Washington’s newest space initiative steers foreign aid toward American space firms, and it starts in Peru.
The vehicle is the Space Catalyst Partnership, rolled out by Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sept 10 during a visit to Lima. It opens channels for foreign governments and space agencies to work with the U.S. civil and commercial space sectors, and it aims to deepen cooperation with Artemis Accords signatories. Its opening project is a two-year, $6.5M effort to bring satellite internet to rural southern Peru.
Signing the Artemis Accords now buys something concrete, since only member countries get access to the U.S. commercial space sector. Peru joined in 2024.
Briefing reporters afterward, a senior State Department official pointed to what is genuinely new: the department itself steering aid money to advance American industry, something State had never done in a coordinated way. Underpinning the push are two White House documents, the space superiority executive order President Donald Trump signed in December and the 2025 National Security Strategy, which wants Washington cast as the region’s preferred partner.
The partnership bundles three instruments: diplomatic outreach that coordinates across U.S. agencies, industry engagement that connects American firms with foreign buyers, and targeted aid that helps emerging spacefaring nations purchase U.S. goods and services, folding space into sectors such as critical minerals and agriculture.
