The DownLink: Recent Episodes
The Defense & Aerospace Report
The DownLink, hosted by Laura Winter, is your weekly guide to the worthy, the cool, the necessary, and the surprising from the intersection of space, business, and defense. Laura Winter has lived in and reported from eight countries on three continents. The very first beat she had as a fledgling journalist was covering La Canada Flintridge, which included NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, for the Glendale News Press.
SpaceX posted its first earnings report as a public company this week, the same week its first share unlock hit the market, more than doubling the float. Elon Musk says revenue will top $1 trillion by 2030, but the plan is murky. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, Founder and CEO of Quilty Space, George Pullen, Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy, and Lou Whiteman, stock analyst at The Motley Fool.
China's on the cusp of truly competing with SpaceX with a reusable rocket, while it supplies Iran and Russia and Xi Jinping purges another of the nation's space heroes. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst, Defence Strategy Program, Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and Brendan Mulvaney, Director, China Aerospace Studies Institute, Air University.
Guastella, former commander of U.S. Air Forces Central Command, now Executive Vice President of National Security, at Voyager Technologies; and retired Space Force Col. Charles Galbreath, Director of the Mitchell Institute's Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.
drive the communications mission. Laura Winter speaks with Dr. Rajeev Gopal, Vice President of Advanced Programs, Hughes Defense.
Rocket Lab is acquiring Iridium for $8 billion. Honeywell split in two. Driven by SpaceX, the first half of 2026, especially the second quarter, delivered a remarkable wave of high-value space business activity in the public and private markets. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, Founder and CEO of Quilty Space, and Lou Whiteman, aerospace and space analyst at The Motley Fool.
With a NATO Summit two weeks away and Washington pressing allies to take on more, Air Marshal Paul Godfrey explains how a year of executing the U.S. Space Force's International Partnership Strategy is turning allied integration from plan into practice. Laura Winter speaks with Air Marshal Paul Godfrey, RAF, Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships, U.S. Space Force.
The SpaceX IPO didn't create the appetite for space investment — it revealed it. Laura Winter speaks with Kevin O'Connell, Founder and CEO, Space Economy Rising; former Director, Office of Space Commerce, U.S. Department of Commerce.
SpaceX went public on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO in history, valuing the rocket, satellite broadband communications, and AI company at $1.77 trillion. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, Founder and CEO of Quilty Space, George Pullen, Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy, and Lou Whiteman, stock analyst at The Motley Fool.
In the five years since Taiwan's Space Development Act, that island has started to build-out satellite constellations, a launch site, and has just received its first-ever invitation from NASA to contribute directly to the Artemis lunar program. Deterrence and remaining independent from the PRC is also a driver. Laura Winter speaks with Dr. Wu Jong-Shinn, Director General, Taiwan Space Agency (TASA).
Citing China’s possible mission to send Taikonauts around the moon, NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman told AIAA's ASCEND conference attendees that the launch cadence to the moon must increase. Laura Winter speaks with Clay Mowry, CEO of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) and immediate past president of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF).
Space-based solar power promises clean, dependable energy beamed from orbit to Earth — but does the business case close? That debate starts here. Laura Winter speaks with George Pullen, Chief Space Economist, Milky Way Economy; Martin Soltau, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Space Solar; and Richard Winslade, Chief Financial Officer, Space Solar.
Russian satellites recently maneuvered to within three meters of each other in low Earth orbit — a stark reminder that space is a warfighting domain and that the race to build resilient satellite constellations has never been more urgent. Lockheed Martin subsidiary Terran Orbital is building the satellite buses for the Space Development Agency's missile-tracking architecture — one tranche at a time. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Krauss, President and Chief Executive Officer, Terran Orbital.
The White House has nominated Lieutenant General Doug Schiess to become the third U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations. This nomination comes at a critical juncture, as allies race to develop sovereign space capabilities to reduce — or altogether avoid — dependence on the United States and its commercial service providers. Laura Winter speaks with Pacôme Révillon, CEO of Novaspace.
The Trump Administration is asking Congress to more than double the Space Force budget — but with billions flowing to classified programs and a missile defense shield still under development, the real question is whether this is a strategy or a very expensive bet. Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner; and Sam Wilson, Director, Strategy and Program Support, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, at The Aerospace Corporation.
Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
At SatShow 2026 many government and business leaders admired the “incredibly dynamic” changes and the new challenges in the marketplace and investing. But what do they need to do to compete and thrive in it? Laura Winter speaks with Frank Backes, President, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC), former CEO, Capella Space, just recent President, IonQ Quantum Infrastructure.
It’s “Advocacy Season” on Capitol Hill. The 30th “March Storm” — organized by the Alliance for Space Development — seeks better terms for space start-ups and venture capital investors ahead of the SPaceX IPO. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, who is also the author of three books, the latest of which is “Space Shock: 18 Threats That Will Define Space Power”; and Aaron Oesterle, Policy Director at the Space Frontier Foundation.
Three years after the U.S. Space Force established the West Scholars program at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the Pentagon is killing this highly tailored and unique space-minded Senior Professional Military Education fellowship, along with other graduate-level opportunities at 21 other universities and think tanks. Laura Winter speaks with Joel Mozer, the first United States Space Force Director of Science, Technology and Research; and Lamont Colucci, Director of Concordia University’s National Security and Space Center, and the United States Space Force’s inaugural Director of Doctrine Development.
The wake of the U.S.-led bombing campaign of Iran - Operation Epic Fury - has rattled markets around the world and inspired some public equity investors to adjust their positions and to more critically assess space companies with a speculative return on investment. Laura Winter speaks with Lou Whiteman, a space investor and a Motley Fool stock analyst covering aerospace and defense.d96efi5C1HZHLj1w3HtQ
Paris-based Skynopy’s virtual Ground Station As A Service promises of faster data speeds and a network of partner ground stations has earned it contracts with AWS, Eutelsat, Airbus, and the French Defense Innovation Agency’s Aerospace Lab. Laura Winter speaks with Pierre Bertrand, co-Founder and CEO of Skynopy.
While the Supreme Court has ruled that President Donald Trump’s use of the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to impose tariffs is unconstitutional, experts warn that the administration has other means to extract from American businesses and consumers what would amount to import taxes. Space businesses are not immune, but they do have opportunities to shield their bottom lines. Laura Winter speaks with Bailey Reichelt, Founder and Attorney at Aegis Law; and Nick Baker, Managing Director of Transfer Pricing practice, and co-Lead of the Trade and Customs practice at Kroll.
This week U.S. President Donald Trump met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to speak about how to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions. This episode explores recent space-related developments in Israel, Iran, and more generally the rest of the Middle-Eastern region. Laura Winter speaks with Lawrence Rubin, co-director of the Georgia Tech DC Program and an associate professor in the Sam Nunn School of International Affairs.
Finally, the U.S. Congress passed and U.S. President Donald Trump signed off on the U.S. Space Force’s $26 billion 2026 budget. And, the Space Force Association has a new CEO. Laura Winter speaks with U-S Air Force Brigadier General (Ret.) Damon Feltman, CEO, Space Force Association (SFA), who was the Mobilization Assistant to the Deputy Chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs, Requirements, and Analysis; and with Steve Jordan Tomaszewski, Vice President of Space Systems at the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA).
Australia and the United States have been close allies for more than seven decades, but with the old rules-based world order disappearing, Australia needs to shape and fund its national defense and space ambitions to fit the times. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, who focuses on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development.
While President Donald Trump cites the Golden Dome missile defense shield program as the reason for seeking sovereignty over Greenland, congressional appropriators complain they have too little knowledge on the program’s progress. It’s been 12 months since the presidential executive order kicked-off the Golden Dome effort. Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and Washington, D.C.’s favorite defense budget Yoda.
Traders and investors are feeling whipsawed this week, but those who hold notes in space companies are seemingly immune. Space companies, especially infrastructure business cases, are seeing steady and huge gains in value. Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
Ground stations, built by proxies of China’s People's Liberation Army and Russia’s Roscosmos, can be found across Latin America, including three on Venezuelan military bases. Recent operations in and around Venezuela demonstrate that these strategically important adversarial space assets are now in the cross-hairs of the Trump Corollary. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, Professor of Space Security, Schriever and West Space Scholars Program, Johns Hopkins University, and co-Author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.
President Donald Trump issued a course-setting presidential executive order on Thursday that looks more like the national space strategy for which many, in and out of government and across a myriad of space-related sectors, have been waiting. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, who is also the author of three books, the latest of which is “Space Shock: 18 Threats That Will Define Space Power”.
At the Space Force Association’s Space Power Conference, major announcements were few, but there were clues pointing to imminent strategic developments. Laura Winter speaks with U.S. Space Force Col. (ret.) Charles Galbreath, Director and Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence (MI-SPACE).
The CEO of Muon Space predicts that artificial intelligence coupled with laser communications “ could ultimately become entirely transformative on blowing open things like the earth observation market.” Laura Winter speaks with Jonny Dyer, CEO and co-Founder of Muon Space.
This week German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s cabinet approved a whole-of-government strategy to be ready for war in space. This announcement and strategy comes just 55 days after German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius announced that Germany is going to spend roughly $41 billion dollars to develop offensive and defensive on-orbit capabilities. Laura Winter speaks with Torsten Kriening, CEO and Publisher of SpaceWatch.Global, and host of the Space Cafe podcast.
The Department of Defense roll-out of the new Cybersecurity Maturity Model Certification (CMMC) Program has far-ranging implications for the defense industrial base, including the space sector, that includes all prime contractors and sub-contractors. Laura Winter speaks with US Air Force Retired Col. Steven Shirley, the Executive Director of the National Defense ISAC, and former Executive Director of the DoD Cyber Crime Center (DC3).
While the U.S. government remains shut and the NASADQ is getting hammered, Chad Anderson of Space Capital, a seed-stage venture capital firm that invests exclusively in space-based technologies, says the space market “has fundamentally matured”. Laura Winter speaks with Chad Anderson, CEO, Founder, and Managing Partner of Space Capital.
This week’s guest says, “ The purpose of science and technology research, in the military, is to make the fight unfair.” So what’s standing in our way? Laura Winter speaks with Richard Joseph, the 36th Air Force Chief Scientist, who has a CV that includes the Strategic Defense Initiative, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, Los Alamos National Laboratory, and NASA.
Could pre-positioning mission-critical cargo in Low Earth Orbit, to be summoned and sent to a place and time of the U.S. military’s choosing, in under an hour, solve logistical bottlenecks in times of need? Inversion Space and its investors are betting on it. Laura Winter speaks with Justin Fiaschetti, Inversion Space’s Co-Founder and CEO.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius wants to spend €35B, or $41B, on space assets and technologies, including satellites with active defense capabilities. This is huge. Laura Winter speaks with Antje Nötzold, a Senior Researcher at the University of the Federal Armed Forces; and Torsten Kriening, CEO and Publisher of SpaceWatch.Global, and host of Space Cafe podcast.
Space investing is enjoying “positive sentiment”, with many publicly traded space stocks enjoying higher valuations. What’s behind these financial and economic trends and where are the weak points? Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
There’s no Golden Dome requirements shopping list yet, but with an expected $40 billion for FY 2026 the U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations is thinking about how to spend now for the fight tonight and what will be needed by 2040. Appearing in this episode from the Air, Space, Cyber conference are Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman, Commander, Space Systems Command Lt. Gen. Philip Garrant. Laura Winter breaks it down with Todd Harrison, a Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.
Representatives from Australia’s burgeoning quantum technology sector are making the rounds, meeting with venture capitalists, U.S. companies, as well as state and federal government officials. Among the subjects discussed are defense, space, and opportunity. Laura Winter speaks with Martin O’Connor, COO, QuantX Labs; Jim Rabeau, CEO and Co-Founder, Deteqt; and Daniel Hunter, Partnership Development Manager, Quantum Australia.
Nigeria, the most populous African nation, has the continent’s third largest standing military and fourth largest economy. The West African nation operates four sovereign satellites and has ambitions to become a space economy leader and space technology exporter. Laura Winter speaks with Nigerian Communications Satellite Ltd. (NIGCOMSAT) CEO and Managing Director Jane Egerton-Idehen.
Artificial Intelligence will be necessary for Golden Dome, or Next Generation Missile Defense, to work, but how, and for what exactly? And what about the humans? Laura Winter speaks with Alexander Kott, an early AI researcher and the Chief Scientist of the Army Research Laboratory from 2016 to 2023.
When then presidential candidate Donald Trump made a promise to create a Space National Guard, he received a standing ovation. Now 12 months later, that promise is broken, with far reaching and costly effects. Laura Winter speaks with National Guard Association President Maj. Gen. (ret.) Frank McGinn; and Director of Joint Staff, Joint Force Headquarters, Colorado, Brig. Gen. Michael Bruno, who is the National Guard Association’s Task Force Space Chair.
