanisms;
(F) protections for associated ground systems,
mission operations centers, terrestrial network
connections, software supply chains, and user access
interfaces, including segmentation, continuous
monitoring, access controls, encryption, and resilience
against cyber intrusion, disruption, and unauthorized
access; and
(G) protections to ensure workload isolation,
tenant separation, and data sovereignty for sensitive
or classified information processed, stored, or
transmitted through orbital data center services,
including safeguards against unauthorized cross-tenant,
cross-domain, or provider access.
(6) Integration and interoperability.--The Secretary shall
ensure that any orbital data center services evaluated under
the pilot program are interoperable with existing Department of
Defense command, control, communications, and intelligence
systems.
(7) Consultation.--In carrying out the pilot program, the
Secretary, acting through the Director of the Defense
Innovation Unit, shall consult with--
(A) the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space
Policy;
(B) service acquisition executives (as defined in
section 101 of title 10, United States Code);
(C) the Space Force and other military departments
with potential operational interest or transition
pathways;
(D) the National Reconnaissance Office;
(E) the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency;
and
(F) such other individuals and organizations as the
Secretary considers appropriate.
(8) Briefing.--Not later than December 31, 2028, the
Secretary shall provide the congressional defense committees
(as defined in section 101 of title 10, United States Code)
with a briefing on--
(A) execution of the pilot program;
(B) operational use cases evaluated;
(C) lessons learned from operational employment;
(D) recommendations regarding future acquisition or
operational use of orbital data center services;
(E) cybersecurity risks, insider threat
vulnerabilities, and mitigation measures;
(F) resilience against counterspace threats and
contested space environments;
(G) commercial provider risks, including supply
chain and foreign ownership concerns; and
(H) recommendations for security, resilience, and
acquisition requirements for any future program of
record.
(c) Termination.--The authority to carry out the pilot program
under this section shall terminate on the date that is five years after
the date of the enactment of this Act.
(d) Orbital Data Center Defined.--In this section, the term
``orbital data center'' means a space-based computing, data storage, or
networking capability, including 1 or more spacecraft, hosted payloads,
or distributed orbital architectures, designed primarily to provide
persistent, scalable, or shared in-orbit processing, analysis, storage,
fusion, routing, or dissemination of data as a distinct operational
capability, rather than as a function ancillary to the primary mission
of a spacecraft, prior to transmission to terrestrial or other external
infrastructure, including to reduce latency, mitigate bandwidth
constraints, improve operational resilience, or support time-sensitive
missions.
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