What does Preamble of NEW HORIZON Act do?

This bill mandates the Secretary of Defense to conduct an operational pilot program. The pilot program falls under the Hybrid Space Architecture initiative. The program's purpose is to evaluate commercially available orbital data center services and space-based cloud computing. The evaluation is relevant to national security space and joint mission requirements.

What does SHORT TITLE. of NEW HORIZON Act do?

This bill is formally titled the ``Nodes, Enterprise Workloads, and Hybrid Operations, Resilience, Integration, Zero-Trust, Orbital Networks Act'' or the ``NEW HORIZON Act''.

What does OPERATIONAL PILOT PROGRAM ON ORBITAL DATA CENTER SERVICES. of NEW HORIZON Act do?

This section establishes an operational pilot program to evaluate commercially available orbital data center services and space-based cloud computing capabilities for national security space and joint missions. The pilot program, carried out by the Secretary of Defense through the Director of the Defense Innovation Unit, aims to assess military utility, operational integration, resilience, and potential transition to sustained programs. The program will involve employing these services in real-world mission scenarios, conducting testing, and evaluating interoperability with existing Department of Defense systems. The Secretary is directed to encourage participation from a diverse set of nontraditional defense contractors and commercial space providers. The pilot program mandates stringent security and resilience measures for sensitive and classified information, including cybersecurity protections, risk management, and protections against various threats. The Secretary must consult with various entities, including the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy and the Space Force, during the program's execution. A briefing to the congressional defense committees is required by December 31, 2028, detailing the program's execution, lessons learned, and recommendations. The pilot program's authority terminates five years after the Act's enactment. The term 'orbital data center' is defined as a space-based computing capability designed to provide persistent, scalable, or shared in-orbit processing, analysis, storage, fusion, routing, or dissemination of data.

Back to bills

NEW HORIZON Act

Last updated: 6/4/2026 · Introduced: 6/4/2026

Author: Ted Cruz (R-TX)

TL;DR (AI)

The NEW HORIZON Act directs the Secretary of Defense to conduct a pilot program evaluating commercially available orbital data center services and space-based cloud computing for national security purposes.
This pilot program, managed by the Defense Innovation Unit, will assess the military utility, resilience, and integration of these services within existing Department of Defense systems.
The Act mandates stringent security measures for sensitive data and requires a briefing to Congress detailing the program's findings and recommendations by December 31, 2028.

119th Congressin committeeOfficial page

Verified Votes

No verified votes yet.

Community Votes

No community votes yet. Be the first!

Voting as guest · Sign in for verified votes

Other Sections

Includes provisions on preamble, short title., and 1 more.

3 sections

Click "Show details" to explore individual sections. Use the community vote above or visit All Sections to vote per section.

Read official text

Want the full experience?

Create a free account to cast verified votes on each section, get a personalized summary, and track your voting history.

Create Free Account