It’s one of the biggest contracts that Space Systems Command has awarded that you haven’t heard about - the $4 billion Space Force Range Contract awarded to Amentum. The price tag is big because so is this operations and commercial customer-facing job, which should grow along with the increasing cadence of space launch. Laura Winter speaks with Randy Lycans, Amentum’s Senior Vice President and Program Director for Space Force Range Contract (SFRC)
What does the Golden Dome and the plus-up in money for the Space Force and other defense-related space systems tell us about the Trump Administration’s national defense strategy? And is it sustainable? Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, and co-author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”; and Sam Wilson, Director, Strategy and Program Support, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, at The Aerospace Corporation. Wilson’s report, “FY 2026 Defense Space Budget: Emergence of Golden Dome”, can be found here: https://csps.aerospace.org/papers/fy-2026-defense-space-budget-emergence-golden-dome
This week the U.S. Space Force concluded its largest service-wide exercise that also included officers from Allied and Partner nations in leadership positions. Lessons from the exercise will be used to better inform the implementation of the Space Force’s new International Partnership Strategy. Laura Winter speaks with Air Marshal Paul “Godders” Godfrey, the Assistant Chief of Space Operations for Future Concepts and Partnerships, and the highest-ranking non-U.S. officer serving in the Space Force. He was the Director of the 609th Air Operations Centre in Al Udeid before becoming the inaugural Commander of U.K. Space Command.
Now that the U.S. Senate has confirmed Lt. Shawn Bratton’s fourth star and his nomination to become the next U.S. Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations, there will be a new Deputy Chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements. And that’s an opportunity to drag the Space Force out of the Feudal Age into the 21st Century’s Space Age. Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner.
According to the Space Foundation the Global Space Economy grew by 7.8% to reach a valuation of $613 billion dollars in 2024. What’s behind the new big number? Laura Winter speaks with Lesley Conn, the Space Foundation’s Director of Research and Digital Programming
While the White House and Congress wrangle over NASA’s budget and the fate of the Space Launch System, China is unwavering in laying the foundation for its expansion into the space domain, including on the moon. Laura Winter speaks with Josh Carslon, author of the book, “Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy”.
With Wall Street indices at new highs, plus a roughly $40B FY2026 budget for the U.S. Space Force, and the tens of billions the Trump Administration wants to spend on the missile defense program "Golden Dome," is it time to pop the champagne? Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink Podcast regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
The Trump Administration’s 2026 budget for the U.S. Space Force, counting the Big Beautiful Bill’s funding, comes to about $40 billion dollars. Does this unorthodox, difficult to follow, bifurcated legislative process make this bump “ a one-time sugar high?” Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner; and Sam Wilson, Director, Strategy and Program Support, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, at The Aerospace Corporation.
The Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Dan Caine, said that in preparation for Operation Midnight Hammer, two Defense Threat Reduction Agency analysts studied activities at the Fordo Uranium Enrichment Plant for 15 years by pouring over imagery. That was satellite imagery, which is now at risk of being cut according to the White House’s FY2026 budget request for the National Reconnaissance Office. Laura Winter speaks with Susanne Hake, General Manager of Maxar Intelligence’s U.S. Government business; Hector Falcon, Watch Center Director at the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC); and Clint Clark, Vice President of First Impressions at ExoAnalytic Solutions.
As Australia’s former Prime Minister Scott Morrison called for additions to the 2021 AUKUS Agreement that would strengthen the security pact in the space domain, Australian space companies began a tour of the United States to find partners and investors. Laura Winter speaks with Steven Marshall, South Australia’s former Premier, now President of the American Australian Association; Jeremey Hallett Chairman of Southern Launch, and Chairman of Australia’s Space Industry Association; and Matt Tetlow, Founder & CEO of Inovor Technologies.
Elon Musk regrets “some” of his recent posts about U.S. President Donald Trump. Phew! But their relationship’s rapid unscheduled disassembly, or RUD, reveals how vulnerable civil and national security missions, even the “Golden Dome” program, are to the dramatic vagaries of this relationship. Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner.
The Trump-Musk “bromance” break-up is clearly visible on the world stage and worrying many about just how far and how deep the fallout will be for space and defense. What’s not-so-visible, are the aggressive tactics and techniques - lawsuits, loans, proxies and pirates - that fall-below the threshold of “acts of war”. That’s “gray warfare” in the space domain. How would you know it if you saw it? Laura Winter speaks with Dean Cheng, a sought after China-U.S. relations expert, and non-resident Fellow at both the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the George Washington University Space Policy Institute; and also from GWU, retired Navy Cmdr. John "Patsy" Klein, who recently authored the book, “Fight for the Final Frontier: Irregular Warfare in Space.”
This week’s episode details what happened when the CEO of a European-US space company bought into a shareholder fight involving two Chinese government-backed entities, that are deeply involved with the Thousand Sails mega-constellation - China’s answer to Starlink. This is a deep dive into lawfare in the space domain, a growing costly concern for the U.S. and its Allies. Laura Winter speaks with Declan Ganley, CEO of Rivada Space Networks; and Dean Cheng, a sought after China-U.S. relations expert, and non-resident Fellow at both the Potomac Institute for Policy Studies and the George Washington University Space Policy Institute.
The $318 million IonQ purchase deal to acquire Capella Space is bringing together two worlds in a high-stakes bid to radically change satellite-to-satellite and satellite-to-ground communications and computing at the edge. At least that's what the CEOs are saying. Are they right? Also, up top in this episode is a space threats update. Laura Winter speaks with Niccolo de Masi, IonQ’s President and CEO; Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space; and Hector Falcon, the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s Watch Center Director.
This week planet Earth is seeing two re-entries of man-made objects: first the uncontrolled, possibly life-threatening, Soviet-era Kosmos 482; and second, the W-3 - an example of the very controlled, defense and in some cases possibly life-extending, business case that is Varda Space Industries. Laura Winter speaks with Delian Asparouhov, Varda Space Industries’ co-Founder and President, and Partner at Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund; and Muk Pandian, Varda’s Director of Strategic Partnerships and Advanced Concepts.
Is there really sunshine in the Space Sector? April was a rough month for businesses, consumers, and public equities traders, all tenderized by the blows of uncertain trade policies. The DownLlink Podcast’s regular guest and space economist says the Space Sector is different and should be fine. Is he right? Laura Winter speaks with George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
Want to think beyond 2045? There’s a process for that called Strategic Foresight. According to a new U.S. Space Force Report, the newest service branch needs to employ it. Laura Winter speaks with two of the report’s leading authors, Joel Mozer, who is best known for being the first United States Space Force Director of Science, Technology and Research; and David Hardy, former Associate Deputy Under Secretary of the Air Force for Space. You can read their report here: https://ihubcolorado.org/beyond-the-tipping-point/.
This week the U.S. Space Force let a linguistic genie out of the bottle. The newest service branch published a 22-page guide for planners called “Space Warfighting”, that ditches soft elocution and takes up words like “destroy”, “terrestrial strike”, and “counterattack”. What does this mean for culture; training and education; research, development, testing and evaluation (RDT&E); acquisition; and the Space Force’s place in the Joint Force? In addition to a roundtable discussion with Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, Deputy Chief of Space Operations, Strategy, Plans, Programs and Requirements, Laura Winter speaks with Charles Galbreath, Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.
While the 40th Space Symposium’s theme was “Building Partnerships to Secure our Future”, everyone in Colorado Springs, Colorado was talking about building President Trump’s Next Generation Missile Defense Shield, a.k.a.: “Golden Dome For America.” This week’s guest cautions us that you cannot have a space-based missile defense shield without the ground segment. Laura Winter speaks with Mark Henrie, Divisional Vice President, Amentum Missile Defense Group, and Deputy Program Manager, Integrated Research & Development Enterprise Solution.
The second quarter has opened with U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping “Liberation Day” tariffs, causing Wall Street to suffer its worst days in years. The U.S.-based space economy does not have immunity from the Trump Administration’s trade policies or the markets. Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is proposing to leverage €800 billion to rebuild Europe’s defense industrial base, and seed new defense capability development, including space capabilities. In the justification paper, even the words “space warfare” were used. To understand what this all means for space and defense in Europe, Laura Winter speaks with Antje Nötzold, Lecturer and Research Associate at the Chair of International Politics at Chemnitz University of Technology; Lina Pohl, Research Fellow at European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) seconded by German Space Agency (DLR).
It doesn’t take much mass, just a fleck of paint, to punch a hole into a satellite or an intercontinental ballistic missile. This week’s guest thinks the technology for an AI-controlled space-based kill vehicle, that is also small and lean enough to make room for the fuel needed for speed, is close at hand if the Department of Defense wishes to seize it. Laura Winter speaks with Arno Ledebuhr, a physicist, who worked on the Strategic Defense Initiative’s space-based ballistic missile defense system Brilliant Pebbles, at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, under Lowell Wood and Edward Teller.
This episode comes to you from SatShow’25 in Washington, D.C., where European space companies say the uncertainty of the Trump Administration’s economic and security policies are creating a golden opportunity for their businesses and technology development. Laura Winter speaks with Declan Ganley, CEO Rivada; Ed Tate, CTO, VIrtus Solis; Martin Soltau, co-Founder and co-CEO, Space Solar.
The Trump administration’s 25% tariffs and counter trade restrictions have kicked in, slapping small and medium sized space businesses with an economic shock that will be felt through the entire supply chain. There are solutions to lessen the pain from prime contractors and even the federal government if you know where to look. Laura winter speaks with Bailey Reichelt, , Founding Partner, Aegis Law, and Member of the Board of Directors, Association Of Commercial Space Professionals; Megan Moloney, Associate Director, Defense and Security, Guidehouse, and co-chair of the Space-ISAC Supply Chain Working Group; and Brian Joyal, CEO, Veridiam, Inc., a U.S.-based manufacturer providing critical components and assemblies to space sector prime contractors.
In the next seven days there will be two attempts by commercial space companies to land on the moon, tariffs slapped on goods from Canada, Mexico, and China, and U.S. President Donald Trump will deliver a speech to a joint session of congress. While Europe reels over the Oval Office incident with the Ukraine's head of state, what’s the view from the Indo Pacific of Trump’s policies? Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; and Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development.
Mass firings or the threat of them hang over national space-related agencies and are expected to expand to the Department of Defense, while a report outlining just how to develop and deploy President Donald Trump’s mostly space-based missile shield is being drafted. Critical questions about policy, funding, and who in the DoD will ultimately be responsible for this grand program remain unanswered. Laura Winter speaks with Doug Loverro, President, Loverro Consulting, LLC, former NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, former Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Space Policy; and Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner.
The Department of Defense has less than six weeks to submit a plan for how it will build and launch the “Iron Dome for America”, President Donald Trump’s concept of a mostly space-based missile defense shield. The DOD is reaching out to industry for ideas, but what should the technology priorities be? Laura Winter speaks with Roger Lenard, a NASA and DOD consultant, and a Strategic Defense Initiative veteran, who led the classified Timber Wind Nuclear Rocket program, and the Lightweight Exoatmospheric Projectile (LEAP) program; and Peter Garretson, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, and co-Author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”.
This week, while goods from Canada and Mexico received a month-long reprieve from a 25% tariff, Chinese goods have been slapped with an additional 10% import duty, or tax. Because the policy contains no carve-outs for the minerals or rare earths critical to space systems, space companies may need to brace for a serious bite on their budgets and business plans. Laura Winter speaks with Bryan Zetlen, Launch and Payloads Operations Manager, Virtus Solis Technologies, Lecturer, and Engineer with deep experience at NASA, the Federal Communications Commission, Boeing, and Rand; and Bailey Reichelt, Founding Partner, Aegis Law, and Member of the Board of Directors, Association Of Commercial Space Professionals.
This week President Donald Trump issued an executive order called “The Iron Dome For America”, which calls for a space-based missile shield. This order is expected to have huge ramifications for arms control in space, technology development, and the U.S. Space Force, should the U.S. Congress fund what would be a technically challenging and expensive program. Laura Winter speaks with Joel Mozer, who retired from a decades-long career in government service after serving as the first United States Space Force Director of Science, Technology and Research; and Peter Garretson, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, and co-Author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”, but after a special Space Threat update from Hector Falcon, Watch Center Director, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
While the flurry of executive orders coming from the newly installed Trump Administration is unsettling folks near and abroad, the first U.S. Space Force Chief Scientist wants us to focus on what is strategic: Avoiding technology surprise. Laura Winter speaks with Joel Mozer, who retired from a decades-long career in government service after serving as the first United States Space Force Director of Science, Technology and Research.
