NRO, MDA pulled out of annual DC Satellite conference due to travel restrictions

The DC Convention Center on Mt. Vernon Square, NW, hosted the Satellite 2025 conference this month. (Photo by Gerald Martineau/The The Washington Post via Getty Images)

WASHINGTON — This week’s Satellite 2025/GovMilSpace show appears to be the latest defense conference impacted by the Trump administration’s Feb. 26 executive order restricting “non-essential” travel by federal officials and the sweeping cost-cutting spree being spearheaded by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).

Officials from the National Reconnaissance Office and the Missile Defense Agency had planned to exhibit, but cancelled last minute following the executive order, spokespeople confirmed to Breaking Defense.

However, officials from other Pentagon-based agencies — including the Space Development Agency and the Defense Innovation Union — made scheduled appearances on stage, a reflection of the confusion that has swirled around what is and isn’t allowed under the executive order.

The National Reconnaissance Office’s Director’s Innovation Initiative, a research and development program aimed at leveraging commercial capabilities, canceled a planned exhibit prior to the satellite show’s launch on March 10, an agency spokesperson confirmed. The office is housed at NRO headquarters in Chantilly, Va.

“The presence of NRO’s Director’s Innovation Initiative at Satellite 2025 was curtailed in accordance with the latest Executive Order and DoD guidance regarding conference attendance and non-essential travel,” the spokesperson said.

Likewise, the Missile Defense Agency’s Small Business Innovation Research/Small Business Technology Transfer office, headquartered in Huntsville, Ala., also canceled its planned exhibit, with a spokesperson citing the DOGE-related ban on non-essential travel and freezes all use of federal credit cards,

While not defense related, NASA’s Space Communications and Navigation program office staffed an information booth for the first two days of the show, but abruptly shut it down on the third day. The program office is headquartered at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland, Ohio but also has local support officials at NASA’s Space Operations Directorate.

A spokesperson from the NASA Space Communications and Navigation program did not respond by press time to a request for comment about the rationale for the booth’s closure.

It’s unclear if the NRO and MDA attendance was impacted at all by a March 5 memo [PDF], signed by Darin Selnick who is performing the duties of the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, which limits any charges above one dollar on government-issued civilian travel charge cards. In general, government agencies usually are required to pay an upfront fee to register an exhibit space at a trade show — although neither NRO nor MDA was able to confirm if that was the case for Satellite 2025/GovMilSpace.

An official at Access Intelligence responsible for booking exhibitors at the show did not return a request for comment about the issue by press time.

The non-existence of the NRO and MDA exhibits did not go unnoticed by satellite communications industry officials in attendance at the show, exacerbating fears about how future military trade shows could be affected. That the NRO office is local enough to not require travel costs but still pulled out may raise eyebrows.

Attendance by Air Force and Space Force officials and military personnel at the annual Air & Space Forces Association (AFA) Warfare Symposium held March 3-5 in Colorado was sparse, due to travel restrictions imposed by the Department of the Air Force.

Further, as first reported by Air & Space Forces Magazine, the Air Force Materiel Command’s Life Cycle Management Center has canceled its annual industry seminar, called Life Cycle Industry Days, planned for July 28-29 in Dayton, Ohio. The service cited the Feb. 26 executive order as driving the decision.