RSI Connect: War in Ukraine and the Future of Russian Space

Curtis Hernandez
Director of Government Relations, LeoLabs, Inc.
Former Director of National Security Space Policy, National Space Council

Curtis Hernandez is the Director of Government Relations for LeoLabs, Inc.  He is an expert in national level space policy, executive branch processes, and a 25-year veteran space operator in the United States Air Force. He joined LeoLabs having previously served as the Director of National Security Space Policy on the National Space Council.

Curtis brings extensive experience and perspective on space policy. In his previous role, Curtis led interagency teams to author the 2020 National Space Policy, Space Policy Directive-5 (SPD-5) on cybersecurity for space systems, SPD-7 on space-based positioning, navigation, and timing, and guided the implementation of SPD-3, the National Space Traffic Management policy across the executive branch. Curtis was also instrumental in driving the establishment of the United States Space Force and reestablishment of the United States Space Command on behalf of the Executive Office of the President.

As a retired United States Air Force Colonel, Curtis draws on 25 years of space operations experience in space control, launch and range operations, and command. Curtis is a graduate and former instructor of the United States Air Force Weapons school and holds an MSA in Information Resource Management from Central Michigan University, an MMOAS from the Air Command and Staff College, and an MSS from the Air War College.

James Clay Moltz
Professor, Naval Postgraduate School
Department of National Security Affairs

James Clay Moltz is a professor in the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS), where he also holds a joint appointment in the Space Systems Academic Group. His books include: The Politics of Space Security: Strategic Restraint and the Pursuit of National Interests (Stanford University Press, 2008, 2011, and 2019 editions); Crowded Orbits: Conflict and Cooperation in Space (Columbia University Press, 2014); and Asia’s Space Race: National Motivations, Regional Rivalries, and International Risks (Columbia University Press, 2012).  He is also co-author of Nuclear Weapons and Nonproliferation (ABC-CLIO, 2007 and 2002 editions) and co-editor of Preventing Nuclear Meltdown (Ashgate, 2004) and The North Korean Nuclear Program (Routledge, 2000), as well as two volumes on space policy (Collective Security in Space: Asian Perspectives and European Perspectives, George Washington University, 2008 and 2007). From September 2020 to March 2022, Prof. Moltz served as dean of the Graduate School of International and Defense Studies at NPS. From 2018-20, he served as chairman of the Department of National Security Affairs (NSA) at NPS.  From 2012-16, he was the NSA Department’s associate chair for research, while also directing the Center on Contemporary Conflict (CCC) and the Project on Advanced Systems and Concepts for Countering Weapons of Mass Destruction (PASCC), funded by the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Prof. Moltz holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California at Berkeley and an M.A. and B.A. (with Distinction) from Stanford University.

Prof. Moltz worked previously in the U.S. Senate, at the University of California at San Diego, and at the Monterey Institute of International Studies' Center for Nonproliferation Studies, where he was the founding editor of the journal Nonproliferation Review (1993–97), director of the Newly Independent States Nonproliferation Project (1997–2003), and the center’s deputy director from 2003–2007. He has served as an advisor to the NASA-Ames Research Center and to the U.S. Department of Energy and has provided expert testimony on space and nuclear issues before the U.S. Congress. Professor Moltz’s academic articles have been published in such journals as Asia Policy, Asian Survey, Current History, the Journal of Contemporary China, Nature, Strategic Studies Quarterly, and World Politics. His op-eds have appeared in such newspapers as the Boston Globe, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and the San Francisco Chronicle. At NPS, his honors include the 2015 Carl E. and Jesse W. Menneken Award for Significant Research and Sustained Contributions to the Navy and the Department of Defense and the 2010 Richard W. Hamming Award for Interdisciplinary Achievement.

Richard Weitz
Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis
Hudson Institute

Richard Weitz is Senior Fellow and Director of the Center for Political-Military Analysis at Hudson Institute. His current research includes regional security developments relating to Europe, Eurasia, and East Asia as well as U.S. foreign and defense policies. Before joining Hudson in 2005, Dr. Weitz worked for several other academic and professional research institutions and the U.S. Department of Defense, where he received an Award for Excellence from Office of the Secretary of Defense. Dr. Weitz is a graduate of Harvard University (Ph.D. in Political Science), Oxford University (M.Phil. in Politics), the London School of Economics (M.Sc. in International Relations), and Harvard College (B.A. with Highest Honors in Government), where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. Last year, he completed a study of “Russia-China Space Cooperation: The New Frontier?,” for RSI.