While the United States still builds and launches multimillion dollar reconnaissance and communications satellite, much of American innovation in space is being done by commercial companies, including those that conduct launches and others that build and field satellites.

Intelligence agencies are increasingly dependent on the private-sector space industry, and U.S. officials are worried about the interest Chinese and Russian spy services have shown in those companies, based on recent F.B.I. investigations and intelligence collection on foreign intelligence plans. American officials believe innovations by SpaceX, Blue Origin and other private companies have given the United States a huge advantage in space, one that is envied by foreign adversaries.

Security measures vary greatly from company to company, and some U.S. officials believe the space industry needs to tighten protections against attempts by Chinese and Russian intelligence agencies to infiltrate them.

Since 2017, the Justice Department has charged Chinese, Russian and Iranian nationals in various schemes to steal space-related technology. Last October, five Russian nationals were accused in an indictment of trying to illicitly acquire “semiconductors and microprocessors used in satellites, missiles, and other space-based military applications” from American companies. In 2019, a Chinese national was sentenced to federal prison for trying to acquire a radiation-hardened power amplifier used in space applications.

And some companies have disclosed infiltration attempts. In 2020, United Launch Alliance, a joint venture of Boeing and Lockheed Martin which puts many national security satellites into orbit, suggested a Chinese firm had tried to infiltrate its supply chain. The supplier did not succeed in extracting critical intelligence.