President-elect Donald Trump has just named as his Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, who has a deep background in space and defense. What will he need to succeed from the incoming administration and Congress? Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner; and Sarah Mineiro, Founder & CEO, Tanagra Enterprises, Senior Associate, Aerospace Security Project, Center for Strategic and International Studies, and self-described “Hill Rat”.
Almost all national economic signals are looking good as the nation prepares for a presidential transition to a more “space-minded” administration under Donald Trump. As the incoming president established the U.S. Space Force five years ago, the belief is he could double that service branch’s budget to solidify his legacy and infuse cash into the U.S.-based space economy. Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Partner and Chief Economist at MilkyWayEconomy.
Space Competition: China Launches Broadband Competitor Network To SpaceX’s StarlinkAiming to compete with SpaceX’s Starlink, China just launched the first tranche of its broadband Gouwang constellation, and the Department of Defense this week submitted its annual report on the P.R.C.’s military and security developments to Congress. To understand what Beijing has accomplished in space in the past 12 months and what to expect in 2025, Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-Author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”. But first, Winter gets a year-end update on the Space Force Association’s activities from the organization’s Founder, CEO, and President, Bill “Hippie” Woolf.
U.S. Space Force Guardians are days away from celebrating their service branch’s fifth birthday. How far have they come in “cultivating the warfighter” in the past 12 months and what are the priorities for the next year? Laura Winter speaks with Chief Master Sergeant - Space Force John Bentivegna at the Space Force Association's Space Power Conference about lessons learned, his policy “the Guardian Journey”, and how the Space Force’s culture is evolving away from simply delivering support to the surface to deterring aggression and defending U.S. interests in space.
Space Money: The Game Of Space-Based Risk In a Time Of Market Fragility -The space insurance market is fragile, with claims, totalling billions of dollars, outpacing premium revenues. Yet, insurance companies are expanding their coverage and others are getting into this game of space-based risk. Laura Winter speaks with the four-decade space insurance market veteran Chris Kunstadter, President of Triton Space.
Space Competition: Trump’s South Korean Space OpportunityThis week China, Russia, and North Korea deepened their military bonds in exercises and meetings, presenting the incoming Trump 2.0 Administration with an illustration of how security in East Asia has become more fragile in the four years since Donald Trump was in the White House. Trump’s “America First” acolytes may find economically attractive opportunities in security burden-sharing in the space domain with South Korea. Laura Winter speaks with Sam Wilson, Director of Strategy and Program Support, and Katie Melbourne, a space security analyst, both of whom are with the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
Space Competition: Great Power Strategy, “America First”, and The Mars-shotThis week U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continued to shape his incoming government, naming cabinet nominees, including two authors of the controversial governance plan “Project 2025”, and enlisting adherents to the “America First” political philosophy. To understand how this plan, treatise, and talk of going to Mars, together will affect the space domain, Allies, partners, and adversaries, Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Hermann Ludwig Moeller, Director of the European Space Policy Institute.
Space Power: Trump 2.0 May Attempt Human Mars Landing, Establish Department of the Space Force Space policymakers from President-elect Donald Trump’s first administration debated what may be in store for the civil and defense space sectors, including sending humans to Mars instead of the moon, and establishing a Department of the Space Force. Laura Winter speaks with Doug Loverro, President, Loverro Consulting, LLC, former NASA Associate Administrator for Human Exploration and Operations, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Defense for Space Policy, and deep experience with defense space programs, classified and unclassified.
Space Power: President-Elect Trump Expected To Supercharge U.S. Space AmbitionsThis week President Donald Trump, with the help of billionaire SpaceX founder Elon Musk, became the 47th President-Elect of the United States, for a second non-consecutive term. Space power advocates believe Trump, with the added influence of Musk by his side, will speed-up mission timelines that include the moon and Mars, and put monetary and political capital to work to establish and secure an American-led space economy. Laura winter speaks with the former Chairman of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Pennsylvania Rep. (ret.) Robert Walker, now Founder and CEO of moonWalker Associates; U.S. Air Force Lt. Gen. (ret.) Steve Kwast; now Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of SpaceBilt; and Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow, American Enterprise Institute, and much respected NASA and Defense Department budget diviner.
Space Money: Report - DoD At Risk of Losing New Commercial Space Suppliers And CapabilitiesThe Department of Commerce has just released some interesting economic indicators that lean positive, and there are expectations that the Federal Reserve Board will again lower interest rates. Despite this good news, it may be some time before new venture capital invests in space technology, leaving some companies that have capabilities the Department of Defense wants, starved for cash and at risk. Laura Winter speaks with Sam Wilson, Director, Strategy and Program Support, Center for Space Policy and Strategy, The Aerospace Corporation; and Sarah Georgin, former Project Lead, Strategic Foresight Team, The Aerospace Corporation.
Space Competition: Threats and Trends A Year After October 7thIn the year since Hamas launched its brutal attack in Israel, tactics, techniques, and procedures, as well as technologies, and security alliances have evolved in the space domain of operations. Laura winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; and Hector Falcon, Space and Cyber Intelligence Integrator, Space-Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC).
Space Power: A National Guardsman’s View On Why A Pentagon Plan Is A “Lose-Lose Proposal”Last week Air Force Gen. Steven Nordhaus assumed responsibility as the 30th Chief of the National Guard Bureau, inheriting a politically thorny issue: a piece of legislation that, if passed into law, would transfer Air National Guard space units into the Space Force. This episode is about why some, possibly upwards of 80 percent, of the men and women who make up these units will not join the Space Force, which could leave the branch short of some critical capabilities. Laura Winter speaks with Lt. Col. Andrew Gold, Director of Strategic Plans, Colorado Air National Guard, and a space operator, who recently finished a deployment to Africa commanding the 138th Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron.
Space Tech: Talking To The Far Side of the MoonOn the Moon China’s ahead in the race to stake claims for lunar resources by the not-so-simple fact that it can communicate with its equipment on the far side, near the south pole. This week’s episode is about how ispace’s Mission 3 could change the state of the race and establish the very communications network that will be necessary to create a lunar economy and secure it. Laura Winter speaks with Tyler Mundt, Mission Director, ispace; Marchel Holle, U.S. Government Relations Lead, ispace; Greg Johnson, Director of Business Development, Swedish Space Corp.; and George Pullen, Chief Economist, Milky Way Economy.
Space Money: Q3 Take - “Money Doesn’t Care”The Fed lending rate reduction was nice, but is it enough pressure on investors to empty their money market accounts and invest in space companies, even if it’s answering a defense-related demand signal? Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink regulars, Chris Quilty, Founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy.
Space Competition: How To Better De-Risk Adversarial Threats To Space Systems’ ValueThis episode was recorded before a live audience at the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center’s Value of Space Summit, convened in Colorado Springs, Colorado. The discussion focuses on threat trends, the lack of insurance cover for certain types of attacks; and how to better secure the value of space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Kunstadter, President at Triton Space; Tomas Peña, Chief Technologist for Cyber Operations at L3Harris Technologies; and Sam Visner, the Space-ISAC Chairman.
Space Policy: Space Force CSO - “What We Were Is Not What We Must Become”The U.S. Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman announced on Tuesday that the Space Force has started to take over recruitment and training of uniformed and civilian Guardians, from “Mother Air Force”, to create a separate “space-minded” force to meet the nation’s requirements in the friction-filled era of “great power competition.” Laura Winter speaks with the Space Force’s first Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Maj. Gen. Kim Crider (ret.), who is a Founding Partner of the space consultancy Elara Nova.
Space Tech: Is It A Bird? A Plane? Actually It’s A DroneSpace Force acquisitions officials have said for years that they want tactically-responsive commercial-off-the-shelf solutions that can be easily configured for military uses. The founders of BlackStar Orbital Technologies say their drone, a satellite-space plane hybrid, will answer the call, at a competitive price point. Laura Winter speaks with the BlackStar Orbital's co-Founders, CEO Christopher Jannette and CTO Kit Carson.
Space Money: Starliner, A 737 Max Felony, and a New Boeing CEO With Boeing’s Starliner human-rated capsule safely on the ground, the Crew Flight Test mission has ended, but with incidents and without its crew, Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore. Boeing, a major supplier of space vehicles and services to NASA and the U.S. Space Force, is at a crossroads with a new CEO in charge. What should Boeing do? Laura Winter speaks with Richard Aboulafia, Managing Director at AeroDynamic Advisory; Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Clayton Swope, Deputy Director of the Aerospace Security Project and Senior Fellow in the International Security Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
Space Competition: Geo-Strategic Questions Over NASA’s Plan to Destroy the ISSThis is part 2 of a deep dive into NASA’s plan to destroy the 420-metric-tonne International Space Station by de-orbiting. This episode is about the geo-strategic consequences and risks associated with de-orbiting and alternative ideas for the space station after 2030. Part 1, “Space Technology: Holes Bubble Up In NASA’s Narrative On And Plan To De-Orbit The Space Station”, posted in July. Laura Winter speaks with Kazuto Suzuki, a member of the National Space Policy Committee of the Cabinet Office, the Government of Japan, Professor at the Graduate School of Public Policy at the University of Tokyo, Japan, and Director of the Institute of Geoeconomics at International House of Japan; and Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.
Space Power: War-Gamers Say We’re “Behind the Eight Ball”What should the new U.S. vice president and the National Space Council do if China achieved a Sputnik-like moment? According to this week’s guests, we’re “Behind the Eight Ball”, which is the title of their first report on a series of recent wargames that included former NASA and Department of Defense political appointees, representing both major U.S. political parties. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (AFPC) who also co-authored the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy” with the second guest; Richard Harrison, AFPC’s Vice President of Operations and Director of the Defense Technology Program.
Space Tech: Defense Looking At Modular Upgrades For Greater SDASpace Command wants “enhanced battlespace awareness”, a clearer picture of what’s going on on orbit. This episode is about how a new set of modular technologies can provide satellite operators with “upgrades” and the opportunity to participate in the space domain awareness ecosystem, to serve military and commercial customers, and to generate new revenue streams. Laura Winter speaks with Ghonhee Lee, Founder and CEO of Katalyst Space Technologies, a company founded in 2020 that has a fistful of defense contracts.
Space Money: Silicon Valley - “The DoD Has Not Brought The Dough”While it may not be surprising that space companies lead the Silicon Valley Defense Group's NATSEC100, there is an imbalance between the amount of capital venture capitalists are putting in and and the value of defense awards. Laura Winter speaks with James Cross, SVDG’s co-Founder and Executive Chairman, and Co-Head of Private Investing for Franklin Equity Group and Managing Director of Franklin Venture Partners.
Space Power: Small Sats - Time To Plan, Procure, And ExecuteAlmost seven years after U.S. Air Force General John Hyten said, “I will not support buying big satellites that make juicy targets”, theSpace Development Agency has seemingly cracked the code on procuring and deploying small satellites, or smallsats, quickly with the desired effects. Nevertheless, experts argue that the U.S. Space Force struggles to realize the full range of possibilities smallsats present, because the culture of acquisitions is stuck. Laura winter speaks with Charles Galbreath, a Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence; and Andrew Berglund, a Senior Policy Analyst in the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
Space Technology: Holes Bubble Up In NASA’s Narrative On And Plan To De-Orbit The Space Station NASA claims the commercial space sector provided no “feasible proposals” from “discussions” or “viable interest” in response to a Request for Information (RFI) on how to reuse, repurpose, or recycle part or all of the 420-metric-tonne International Space Station. Space companies say they never saw or even heard of such requests. To understand NASA’s unfunded $1.5-billion-plan, and the alternatives - some of which would support technological development for the commercial and defense sectors - Laura Winter speaks with George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy; Justin Kugler, Director of Business Development for new initiatives at Intuitive Machines, an alum of the NASA ISS Program Office, and a former Central Intelligence Agency intelligence analyst; ED Tate, Co-Founder & CTO at Virtus Solis; and Bill Kemp, Founder and CEO of United Space Structures.
Space Power: NATO Summit - Defense Industry! Can You Hear The Demand Signal Now? Before meeting with heads of state, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told leaders from the Allied defense industrial base that more than two-thirds of the Alliance’s 32 member nations were spending at least 2% of the GDPs on defense. “So there is a good market outlook for you.” To understand what the secretary general meant and this summit’s outcomes for the space domain, Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; Brig. Gen. Bruce McClintock USAF (Ret.), RAND Corporation Space Enterprise Initiative lead, and former U.S. Defense Attaché to Russia; and John Neal, Executive Director for Space Policy at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Space Power: NATO Summit - Security Alliance Is Employing More Than Words In Space DomainIn the month running up to the 75th NATO Summit in Washington, D.C., the Alliance has been busy in the Space Domain of Operations. To understand the state of the NATO Alliance, what it has recently achieved going into the summit, and what outcomes to expect, Laura Winter speaks with Jim Townsend, former Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Europe and NATO Policy, who is now a Senior Fellow in the Transatlantic Security Program at the Center for a New American Security (CNAS), and co-host of the “Brussel Sprouts” podcast; and Juliana Suess, Research Fellow on Space Security at the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI), and host of the “War in Space” podcast.
