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Alexandra
Stickings

Research Fellow, Space Policy and Security

Alexandra Stickings is Research Fellow for Space Policy and Security within the Military Sciences team at RUSI.

Her research interests include military space, space warfare, counterspace capabilities and international space programmes. She has published on space topics for RUSI Newsbrief, RUSI Defence Systems and RUSI Commentary, and regularly contributes to the media, including the BBC, Channel 4, ITV and Deutsche Welle.

Alexandra holds an MSc in International Security and Global Governance from Birkbeck College, University of London, a BA(Hons) in International Studies from the Open University, and a BSc(Hons) in Physics with Astronomy from the University of Nottingham.

Prior to joining RUSI she worked in a variety of fields including central and local government, as well as the private sector.

Contact Details

RUSI Whitehall

Military Sciences

By This Author

Apollo Plus Fifty: Lunar Ambitions and the New ‘Space Race’

3 May 2019

50 years on from the first lunar landing, the Moon is once again taking centre stage in international space ambitions. Yet, within a more...

Tags: Aerospace, RUSI Newsbrief, Military Sciences

"“From the Cold War and onwards we’ve seen the US, Russia and China exploring anti-satellite missiles,” says Alexandra Stickings, who works on space policy and security at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute. “We’ve also seen a move towards non-kinetic threats to satellites. These are things like lasers that can be used to dazzle optical sensors; micro-frequencies that can be used to interfere with electronics and disable or disrupt satellites without necessarily destroying them. “The problem is that it’s very difficult to define what a weapon in space is – and this is why the current treaties don’t cover any of this.”"

Space arms treaty should consider threat posed by debris, says EU

22 March 2019

Tags: Aerospace, Military Sciences

Is Space the New Cyber? UK Dependencies and Vulnerabilities

13 March 2019

On 16 January 2019, RUSI convened a conference to discuss the ways in which the UK government is dependent upon space and the threats and...

Tags: Aerospace, Conference Reports, Military Sciences, UK

""When we think about space in terms of military applications, it is also about dominating the flow of information and ensuring that it gets to them while looking at ways to disrupt that information flow to their adversaries.""

‘Dark side’ of moon seen from surface for first time

3 January 2019

Tags: Aerospace, China, Military Sciences, Technology

"[13:15] “What we are seeing now is a much more democratised space environment, more and more actors being able to be involved and yes there are certain states that have more capabilities and are trying to be space powers, but it’s a much different environment [compared to the Cold War]”"

World at One 03/01/2019

3 January 2019

Tags: Aerospace, China, Military Sciences, Pacific

"We do have capability in this country, there is absolutely no doubt. UK business has been involved in a lot of the most important parts of the Galileo system, this includes the payload, the atomic clocks that give us these precise signals and a lot of the encryption. The difficulty in saying we can build our own is taking on all of the responsibility and all of the costs ourselves. The current estimate is 3-5 billion. But if you look at the history of GPS and Galileo both far gone past initial estimates in cost and time [18:33 - 23:00]."

Today Programme 01/12/18

1 December 2018

Tags: Aerospace, Military Sciences, UK, Technology, Europe

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"“From the Cold War and onwards we’ve seen the US, Russia and China exploring anti-satellite missiles,” says Alexandra Stickings, who works on space policy and security at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute. “We’ve also seen a move towards non-kinetic threats to satellites. These are things like lasers that can be used to dazzle optical sensors; micro-frequencies that can be used to interfere with electronics and disable or disrupt satellites without necessarily destroying them. “The problem is that it’s very difficult to define what a weapon in space is – and this is why the current treaties don’t cover any of this.”"

Space arms treaty should consider threat posed by debris, says EU

22 March 2019 Tags: Aerospace, Military Sciences

""When we think about space in terms of military applications, it is also about dominating the flow of information and ensuring that it gets to them while looking at ways to disrupt that information flow to their adversaries.""

‘Dark side’ of moon seen from surface for first time

3 January 2019 Tags: Aerospace, China, Military Sciences, Technology

"[13:15] “What we are seeing now is a much more democratised space environment, more and more actors being able to be involved and yes there are certain states that have more capabilities and are trying to be space powers, but it’s a much different environment [compared to the Cold War]”"

World at One 03/01/2019

3 January 2019 Tags: Aerospace, China, Military Sciences, Pacific

"We do have capability in this country, there is absolutely no doubt. UK business has been involved in a lot of the most important parts of the Galileo system, this includes the payload, the atomic clocks that give us these precise signals and a lot of the encryption. The difficulty in saying we can build our own is taking on all of the responsibility and all of the costs ourselves. The current estimate is 3-5 billion. But if you look at the history of GPS and Galileo both far gone past initial estimates in cost and time [18:33 - 23:00]."

Today Programme 01/12/18

1 December 2018 Tags: Aerospace, Military Sciences, UK, Technology, Europe

"Speaking to Sky News about the security implications of the launch, Alexandra Stickings, space policy and security research analyst for think tank RUSI, said: "Global navigation satellite systems have become incredibly important for the military. "What these systems do is provide very accurate navigation and timing systems. These are used for everything from maritime navigation to precision weaponry. It's what make smart bombs smart, essentially. "The more that China is able to access these signals and the more accurate these signals become the more they can integrate that into their military, and then they could potentially start to rival the US in terms of precision military operations.""

China launches two new navigation satellites

19 November 2018 Tags: Aerospace

""There is certainly an aspect of this that is about expanding influence, but part of it is likely also about economic security," Alexandra Stickings, from the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, tells the BBC."

How China's GPS 'rival' Beidou is plotting to go global

20 September 2018 Tags: China, Military Sciences

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