We assess the benefits from transatlantic collaboration in technology policy for publicly‐funded R&D space projects such as Galileo, a proposed European radio‐navigation space project. An industrial organisation methodology is employed to model negative security spillovers of ‘unilateral’ space projects such as Galileo, or space‐based anti‐ballistic missile defence, on the public sector of the other region (the US vs. the European Union). The findings imply that transatlantic co‐ordination in technology policy is required to allow the respective space industries (in the US and the European Union) to exploit the benefits of cross‐border strategic research partnerships (SRPs). This coordination not only reduces the costs of the respective programmes, but also addresses security concerns.