Space Money: Welcome To The Second Half Of 2024!We’ve reached the end of Q2, which means it is time to take a look at the top space business and finance events in this year’s first half, how they are shaping the remaining six months, and what space businesses big and small are doing, and how investors in the public and private markets are reacting. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy.
Space Competition: “We Need To Go From Ambition To Implementation”This week’s episode is coming from the 7th Prague Space Security Conference in Czech, where government officials and experts from Europe, the United States, East Asia discussed what Western nations, space agencies, and militaries can and should do to protect and defend access to space and space capabilities. Laura Winter speaks with Antje Nötzold, lecturer and research associate at the Chair of International Politics at Chemnitz University of Technology; Lina Pohl, Research Fellow at European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) seconded by German Space Agency (DLR); and Petr Bareš, co-Founder and President of the Czech Space Alliance and Managing Director of Iguassu Software Systems.
Space Power: What’s the Story With The Space Force?While SpaceX’s latest test launch is a clear message to the world about U.S. space power and where the nation is aiming to go, the role and even the very existence of the U.S. Space Force remains opaque to most Americans. This week’s guest argues that this must be addressed and that there are solutions. Laura Winter speaks with Hannah Dennis, a research associate for the Defense Program at the Center for a New American Security.
Space Money: The Long-Term Strategy Inside The Space Force Budget NumbersWhile the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee has sent its draft of the FY 2025 defense spending bill to the full Appropriations Committee without drama, a Trump campaign representative is reportedly urging Republican senators to block any spending package from passing until after the presidential inauguration in January. Despite the budgetary fog, the Space Force’s strategy, outlined in the Biden Administration’s 2025 budget proposal, is becoming clear. Laura Winter speaks with Sam Wilson, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation, about his latest report: “Fy 2025 Defense Space Budget: Continued Emphasis On Proliferation Under A More Constrained Top-Line”.
Space Money: Risk of Second Boots vs First BaseChina’s Communist Party has notched another victory in its campaign to build by 2035 a manned International Lunar Research Station near the moon’s south pole with this Saturday’s successful landing of the Chang’e 6 spacecraft. This episode is about what is at risk if the United States fails to be first in establishing its manned moon base. This episode is coming from Albuquerque, New Mexico, from the stage of the State of the Space Industrial Base Conference and Workshop, organized and hosted by NewSpace Nexus, a non-profit that supports the launch of new technologies for the space economy and for national defense. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; Lee Steinke, Chief Operating Officer, CisLunar Industries; George Pullen, Chief Economist at MilkyWay Economy; and Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space.
Space Competition: The PLA May Not Be Ready To Fight In SpaceChina President Xi Jinping has instituted a major military reorganization to support joint warfighting, with space operations under the newly constituted Aerospace Forces. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; and Lin Ying-Yu, an Assistant Professor at the Graduate Institute of International Affairs and Strategic Studies, Tamkang University.
Space Power: What The U.S. Needs To Build “An Enduring Advantage In The Third Space Age”While Congress is holding hearings and pouring over federal budget minutiae, this episode is about how the United States could go about “Building an Enduring Advantage In The Third Space Age” - the title of a report authored by this week’s guest. Laura Winter speaks with Todd Harrison, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, who is a longtime defense budget and space security expert.
Space Power: Why States, National Guard Association Say “No!” To Defense Department Space Units PlanThere’s a Department of Defense legislative proposal to move Air National Guard space units into the U.S. Space Force that has unified all 55 state and territorial governors with the National Guard Association in opposition. This week’s episode is about this extraordinary dispute. The parties cannot even agree on the number of space units or Guardsmen and Guardswomen that would be affected if the proposal is passed and then signed into law. Laura Winter speaks with National Guard Association President Maj. Gen. (ret.) Frank M. McGinn; and Director of Joint Staff, Joint Force Headquarters, Colorado, Brig. Gen. Michael Bruno, who was the Executive Officer for 137th Space Warning Squadron at Greeley Air National Guard Station.
Space Money: "For Those Who Can Execute, The Opportunity Is Massive"Jerome Powell, the Federal Bank Reserve Board Chair, said borrowing rates are going to stay right where they are. Most Department of Defense space budgets are shrinking in real terms due to inflation. So what will it take to get venture capitalists to invest in new space tech? Laura Winter speaks with Chad Anderson, Managing Partner at Space Capital, host of “The Space Capital Podcast”, and book author, who says "for those who can execute, the opportunity is massive and they are going to win".
Space Competition: AUKUS Nations - UK and Australia Aim to Plus Up Defense Is it “Old Wine In A New Bottle” or is this push to increase defense spending and investment in developing new capabilities, including space the mark of something new? While the United States has submitted a comparatively humble defense budget, its AUKUS partners, feeling the pressure of China in the Pacific region, seem to be doing the opposite. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Juliana Suess, a Research Fellow on Space Security, at the Royal United Services Institute, and host of the podcast “War in Space”.
Space Power: “The Biggest Enemy to National Security Are Continuing Resolutions”The latest edition of the “State of The Space Industrial Base Report”, a unique take on space and national security, has just been published jointly by the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the Air Force Research Laboratory. Laura Winter speaks with one of the authors and the editor of the report, Steve “Bucky” Butow, the Defense Innovation Unit’s Director of the Space Portfolio; and Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”.
Space Power: SECAF Says “Our Cushion Is Gone. We are out of time.” This week U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense that China’s space capabilities were essentially on par, or close to it, with the United States, yet confusingly, the Presidential Budget Request for FY’25 prescribes pumping the brakes on Space Force modernization. To get at just what the administration is communicating strategically, Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and Charles Galbreath, a Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.
Space Money: “Get Used To Crazyville”, “Moon Mania”, And A New Defense StrategyWelcome to the start of the space economy’s second financial quarter, or “Crazyville”! Plus there is a new Department of Defense “Commercial Space Integration Strategy”. What does this tin’s label really say? Laura Winter speaks with The DownLink Podcast’s space equity and space economy dynamic duo, Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; George Pullen, Chief Economist at MilkyWay Economy; and Robin Dickey, Policy Analyst, at The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.
Space Competition: Why SpaceX’s “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” Is Redrawing The Map To SuccessThis week’s episode is coming from the annual Satellite in Washington, D.C. Instead of having a panel, Laura Winter is in the exhibition hall to ask commercial space leaders about risk, success and failure in the Age of SpaceX. Winter speaks with Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space; Martin Cullen, TE Connectivity’s Senior Manager for Business Development and Strategy; Kayhan Space Co-Founders Siamak Hesar and Araz Feyzi; Matthew Randall, Empulsion Inc.’s Director of Business Development; and Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.
Space Power: 2025 Space Force Budget Slashes Launches, Reduces Buying Power By 5%Congressional inaction coupled with core inflation, have resulted in the first reduction in budgetary buying power for the U.S. Space Force for FY 2025, placing research and development at risk. Effects could be far reaching, as the youngest military branch is the biggest consumer of commercial space products and services. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”; and Sam Wilson, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
Space Power: Fines On Space Junk In The Pipeline And What’s Legal SalvageThis episode is coming to you from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo., where the U.S. Space Command’s Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, and the Academy’s Law, Technology and Warfare Research Cell co-host the fourth annual USSPACECOM Legal Conference. Laura Winter is a guest of the event and is moderating a deep discussion on space debris, rules and regulations, and the legal challenges posed by salvage operations. Joining her for this discussion is Laura Megan-Posch, Assistant Chief Counsel, Regulations Division, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation; Gabriel Swiney, Director, Policy, Advocacy, and International Division, Office of Space Commerce, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; Charles Stotler, Professor of Practice and Director, Center for Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi School of Law; Vic Gardner, President and Global Head of PreSales, LeoLabs Federal, Inc.; and Lee Steinke, Chief Operating Officer, CisLunar Industries.
Space Money: The Fortune 500 View From TE Connectivity’s Martin CullenIt was a “new space” company - Intuitive Machines - that embraced risk and landed on the moon, not a blue-chip aerospace company. In this episode Laura Winter speaks with Martin Cullen, T-E Connectivity’s Senior Manager for Business Development and Strategy about emerging space-platforms, space business, and how large publicly traded companies are navigating risk to get in on the space economy and deliver value and returns to shareholders.
Space Competition: Can The US Deter Its Adversaries From Launching Cyberattacks on Space Systems?This month, two years ago, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine started with a cyber attack that changed everything and yet nothing for the U.S. commercial space sector. This is the fourth and final in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Samuel Visner, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC) Board Chair and Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation; Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and Sean Costigan, the lead for NATO’s cybersecurity curriculum, and Managing Director, Resilience Strategy at Red Sift.
Space Power: Securing Space Systems From Cyber Attack - “We Play Whack-A-Mole”This month, two years ago, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine started with a cyber attack that changed everything and yet nothing for the U.S. commercial space sector. This is the third in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Samuel Visner, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC) Board Chair and Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation; Greg Falco, an Assistant Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell University; and Ang Cui, Founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security.
Space Tech: The Threat Landscape, A Cyber Vulnerability, And Ransoming A SatelliteThis month, two years ago, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine started with a cyber attack that changed everything and yet nothing for the U.S. commercial space sector. This is the second in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Greg Falco, an Assistant Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell University; Ang Cui, Founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security; and Hector Falcon, a Cyber and Space Intelligence Integrator at the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
Space Money: When Nation States Target The Commercial Space SectorThis month, two years ago, Russia’s unprovoked invasion of Ukraine started with a cyber attack that changed everything and yet nothing for the U.S. commercial space sector. This is the first in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Nick Saunders, Viasat’s Chief Cybersecurity and Data Officer for Government Systems, in his first sit-down interview since the satellite communications company weathered a notorious cyberattack on February 24, 2022; Erin Miller, the Space Information Sharing and analysis Center’s Executive Director; and Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space, a company providing earth observation products to government commercial customers.
Space Tech: A U.S. Space Force Bet That Could Truly Monetize Space Junk… For RealThis week’s episode is about a cunning plan the Space Force has invested in that aims to monetize space junk and large pieces of orbital debris by recycling it in space, for use as thruster fuel and structural beams. Laura Winter speaks with CisLunar Industries’ Co-founders CEO Gary Calnan and CTO Joe Pawelski; and Neumann Space’s CEO Herve Astier and Chief Scientist Paddy Neumann.
Space Power: What the Space Force Needs Now For Cislunar OperationsThis week, just after one failed commercial moon mission came back to earth and burned up in the atmosphere, Japan became the fifth nation to successfully reach the lunar surface. As launches to and landings on the Moon become more regular, it is expected that competition and possibly friction between national interests may intensify in Cislunar space. While the U.S. Space Force has the remit to secure U.S. interests in the Cislunar region, it is not truly equipped to do the job. Laura Winter speaks with Charles Galbreath, a Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.
SPACE TECH: Is NASA Surrendering The Promise of Space-Based Solar Power to China, ESA, Britain And Japan? Jeers and scorn greeted NASA’s “Space-Based Solar Power” report, which if taken at face value, experts argue, could strategically disadvantage U.S. efforts to deliver cheap renewable energy, while competitors in the sector move forward. While the document confirms that Space-Based Solar Power is technologically attainable and would deliver electricity at a fraction of the cost to consumers, this episode’s guests say NASA’s assumptions are wildly out of date, do not take into account the current state of space technology, and ignore commonly-held industrial economic principles. Laura Winter speaks with John Mankins, a former NASA physicist, now President of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, who designed the Solar Power Satellite concept, Alpha – Mark 3; Peter Garretson, an American Foreign Policy Council Senior Fellow, coauthor of the book “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; and Ed Tate, Co-Founder and CTO of Virtus Solis, a U.S Space-Based Solar Power company.
Space Money: Has Investor Passion Left The Building?This episode on Space Money is the 2024 year opener. It examines just what business and investment trends and events from 2023 are carrying over into the new year, and what to expect for space business and the space economy in 2024. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy; and Jesse Klempner, a McKinsey & Company Partner.
"It's been Quite A Banner Year For China Militarily, Commercially, Scientifically In Space" This episode looks at China’s effective year in space, in the civil, commercial, and military space sectors. Laura Winter covers the most important technology and policy developments and what to look out for in 2024 with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute.
