Exploration, exploitation, and expansion: A three-wave framework for unpacking the shift in U.S. space politics from directing a national space program to orchestrating an ecosystem

This article examines why and how U.S. space policy has evolved from directing centralized national space programs to orchestrating a decentralized space ecosystem. Rather than framing this shift as the outcome of a technological or economic development, it conceptualizes it as a strategic and institutional reconfiguration in how the United States defines space as a domain of power and governs its national capacity. Drawing on a historical-institutional analysis, the article identifies three cumulative waves: exploration, exploitation, and expansion, that together trace the evolution of American space politics from state-led control to ecosystemic orchestration. Across these waves, American agencies shifted from accumulating assets to advancing, enabling, and directing a distributed ecosystem, positioning the ecosystem vitality as a source of national power, competitiveness, and influence in world politics. In this framework, U.S. government agencies have not stepped back but redefined their role as orchestrators of their national ecosystem, responsible for aligning public and private actors to support long-term national objectives. The article thus offers a conceptual framework for understanding ecosystems orchestration as important statecraft in contemporary space politics, shaping power distribution.