Chief Master Sergeant Bentivegna: “Why The Identity Portion Is So Important To Us.”This episode is coming from Orlando, Florida, from the sold-out Space Power Conference, the first solely dedicated to United States Space Force Guardians. To understand why this is a Space Force milestone Laura Winter speaks with Chief Master Sgt. John “B-9” Bentivegna and Space Force Association President and CEO Air Force Col. (Ret.) Bill “Hippie” Woolf.
U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Office: Bankruptcies And Consolidation Are ExpectedOur coverage of the chilly space investment climate continues, but from the perspective of the U.S. Space Force’s Commercial Space Office, which has the responsibility to find and foster some of the new commercial space technologies the Department of Defense needs. Laura Winter speaks with U.S. Space Force Col. Richard Kniseley, who is the Senior Materiel Leader leading the COMSO, about what the office does, the current venture capital environment, and what COMSO tools space entrepreneurs can leverage to find capital investment.
Accenture's Anti-Trend Space Investment Strategy It’s chilly and not just outside. Investment in space companies is down by almost a third compared to this time last year, with investor sentiment for space applications companies being downright icy. But Accenture, the publicly traded international technology consulting company is not just saying it’s bullish on the future, it’s actively making deals in space applications. Laura Winter speaks with Paul Thomas, Accenture’s Managing Director and Space Innovation and Technology Lead; and Accenture’s Aerospace and Defense Practice Lead, Craig Gottlieb.
Starship's Second Flight Test and China's ReactionHappy Thanksgiving! SpaceX just attempted a second flight test of its 28-stories-tall Starship space launch system. If Starship, an American-made rocket and spaceship, becomes operational, experts believe it will open up the space domain to travel and commerce, much like the railroad did for the American West. China is not standing idly by. Laura Winter speaks with the authors of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”, Namrata Goswami and Peter Garretson.
A Rogue Plan: The Right Tool For The Right Job On OrbitWhile all eyes are on SpaceX’s Starship Flight Test 2, one of the space transportation companies newest customers, Rogue Space Systems, is breaking the mold with technical iteration, science, and a fistful of Department of Defense contracts. To understand how and why, Laura Winter speaks with Rogue’s Founder Jeromy Grimmett.
Space Force Maj. Gen. Olson: ISAM Technology "A Core Part of Our Vision For The Future"NASA wants the development and deployment of In Space Manufacturing and Assembly, or ISAM, technologies to be a whole of nation effort that includes the civil, commercial, defense space sectors and academia. This would mean the routine use of robots to provide life extension services to spacecraft, and to build structures great and small in space. Laura Winter speaks with the U.S. Space Force lead for ISAM, Maj. Gen. John Olson to find out just what the service branch is bringing to the effort; and Greg Richardson, who is the executive director of NASA’s ISAM consortium COSMIC.
New Agreement with the U.S. Lights Rocket Under Australia’s Minister of Industry and ScienceThe United States and Australia just signed, what is in effect, a treaty that softens U.S. sovereign technology regulations and opens up Australia’s economy to the U.S. commercial space industry. The agreement could also force Australia’s Minister of Industry and Science Ed Husic to reverse the deep cuts he made to Australia’s sovereign space programs. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst in Defence Strategy and Capability at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
South Korea, Space Security, And The Plan To Become A “Space Economy” PowerThis week’s episode is about the Republic of Korea’s push to get a seat at the same table as other major space-faring nations, to secure its people from North Korean missiles and the nation’s economic future. South Korea is the seventh nation to use its own natively developed multi-staged rocket to launch into orbit a satellite weighing at least a ton, yet despite being a staunch U.S. ally located in a tricky region, collaboration in space and space security is new. Laura Winter speaks with Sam Wilson, Senior Policy Analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
Critical Challenges to Protecting Human Habitats on Orbit, on The Moon, and BeyondThis week’s episode is coming from the Space Information and Sharing Analysis Center’s Value of Space Summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It explores the future threats commercial and government actors need to prepare for when the at least half-dozen human-rated commercial space stations become operational in the next decade. Laura Winter is joined by Jason Aspiotis, Director, In-Space Infrastructure & Logistics, Axiom Space; and Samuel Visner, the just named Space-ISAC Board Chair and Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation.
A Permanent Off-World Economy Starts In A Garage With A Gas CapThis week’s episode features Orbit Fab. Don’t let the cute name fool you. Starting with the space-equivalent of a gas cap, this company has caught the attention of the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the National Reconnaissance Office, in the form of multi-million-dollar checks. Laura Winter speaks with Orbit Fab’s Co-Founder and CEO Daniel Faber about how he plans to build critical energy and chemicals infrastructure in space for defense and a permanent off-world economy.
Has The Space Economy Slowdown Hit Bottom?In Q3 inflation looked to be coming under control, but economic indicators pointing to another Fed interest rate hike and a recession persist. In this episode of The DownLink Podcast, Laura Winter discusses the latest economic trends and events impacting space business, investing, and the space economy with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy.
China’s Grand Strategy for the Solar SystemThis week’s episode covers China’s Solar System plan, the U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Slatzman’s meeting with the Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s one-on-one with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Laura Winter is joined by Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence, National Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”.
The Future of In-Space Security: Views From the C-SuiteIn this episode of The DownLink Podcast, Laura Winter discusses satellites, modern warfare, and future defense needs for protecting commercial interests in the Cis-Lunar region with Robert Geckle, CEO, Airbus U.S. Space & Defense; Patrick Zeitouni, Chief Strategy Officer, HawkEye 360; and Tom “Pumper” Nichols, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, True Anomaly. This episode was recorded at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C.
New Space Force Mission Statement…Is It A Brownwater or Bluewater Future?This week’s episode is about U.S. Space Force doctrine, the Secretary of the Air Force’s email signaling big changes ahead, and the new nine-word-long mission statement: “secure our Nation’s interests in, from, and to space.” Laura Winter discusses these developments and what they mean for the future of the Space Force with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”; and Brent Ziarnick, an associate professor of Space Power at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and author of the book “Developing National Power in Space: A Theoretical Model”.
Building A Secure Cis-Lunar Economy - What’s It Going To Take?India just sent its Chandrayaan-3 mission to the Moon for a mere $75m and DARPA is asking for ideas on how to build the cis-lunar infrastructure to establish an off-world economy. To understand what’s at stake and what’s needed for a secure cis-lunar economy worth betting on, Laura Winter speaks with Mike Dickey, Founding Partner of the new space consultancy, Elaranova, and former Director of the U.S. Space Force Force Design Integration Office, at the Space Warfighting Analysis Center; Courtney Stadd, Executive Vice President of the Beyond Earth Institute, with extensive stints in the Departments of Commerce and Transportation, NASA, and the White House, as well as in the private sector; and George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy.
That Touted DoD Budget Plus-Up Cuts Into Space Force and Seeding Future Military Space Innovation
The U.S. Senate returns on September 5, followed by the House of Representatives on September 12, to negotiate the FY’24 federal budget. While both houses want to cut down the president’s request for the Space Force and military space programs by more than a billion, it’s not yet set in stone. To understand what’s at stake, Laura Winter speaks with Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence, National Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”; and Sam Wilson, senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
India And Russia Are About To Attempt Separate Lunar Landings, Revealing A Fracturing Relationship
Starting as early as Monday, August 21, Russia and India will make attempts to land their separate lunar lander missions on the moon’s south pole, where water-ice - space’s version of gold - has been found. Traditionally, Russia and India have been fast friends on earth, but competing visions and national interests in the space domain are revealing fault lines. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and Pavel Luzin, a space, Russia, and international security expert, lecturer, and author, and also visiting scholar at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University.
This Space Experiment Will Underpin Off-World Ambition, Commerce, and Colonization
This week’s episode examines an experiment that will underpin the development of a crucial environmental technology that almost every spacecraft - crewed or not - and every off-world human habitat will employ. Laura Winter speaks with Purdue University’s Issam Mudawar, who is the Betty Ruth and Milton B. Hollander Family Professor of Mechanical Engineering, and the Principal Investigator for NASA’s Flow Boiling & Two-Phase Condensation Experiment (FBCE) for the International Space Station (ISS). The FBCE’s second module just arrived at the ISS.
Comtech’s CEO and “Imagineer” Ken Peterman: Hybrid Space Technologies Are Driving Value Now
On this week’s episode of The DownLink Podcast, Laura Winter speaks with Comtech Chairman, President, and CEO Ken Peterman, about hybrid space technologies and what value it will deliver to the end-user; why he reorganized the company; the latest contract with the U.S. Army; will it join the lunar economy; and why he calls himself an “imagineer”.
China: More Weird Reports of Disappearances And Departures
Weird reports of “disappearances and departures” from China’s People’s Liberation Army’s Rocket Forces, Venezuela signs up to the China-led Moon station, and more out China on space and defense in this week’s episode. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence-National Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; and Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute.
Space Force: “Begin With A Clean Sheet Of Paper” - Part 2
The U.S. Space Force asked the Rand Corporation to come up with a new officer workforce framework, “conceived independently of the existing [U.S. Air Force] structure.” This episode is the second in a two-part series examining the Rand Corporation’s novel proposal, which aims to balance space mission requirements and the careers of officers. It is highly recommended to first listen to Part 1, which posted last month. In this episode Laura Winter continues the conversation with two of the proposal’s authors, Larry Hanser, a senior behavioral scientist, and Jennifer Li, a senior management Scientist, both from the Rand Corporation; and Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence at the National Institute for Deterrence Studies; and Brent Ziarnick, an associate professor of Space Power at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Kimberly Crider: Cyber, Data, Defense, and Space
This week’s episode serves up an in-depth interview with Maj. Gen. (ret.) Kimberly Crider, who was the first Chief Technology and Innovation Officer for the United States Space Force and is now a founding partner of a new space business, Elara Nova. Laura Winter also speaks with Jim Townsend, former U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy, and President of the Atlantic Treaty Association, who was in Vilnius, Lithuania this week for the 2023 NATO Summit.
Welcome To The Second Half Of 2023!
It is time to take a look back at the first six months to see how the space market, space capital, and the space economy have fared. This episode also ferrets out the top space finance events from Q1 and Q2 that are shaping spending, investment, and business strategies for the next two quarters and beyond. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy.
If you want to listen to what George and Chris said at the beginning of the year, check out The DownLink’s January 8, 2023 episode “Four Space & Finance Experts: What You Need to Know for a “Weird” 2023” here: https://defaeroreport.com/2023/01/08/the-downlink-jan-09-23-four-space-finance-experts-what-you-need-to-know-for-a-weird-2023/.
The Modi State Visit: U.S and Indian Interests In Space and Defense Converge… Big Time!
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States has produced a more dependable and powerful partnership not only in the Indo-Pacific region, but in space and defense. Laura Winter digs into the commercial, defense, and geopolitical details with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book "Scramble for the Skies"; Ajey Lele, a Consultant at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses; U.S. Amb. (ret.) Atul Keshap, President of the United States India Business Council, U.S. Chamber of Commerce; and Kranthi Musunuru, Head of Strategy, Dhruva Space.
Officer Workforce Plan - The Space Force Told Them, “Begin With A Clean Sheet Of Paper”
The U.S. Space Force asked the Rand Corporation to come up with a new officer workforce framework, “conceived independently of the existing [U.S. Air Force] structure.” This novel proposal, which aims to balance space mission requirements and the careers of officers, has been delivered. Laura Winter speaks with two of the Rand Corporation authors, Larry Hanser, a senior behavioral scientist, and Jennifer Li, a senior management Scientist; and Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence-National Institute for Deterrence Studies; and Brent Ziarnick, an associate professor of space power at the Air Command and Staff College.
Space Systems Command Wants More Face Time
U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command, looking for faster ways to tap into and acquire developmental technologies coming from new space market entrants, is looking to break down barriers from inside a Virginia office park. Laura Winter speaks with U.S. Space Force Col. Rich Kniseley, Senior Materiel Leader and head of the Space Systems Command Commercial Space Office; and Salvatore Pascale, Lead Project Manager with Virginia Tech Research Corporation.
The U.S.-China Moon Race Heats UpThis week China announced that it intends to put taikonauts on the moon no later than 2030, the U.S. Department of State released a new diplomatic strategy for space, and Spain signed the U.S.-led Artemis Accords. To unwrap this week’s events and provide a primer for what is at stake some 385,000 kilometers away on the lunar surface, Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and from the Aerospace Corporation Senior Vice President of the Civil Systems Group Jim Myers, and Tech Fellow Sam Visner, who is also the Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center.
This week Microsoft reported that the Chinese hacking group penetrated Guam’s telecommunications systems. Because of the U.S. territory’s location and military bases, telecommunications there means a mix of platforms that includes space. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence-National Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; and Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute.
DIU’s “Bucky” Butow, Space Innovation, and the Industrial BaseThis week’s is the third episode in a month-long series looking at various, cross-cutting aspects of the state of the space industrial base. Laura Winter speaks with the Defense Innovation Unit’s Director of the Space Portfolio Steve “Bucky” Butow, who is intimately involved in growing the Space Industrial Base through government contracts and informing policy. In uniform he is Brig. Gen. Butow, Commander of the California Air National Guard where he leads 4,900 Airmen assigned to five wings and a headquarters staff.
Software Drives Printed Rocket Motors, GSaaS, and New Calls for Collective Cyber Security for SpaceThis is the second episode in a month-long series looking at various, crosscutting aspects of the state of the space industrial base. Space and cyber leaders in the United States and Europe are now looking to create systems of collective cyber security for the 21st Century, covering assets on orbit, on the ground, and in production. The push to develop cyber-security information-sharing alliances is intensifying, as software, the cyber warrior’s attack surface, is increasingly driving the printing of space components, including solid rocket motors. Laura Winter Speaks with Samuel Visner, Vice Chair of the Board of Directors of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center; and Erin Miller, who is the Space ISAC’s Executive Director.
Want a Cutting Edge Space Space Force? We’ve Got To Talk About Bank Failures.This is the first episode in a month-long series looking at various, sometimes neglected, aspects of the state of the space industrial base. This week in Washington, D.C. much of the focus has been on military readiness, sustainment, the state of the military industrial base, and whether the U.S. is ready to meet today’s requirements and those five, 10, 15 years in the future. What has not garnered due attention is how the U.S. financial system together with a reliance on venture capital can make or break the space companies that are developing the very technology the military says it needs to deter aggression or fight when the time comes. Laura Winter speaks with George Pullen, MilkyWay Economy’s Chief Economist; and with Jess Harrington, a Consultant at McKinsey & Company, who focuses on the intersection of the commercial space sector and the federal government.
A Missing Lunar Lander, A Mutual Defense Treaty, And “China… China… China” This week’s episode focuses on the very latest space domain developments coming out of the Far East. Laura winter speaks with Jonathan Ward, a China scholar, founder of the Atlas Organization, and book author, who has a new tome out this week titled, “The Decisive Decade: American Grand Strategy for Triumph Over China”; and Joshua Carlson, a “Blue Water” space power proponent, managing editor of the online magazine Dauntless, and author of the book, “Spacepower Ascendant: Space Development Theory and a New Space Strategy”.
SpaceX, Raytheon, And How Not To Land In Space Force CSO’s “Frozen Middle”This week’s episode is coming out of Space Symposium, in Colorado Springs, Colorado. With much of the civil, commercial, and military space leadership in attendance, U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman put commercial space leaders on notice: embrace speed, risk, and technological difficulty or be relegated to the “frozen middle.” Laura Winter speaks with Dave Broadbent, President of Raytheon’s Space & C2 division, and Casey DeRaad, NewSpace New Mexico’s CEO, who was in Boca Chica, Texas for the test launch of Elon Musk’s Starship-Super Heavy launch system.
A Moon Landing And a Test Launch - Two Events That Could Change Almost EverythingThe White House says it wants, “to achieve the goal of enabling human transportation and settlement within the solar system.” There are two, possibly seismic, events about to happen in the space ecosystem that could help: The ispace moon landing and SpaceX’s first orbital flight test of its Starship super-heavy rocket. To understand what this could mean for the civil, commercial, and defense space sectors, Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, Founder of Quilty Analytics; George Pullen, MilkyWay Economy’s Chief Economist; Chris Stott, a serial space entrepreneur, and the Chairman & CEO, Lonestar Data Holdings; and Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the coming book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”.
Why Virgin Orbit's Chapter 11 Filing and The Silicon Valley Bank Failure MatterThe commercial space ecosystem is weathering multiple storm systems. First, there was the Silicon Valley Bank failure. This week the publicly listed launch company Virgin Orbit, and its subsidiaries - including its defense division Virgin Orbit National Systems - filed for Chapter 11 protection. To understand how these events affect the commercial space sector, which the Department of Defense is relying on more and more, Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, Founder of Quilty Analytics; George Pullen, MilkyWay Economy’s Chief Economist; and Chris Stott, a serial space entrepreneur, and the Chairman & CEO, Lonestar Data Holdings.
Japan’s Commercial Moon Mission, Defense Policy, and its Transformer Lunar Rover SORA-Q This month the Tokyo-based company ispace plans on delivering three rovers to the lunar surface, including a small but real Transformer. This could be a first for Japan, but perhaps more importantly, if successful, it will also be a first for the commercial space sector, worldwide. Laura Winter speaks with Namrata Goswami about how Japan’s government is shaping policy to specifically develop its space industry and grow its national defense space capabilities, even to perhaps intercept China’s hypersonic glide vehicles.
AI Hype is Warranted But What About the Vulnerabilities and Security For Space Operations?In this week’s episode, Laura Winter unpacks the security requirements and the policy the advent of AI necessitates with Samuel Visner, the Aerospace Corporation’s newest Technical Fellow who is a longtime cyberwarfare and intelligence veteran in and outside of government, as well as an Adjunct Professor of Science and Technology in International Affairs at Georgetown University; and Gregory Falco, Assistant Professor at Johns Hopkins University’s Institute for Assured Autonomy and the Civil and Systems Engineering Department, inventor, and a "Forbes 30 Under 30" alumnus.
Space Force Budget, Plus Science Chief Mozer: “We are in a hinge of history moment”This week the DownLink serves up a deep dive into what’s in the Department of Defense’s FY ‘24 United States Space Force budget request and an interview with the service branch’s Director of Science, Technology, and Research, Joel Mozer. In addition to the chief scientist, Laur Winter Speaks with Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence-National Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and co-author of the coming book “The Next Space Race: A Blueprint for American Primacy”; and Sam Wilson, senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
A Space & Defense Startup Takes Aim at Train and Equip Status QuoIn the same week the Biden Administration’s FY ‘24 budget dropped, the Chief of Space Operations told Guardians, “Preserving U.S. freedom of action in an increasingly contested space domain requires a military force specifically trained and equipped for the purpose.” To get those requirements, a group of former military space pros has founded a company that aims to provide training to Guardians, and manufacture orbital pursuit vehicles that can get up close and personal with objects of interest in any orbit. Laura Winter speaks with True Anomaly’s Co-Founder and CEO Even Rogers about the start-up’s genesis and business case.
This is Your Primer on AI, Space, and Defense, not ChatGPTDid you know that in the past five years, the U.S. Government has inked more than a billion dollars in contracts to develop and utilize artificial intelligence, or AI, according to a Brookings Institution report? While it’s unsurprising that the Department of Defense inked about 87 percent of these contracts, it is a space company that has won the greatest number. This week’s episode unpacks just what AI is before exploring AI’s role in the future of space, the space business, and defense. Laura Winter speaks with Dan Brunski, True Anomaly’s co-founder and Chief Technology Officer; George Pullen, Milky Way Economy’s Chief Economist; Gabriel DeVille, a consultant and market analyst with Euroconsult; and Dick Wilkinson, Proof Labs co-founder and Chief Technology Officer.
China Learns Lessons From Ukraine’s Use of SpaceThis week is the fourth and final episode of a month-long look at the different aspects of Russia’s War in Ukraine and space, the space business, and defense. It is highly recommended to listen to the prior episodes first, to understand how Ukraine is using American and European commercial space-based assets to close the kill-chain and achieve strategic decision-making advantage against Russia. This episode’s fous is on what China, a major space-faring nation and space power, has learned from watching how Ukraine, a smaller outgunned and outmanned democratic nation, maintains acces to and uses commercial space capabilities to control the strategic narrative and retake its sovereign territory from Russian forces. Laura Winter explores what these lessons are and how it has affected China’s war planning with Namrata Goswamian, independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; Malcolm Davis, who is a senior defense and space policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute; and Christopher Stone, a Senior Advisor and Consultant with Core-CSI, LLC, who is a former Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, and author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”
Should the U.S. Military Defend U.S. Commercial Space Operators Involved In Ukraine?This week is the third episode of a month-long look at the different aspects of Russia’s War in Ukraine and space, the space business, and defense. It is highly recommended to listen to the prior episode first, to understand how Ukraine is using commercial space-based assets to close the kill-chain and achieve strategic decision-making advantage against Russia. As U.S. commercial space operators are involved in the conflict, a first in any war, this episode explores just what responsibility does the U.S. government have in defending these U.S. flagged assets. Laura Winter speaks with Steve Wood, the Senior Director of Maxar Technologies’ News Bureau; Christopher Stone, a Senior Advisor and Consultant with Core-CSI, LLC, who is a former Special Assistant to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy, and author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; and with David Burbach, an Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, who is an expert on space and warfare.
David, Goliath, & Space - Is This How Future Wars Will Be Fought?This week is the second episode of a month-long look at the different aspects of Russia’s War in Ukraine and space, the space business, and defense. This episode explores the David and Goliath story of how Ukraine has used space-based assets, the majority of which are owned and operated by third-parties that are mostly from the commercial sector. Is this a preview of how future wars will be fought? Laura Winter speaks with Bryan Clark, a Senior Fellow and Director of the Hudson Institute Center for Defense Concepts and Technology, who has led studies for the Defense Advanced Research Products Agency on new technologies and the future of warfare; and with David Burbach, an Associate Professor of National Security Affairs at the US Naval War College, who is an expert on space and warfare.
Russia's War in Ukraine Is a Boon for Space BusinessThe week’s episode kicks off a month-long look at the different aspects of Russia’s War in Ukraine and space, the business, and defense. In this first episode, Laura Winter tackles the war’s effects on various space verticals, the capital markets, and the investment challenges and opportunities that have come out of Russia’s exit from the Western space ecosystem with Chris Quilty, Founder of Quilty Analytics; George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy; and Rich Smith, a space investor and a writer at The Motley Fool.
What You Need to Know About The Great Ground Station Game Part 2This week is the second and final episode looking at what rarely comes to mind when we talk about space - the ground. This week is about the great ground game being played out in what has traditionally been in the U.S. sphere of influence - South America. The southern continent is where Chinese entities have access to or wholly manage a rough dozen ground stations, which has caused some concern in defense circles. To understand just what is going on below the equator, Laura Winter speaks with Matthew Funaiole, Vice President of the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ iDeas Lab, and a senior fellow of China Power Project; and Brian Hart, a CSIS fellow with the China Power Project. Their report “Eyes on the Skies -China's Growing Space Footprint in South America” can be found here: https://features.csis.org/hiddenreach/china-ground-stations-space/.
What You Need to Know About The Great Ground Station Game Part 1This week’s episode and the next are all about what rarely comes to mind when we talk about space - the ground. This week is about the great game being played out in the High North on the strategic ground where the U.S., its allies, and adversaries, have located critical ground station infrastructure and the capabilities to disrupt and destroy satellite communications. To explain just what’s going on, Laura Winter speaks with Greg Falco and Nicolò Boschetti both from the Institute for Assured Autonomy (IAA), a joint Whiting School of Engineering and Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory research institute. Falco and Boschetti recently published the paper “Commercial Space Risk Framework Assessing the Satellite Ground Station Security Landscape for NATO in the Arctic and High North”, which can be found here: https://bit.ly/CommercialSpaceRiskFramework
There’s No Need To Be So Toxic!This week’s episode is about a potentially disruptive group of thruster technologies that are already being used by space agencies and on U.S. Space Force, DARPA, and other Department of Defense space missions. These thruster technologies are, green - better for the environment and humans - and give more real bang for the buck. Could they displace highly toxic gas fuel Hydrazine, which may soon be banned in Europe, but upon which an entrenched thruster industry relies? Laura Winter speaks with Benchmark Space Systems’ Executive Vice President For Business Development And Strategy Chris Carella; Dawn Aerospace Co-Founder Jeroen Wink; and Benchmark’s Propulsion Chemist and Propulsion Engineer Sammy Graham.
Four Space & Finance Experts: What You Need to Know for a “Weird” 2023Welcome to a “weird” New Year! Most publicly traded space companies are listed on the NASDAQ, which shed a third of its value in 2022. Add to that the highest interest rates in 15 years and dire predictions that at least some of the world’s economies are headed into recession. Yet, the space economy keeps on growing, with new predictions saying it will be worth $10 trillion by 2040. What’s going on here? Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Analytics; Pacôme Révillon, CEO of Euroconsult; George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy; and Ryan Brukardt, Senior Partner at McKinsey & Company.
Happy Birthday, Space Force… And Happy New YearThis week is the U.S. Space Force’s third birthday. While a lot has been accomplished over the past 12 months, there is a lot more yet to do to make the service branch truly independent and first for purpose. This episode’s guests also reveal what they think were the biggest developments for space, in space, or from space for earth in the past year. Laura Winter speaks with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; Chris Stone, a senior fellow for space studies at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; and Stephen Melvin, who has been involved military space operations in a variety of roles inside and outside of the government for years.
Rocket Lab & SpaceX: Upping Their Defense Business GameDefense primes with offerings in the space sector buckle up. The upstarts coming, prepared. Rocket Lab and SpaceX have just established defense business lines organized to offer U.S.-based end-to-end white-glove space services to the Department of Defense with a proven competitive rate card. Laura Winter speaks with Rocket Lab Founder and CEO Peter Beck; the Mitchell Institute’s Senior Space Fellow Chris Stone; and Quilty Analytics Analyst Caleb Henry.
What is “resiliency” technologically? You regularly hear the word in talking points about defense and space strategy, but space supremacy is driven by technology. This week’s episode, coming out of Albuquerque, New Mexico, is about the development of two very different resiliency technologies, the companies, and a space business incubator, backed by the Air Force Research Laboratory. Laura Winter speaks with: - NewSpace New Mexico’s Founder and CEO, Casey DeRaad, and Scott Maethner, the organization's head of Strategy & Integration.- Goodman Technologies’ Founder and President, Bill Goodman- RS21’s CTO Kameron Baumgardner, and Carrie Powell, the company’s Project Manager for space.
What can we learn from the start of President Xi Jin-Ping’s third term at the helm of the Chinese Communist Party? What we know is that he has frozen out the old guard and elevated leaders from China’s space and aerospace sectors to the highest party and government positions. To unpack just what the era of Xi has in store for the space domain and international security, Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, Senior Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Namrata Goswami, independent scholar on space policy and great power politics, Faculty Associate at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”.
Russian Sanctions Target U.S. Space & Milley’s “Various Technical Means” This week’s podcast is all about the Bear and space. Laura Winter speaks with former U.S. Defense Attaché to Russia, Brig. Gen. Bruce McClintock USAF (Ret.) about Russia’s move to place personal sanctions on a number of commercial space sector leaders. But first, just how did the Biden Administration and NATO determine that a Russian-made missile that hit eastern Poland was actually an errant Ukrainian air-defense munition? Winter speaks with Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO who is now with the Center for a New American Security; and spacepower expert Col. M.V. “Coyote” Smith, USAF (Ret.), who is an Associate Professor and Director at the Air Command and Staff College.
Ursa Major is betting that its one and only product line - 3D-printed rocket engines - will not only disrupt how rockets are manufactured but lower costs for budding launch companies and the Air Force Research Laboratory. What also makes Ursa Major special is where it prints its engines - Youngtown, Ohio. The city has seen some very hard times since the closure of many of its steel mills in the late 70s and early 80s. Nevertheless, it making name for itself in the space economy for its advanced manufacturing of the 3D printed kind.
Laura Winter speaks with Jesse Blacker, Ursa Major’s Director of Government Business Development, and with Barb Ewing, the Youngstown Business Incubator’s CEO.
NASA wants the commercial sector to provide pretty much everything, from housing to mining operations on the moon. But first, the space agency needs to establish itself as the anchor tenant to bring the commercial sector along. Meanwhile, China plans to establish a base within the decade. Laura Winter is at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium’s Fall Meeting at the University of Texas, El Paso. She speaks with U.S. Representative Veronic Escobar, representing El Paso; and Jim Reuter, NASA’s Associate Administrator for the Space Technology Mission Directorate.
No Satellites, No Economy: What You Need to Know About High Altitude Nuclear Detonation
There's been a lot of talk about “tactical” nuclear weapons and rational choices. That discussion has been firmly anchored to ground effects. But what if the state actor simply wants to destroy the economy, without actually destroying much at all, at least immediately, on the ground? They would aim for space, specifically the Van Allen belts. To understand this threat - High Altitude Nuclear Detonation - and get an idea of what can be done to deter such an attack or mitigate its effects, Laura Winter Speaks with Lt. Col. “Tony” Vincent, the Director of Advanced Physics Courses at the Air Force Academy; and Chris Stone, author of “Reversing the Tao – A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”, and Senior Fellow for Space Studies at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
“It Is Weird Out There”: Space Economists & Space Capital Market Experts To demystify just what is happening in the space capital markets and the space economy writ large, Laura Winter speaks with Justin Cadman Partner at Quilty Analytics; George Pullen, Chief Economist at Milky Way Economy, Adjunct Professor at Columbia University in New York, and Author of the book, “Blockchain and the Space Economy”; and Brendan Rosseau, Researcher and Teaching Fellow at Harvard Business School, and Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton.
This week the Biden Administration released its long-awaited National Security Strategy. To unpack just what the strategy means and doesn’t for space as a region and a warfighting domain, and for our space-based critical infrastructure, Laura Winter speaks with Chris Stone, author of “Reversing the Tao - A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence” and a Senior Fellow for Space Studies at The Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
Voyager Space and its subsidiary Nanoracks are aiming to launch Starlab, a commercial space station in 2028. They just announced an agreement with The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio to build the terrestrial home for the science and technology the space station produces. Why Ohio? The state’s got a growing ecosystem of small businesses that are at the cutting-edge space manufacturing on and possibly off-world.
Laura Winter speaks with Jeff Manber, Voyager’s President of International and Space Stations at Space and Nanoracks Chairman of the Board; John Horack, the Neil Armstrong Chair in Aerospace Policy at The Ohio State University, and a professor in the College of Engineering’s Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering department and the John Glenn College of Public Affairs; and Mark Norfolk, President and CEO of Fabrisonic, an innovative manufacturing technology company that uses sound waves in its 3D metal printing process.
This week the U.S. Air Force celebrated its birthday, marking 75 years since it gained its hard-won independence from the U.S. Army. This independence remains not only about who is in command of who, but perhaps more importantly it is also about identity and culture. What lessons can the newest branch of the military, the U.S. Space Force, take from the Air Force experience to launch itself into an independent trajectory? To get the answers, Laura Winter is joined by Michael Hankins, Curator for U.S. Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps post-World War II Aviation, Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Brian Laslie, Command Historian and Associate Professor Department of History, United States Air Force Academy; and M.V. “Coyote” Smith, Associate Professor, Strategic Space Studies, Department of Space Power, United States Air Force Air Command and Staff College.
What should be the vision of the next and second U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations be for the future of the U.S. military’s newest service branch? U.S. senators on the Senate Armed Services Committee this week asked just that of the nominee for the job, Lt. Gen. Chance “Salty” Saltzman. The only recent and comparable American experience is that of General Hoyt Vandenberg, the second Air Force Chief of Staff since that service branch was formed out of the U.S. Army Air Forces in 1947. Vandenberg’s vision for the U.S. Air Force endures to this day. To discuss the opportunities and the challenges, Laura Winter is joined by M.V. “Coyote” Smith and Brent Ziarnick, both of whom are associate professors of space power at the Air Command and Staff College, at Maxwell Air Force Base; Mir Sadat who is a nonresident senior fellow in the Forward Defense practice of the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security; and Stephen Melvin, who has been involved military space operations in a variety of roles inside and outside of the government for years.
The Pentagon on Friday released a readout of a close-hold classified meeting of the Defense Policy Board that illustrates a growing concern that China and Russia are likely developing weapons systems for the space domain that “could impact U.S. deterrence and strategic stability” and a need to develop options to counter those systems. And that’s in addition to the release of multiple defense policies on space and the Biden Administration’s second convening of the National Space Policy Board. To unpack all of these developments, Laura Winter is joined by Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”, and the host of AFPC’s Space Strategy Podcast; and Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”.
While NASA tests its Space Launch System to usher in a new age of human space exploration, testing whether Space-Based Solar Power can deliver an era of net-zero electricity, affordably, to the U.S. consumer energy market is being left up to the commercial sector. Laura Winter speaks with Ed Tate, Co-Founder and CTO of Virtus Solis, whose journey to SBSP started at General Motors, where he worked on the EV-1, the first mass-produced electric vehicle.
Now pushed back to Friday, NASA is billing the $4.1b Artemis I mission launch, a test of the Space Launch System and the crew-rated Orion capsule, as the beginning of a new chapter of U.S.-led human space exploration and sustained presence on the moon. Putting the warm and fuzzy excitement aside, Laura Winter explores the geostrategic and economic implications with Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; Chris Quilty, a pioneer of Wall Street analysis of the commercial space sector and founder of Quilty Analytics: and Chris Stott, “a Manx-Born American", who is a serial space entrepreneur, and the Chairman & CEO, Lonestar Data Holdings.
The European Space Agency’s Director General Josef Aschbacher this week announced on LinkedIn that the agency will “propose a Space-Based Solar Power preparatory programme to Member States called #SOLARIS.” That means Europe is getting primed to move forward with its own proprietary SBSP program, independently. Put another way, this is not going to be another exercise in admiring the problem. Laura Winter speaks with Sanjay Vijendran, ESA’s Mars Exploration Strategy Team Leader and Future Mars Studies (MarsX Team) Coordinator, and the lead for the agency’s Space-Based Solar Power efforts; John Mankins, a former NASA physicist, now President of Artemis Innovation Management Solutions, who designed the Solar Power Satellite concept, Alpha - Mark 3; and Peter Garretson, an American Foreign Policy Council Senior Fellow, coauthor of “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.
To get a grounding in just what Space-Based Solar Power is, please go here first: https://defaeroreport.com/2022/08/15/the-downlink-aug-14-22-space-based-solar-power-and-the-u-k-s-bet-that-science-fiction-may-become-science-fact/
Is this sci-fi? Or could there be a space-based solution to securing reliable, renewable, and affordable energy and stop making awkward trips and payments to the petro-dollar-funded authoritarians, like that guy in the Kremlin? This week Laura Winter explores Space-Based Solar Power, or SBSP, with Martin Soltau, Co-Chair of Britain’s Space Energy Initiative and Frazer-Nash Business Manager; and Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”, and the host of AFPC’s Space Strategy Podcast.
Will norms of space behavior be enough to protect the $469 billion-dollar and growing space economy, the government-funded exploration and science programs, and the critical defense assets in orbit? Perhaps what’s needed is a bit stronger and binding. Like rules. Laura Winter speaks with Kevin O’Connell, the former Director of the Office of Space Commerce at the U.S. Department of Commerce, under the Trump Administration; Mir Sadat, a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and an Adjunct Scholar at West Point’s Modern War Institute; and Julia Siegel, the assistant director of the Forward Defense practice in the Atlantic Council’s Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security. Together they discuss Sadat and Seigel’s policy paper, “Space traffic management: Time for action”, which you can read here: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/in-depth-research-reports/issue-brief/space-traffic-management-time-for-action/.
Sure. It’s easy to simply pin Russia’s announcement that it is quitting the International Space Station as a natural result of President Vladamir Putin’s unprovoked war in Ukraine. Yet, Russia’s reduced space industrial base, Putin’s ambitions, and a series of sackings and demotions illustrate a more complicated political and security picture in the space domain. To read the tea leaves, Laura Winter speaks with the head of the Rand Corporation’s Space Enterprise Initiative, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Bruce McClintock, a former U.S. Defense Attaché to Russia, who was also a special assistant to the commander of Air Force Space Command; Jan Osburg, a RAND Corporation senior aerospace engineer, with experience in designing inhabited space systems; and Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”.
Space companies bring high-paying high-tech jobs and create revenue for local businesses, and municipal and state governments. They can lessen the brain drain from rural localities. Thing is, it’s got to be the right fit - the right business plan for the right community - or the business may not even break ground, let alone launch. Laura Winter speaks with U.S. Representative Don Beyer of Virginia’s 8th congressional district; Christie Mastric a staff reporter with the Mining Journal, the newspaper of record in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula; and Ryan McDevitt, CEO of Vermont’s Benchmark Space Systems.
Macroeconomic forces are just as inescapable as gravity. The commercial space sector is not immune from the effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine, historic inflation, and the cost of borrowing. Laura Winter speaks with Chris Quilty, a pioneer of Wall Street analysis of the commercial space sector and founder of Quilty Analytics. He says what's different from past economic downturns is that the space sector's fundamentals have changed.
The U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John “Jay” Raymond said Sunday that China “enjoys the same space capabilities and the same advantages that we currently enjoy.” That sounds a lot like parity. Congress is including inflation in its calculus, but what about what’s needed for deterrence in the space domain? To take a closer look at the numbers and what they mean, Laura Winter is joined by Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”, and the host of AFPC’s Space Strategy Podcast; and Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”.
This week’s episode is a part two of two on PNT - positioning, navigation, and timing. This is about the business opportunity of providing time as a service to critical infrastructure sectors. PNT comes from the space-based Global Positioning System, or GPS. Anything from precision farming and guided missiles, and the operational synchronization of critical infrastructures like dams and refineries depend on it. Thing is, if something goes wrong, there’s no publically funded “plan B”. Laura Winter speaks with Richard Hoptroff a serial entrepreneur and inventor, who is Co-Founder and Chief Time Officer at Hoptroff, a company that provides Traceable Time as a Service (TTaaS®).
This week’s episode is a part one of two on PNT - positioning, navigation, and timing. All three parts come from the space-based Global Positioning System, or GPS. Anything from precision farming and guided missiles, and the operational synchronization of critical infrastructures like dams and refineries depends on GPS. Thing is, if something goes wrong, there’s no “plan B”. Laura Winter speaks with Dana Goward, a retired Coast Guard captain, who’s now serving on the National Positioning, Navigation and Timing Advisory Board, and president of the Resilient Navigation and Timing Foundation.
Hypersonic weapons are a tricky class of missile systems. They’re hard to find and even harder to persistently track, even when using satellite capabilities together with ground-based radar. That affects America’s ability to deter attacks on the homeland. Laura Winter speaks with Christopher Stone, who has an idea, which he laid out in his most recent policy paper, “Orbital Vigilance: The Need for Enhanced Space-Based Missile Warning and Tracking”. Stone is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”. If you wish to read the policy paper in its entirety, go here: https://mitchellaerospacepower.org/orbital-vigilance-the-need-for-enhanced-space-based-missile-warning-and-tracking/.
In this part two episode of The Downlink’s coverage of the State Of The Space Industrial Base Conference And Workshop, organized by New Space New Mexico, Laura Winter speaks with Jim Keravala, CEO, Chief Architect and Chairman of the Board of Off World. Keravala, like other commercial space leaders involved in anything from cargo delivery to support NASA’s Artemis program, to space domain awareness, and even mining the moon and asteroids, is preparing his organization to go to the lunar neighborhood and set up shop. He and others wonder whether the Department of Defense is going to join them in the cis-lunar region to sustain friendly commercial activity, and are concerned about the future if it doesn’t. You can listen to part one here: https://defaeroreport.com/2022/06/06/the-downlink-jun-06-22-should-americas-military-go-to-the-moon/
Commercial space companies involved in anything from cargo delivery to support NASA’s Artemis program, to space domain awareness, and even mining the moon and asteroids are preparing to go to the lunar neighborhood and set up shop. They’re wondering whether the Department of Defense is going to join them in the cis-lunar region to sustain friendly commercial activity, and are concerned about the future if it doesn’t. Laura Winter speaks with Namarata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”, and Brien Flewelling, Exoanalitic Solutions chief architect for space situational awareness and “innovation boffin”. This is part one of a two-part series.
China is looking for "a combination of soft and hard kill methods” to destroy Elon Musk’s broadband satellite communication constellation Starlink. So it’s not surprising that U.S. President Joe Biden’s visit to China’s democratic neighbors produced agreements bolstering the space economy and space defense. Does this Indo-Pacific cooperation change China’s calculus? Laura Winter speaks with Brendan Mulvaney, Director of the Air University’s China Aerospace Studies Institute, and Malcolm Davis, who is a senior policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute.
The U.S. Department of State quietly launched a new organization that’s fusing commercial satellite imagery with social media posts to provide evidence of Russian war crimes to prosecutors, such as those in the International Criminal Court. It’s called the Conflict Observatory. Laura Winter Speaks with Nathaniel Raymond, a war crimes investigator and the Executive Director of Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab, who worked with the State Department in standing up the Conflict Observatory; and Steve Wood, a former geospatial intelligence analyst, who is the Senior Director of Maxar Technologies’ News Bureau, which supplies the media and the U.S. government with unclassified satellite imagery documenting Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Two meaty and divisive subjects are in the queue. First the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General released its report on whether the 2021 decision to locate Space Command in Huntsville, Alabama ticked all the legal and policy boxes. And Second, California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat, and Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the Space National Guard Establishment Act with 10 co-sponsors, but the Biden Administration is not among the proposed bill’s supporters.
Laura Winter hosts a discussion with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space, and the host of AFPC's Space Strategy Podcast; Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence; and spacepower expert Col. M.V. “Coyote” Smith, USAF (Ret.), who is an Associate Professor and Director at the Air Command and Staff College, at Maxwell Air Force Base.
This week in Paris Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron announced a further deepening of their defence cooperation. This time it includes the space domain. To understand why this agreement is significant, Laura Winter speaks with Narayan Prasad, a long-time space entrepreneur based in Berlin, and Pranav Satyanath, a research analyst with the Takshashila Intitution’s Strategic Studies Programme in Bangalore.
China celebrates Space Day of China with announcements, putting the U.S. on notice that it means to get to and stay on the moon sooner rather than later, according to Malcolm Davis, a senior policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Laura Winter also speaks with Hawkeye 360’s CEO John Serafini and National Security Space Association Executive Director and Founder Steve Jacques about their announcement of a new commercial space initiative that aims to provide immediate humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine. You can find more information about SIFU here: https://www.he360.com/space-industry-launches-humanitarian-initiative-to-support-ukraine/
U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States is unilaterally giving up direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) testing. This type of ASAT test is known to create orbital debris, which almost everyone agrees is a danger to space-based infrastructure. But was this ban the right thing to do? That depends on the perspective. Laura Winter speaks with U.K. Amb. Aidan Liddle, Britain’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva, Switzerland, and spacepower expert Col. M.V. “Coyote” Smith, USAF (Ret.), who is an Associate Professor and Director at the Air Command and Staff College, at Maxwell Air Force Base, in Montgomery, Ala.
Most of the world's space agencies and companies are winding down their cooperation with Russia, while other major space-faring nations are making agreements. Laura Winter speaks with the Secure World Foundation’s Washington, D.C. Office Director Victoria Samson, who explains what this may mean for future international cooperation in creating a stable space environment.
Too bold? Or not bold enough? The U.S. Secretary of the Air Force revealed how the Biden Administration intends to shape the U.S. Space Force’s mission and future this week at Space Symposium. Laura Winter hosts a discussion with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space, and the host of AFPC's Space Strategy Podcast; Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence; and Makena Young is an associate fellow with the Aerospace Security Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).
The Biden Administration’s FY 2023 budget request dropped this last week, with $24.5 billion for the U.S. Space Force. Laura Winter hosts a discussion with Charles Beames, who before becoming, the chairman of the board for York Space Systems and the SmallSat Alliance, was a Pentagon insider responsible for all space and intelligence acquisitions; Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of "Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space", and the host of AFPC's "Space Strategy Podcast"; Christopher Stone who is a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, and the author of "Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence".
While Russia’s state-owned space corporation Roscosmos is hunting for customers, there’s anecdotal evidence that some in the commercial space industry outside of the country are seeing a bump in sales related to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Laura Winter speaks with Matt Desch, the CEO of the U.S.-headquartered mobile satellite communications company Iridium, and with Hans Steiner the CTO of the European satellite signal monitoring and geolocation service provider Atos as well as the company’s Director of Global Sales Eias Daka.
It almost slipped under the radar… The U.S. Space Force Space Training And Readiness Command, or STARCOM, released its planning doctrine, the foundation of how to plan the execution and leveraging of spacepower. This is the first space warfighting doctrine in roughly 18 months since the new branch released its inaugural doctrine, "Space Power". Laura Winter’s guest is Christopher Stone, a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Stone breaks it down, showing where he believes this fundamental guidance succeeds and where some re-engineering is required.
Resistance against the Russian war in Ukraine comes in many forms, such as just remaining at work and refusing to leave. In this episode, Laura Winter speaks with two former heads of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, Volodymyr Usov and Lyubomyr Sabadosh, and their colleague Liliya Shevchuk, the director of the country’s Space Initiatives Center. But first, Winter speaks with Homer Hickam, a retired NASA aerospace engineer and a New York Times best-selling book author, who wrote a Washington Post opinion piece, published on March 9, with the headline “Our space partnership with Russia can’t go on.”
How is the space sector reacting to Russia’s war in Ukraine and mitigating against an uptick in cyber threats to space systems? Laura Winter speaks with Dan Dumbacher, Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or AIAA; and with Frank Backes, Senior Vice president of Kratos Federal Space and Board Chair of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Space ISAC; Sam Visner, Technical Fellow at the Mitre Corporation and Vice Chair of the Space ISAC; and the organization’s Executive Director Erin Miller.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has kicked off financial and technical sanctions targetting Russian space programs, a threatening Twitter storm from the head of Russia’s space corporation Roscosmos, and de-coupling or cooperative scientific space programs. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a senior policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and with Pavel Luzin, a U.S.-Russia relations, international security, and space expert and lecturer in Russia.
Balloons as big as a football stadium provide the Department of Defense with suborbital services, such as payload hosting and persistent ultra-high quality and high definition earth observation data. Is it enough for a business? Is this a little-known opportunity? Laura Winter speaks with Ryan Hartman, CEO of World View.
If you think sanctions to counter Russian aggression have not and will not make a difference, look at what is Russia’s clearest exemplification of its global power status, its space programs. Laura Winter speaks with space and international security expert, lecturer, and author Pavel Luzin, and Air Force Brig. Gen. (ret.) Bruce McClintock, of the Rand Corporation’s Space Enterprise Initiative, about the effects of sanctions on Russia’s space ambitions now, and the possibility of more.
The United Kingdom’s Ministry of Defence released its much-anticipated inaugural space policy paper “Defence Space Strategy: Operationalising the Space Domain”. The U.K., the No. 1 ally of the United States, is a member of the European Space Agency and a signatory to the U.S. -led Artemis Accords. To understand Britain’s space security ambitions, Laura Winter speaks with Bleddyn Bowen, a space warfare expert at the University of Leicester, and the author of the book, “War In Space: Strategy, Spacepower, Geopolitics”, and with Juliana Seus, the Royal United Services Institute space security policy lead.
When the U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Friday outlined what forces the Russian military has amassed along Ukraine’s eastern borders, it included electronic warfare. EW is arguably Russia’s answer to the U.S.’s satellite-based communications, command, and control as well as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance superiority. Leading Russian military analysts have observed that the West undervalues and misunderstands Russia’s electronic warfare capabilities. Laura Winter speaks with Michael Kofman, the Research Program Director for the Center for Naval Analyses’s Russia Studies Program, and frequent author of articles on Russia and its military for War on the Rocks.
In this episode, Laura Winter speaks with Dan Ceperley, the co-founder and CEO of LeoLabs, a Silicon Valley space-start-up that’s attracted $100 million in venture capital, as well as contracts from the Department of Defense. Ceperley reveals his “ah-ha” moment that transformed him into an entrepreneur and explains the business case for tracking the satellites and space trash on orbit - as a paid service.
Should the United States use space nuclear thermal propulsion for its key on-orbit assets? It’s not just simply to stuff of Star Trek. In fact the idea has been around since before we landed on the moon. The Russians, the Chinese and the U.S. are pursuing it for deep space operations. Laura Winter speaks with Christopher Stone, who is a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Research Center, and the author of a paper outlining why he thinks it’s time for nuclear powered satellites and other spacecraft for space maneuver warfare.
Welcome to the New Year!... And to federal budget purgatory… The National Defense Authorization Act for the financial year 2022 is law, but the U.S. Senate hasn’t passed a budget to pay for it. Lawmakers know this is not how you run a railroad, so this coming Wednesday the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Defense is holding a hearing about the impact. In this episode Laura Winter asks, who should be testifying and what questions need to be answered, from Mir Sadat, a former National Security Council director for defense and space policy, an Atlantic Council fellow, and a scholar with West Point’s Modern War Institute; Peter Garretson, a book author, and podcaster, a senior defense studies fellow Senior Fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, as well as the editor of one of the most important space reports out there, State Of The Space Industrial Base; and Christopher Stone, a Senior Fellow for Space Studies for the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Research Center, and the author of the upcoming policy paper Maneuver Warfare in Space: The Strategic Mandate for Nuclear Thermal Propulsion.
In this year-end episode of The DownLink, Laura Winter unravels a space threat story through three key interviews with Donald Kessler, the now-retired NASA astrophysicist who first theorized what is now known as the “Kessler Syndrome”; Brian Weeden a space policy analyst and advocate from the Secure World Foundation; and Robin Dickey, a space policy and strategy analyst with the Aerospace Corporation. But first, Laura first gives us her top three 2021 data points with effects that she believes will punch through into 2022 and beyond.
Last month Russia tested an anti-satellite weapons system, ostensibly as a warning to anyone that may wish to assist Ukraine, the U.S., or NATO. So while it’s clear that military satellites could be targeted, what’s the risk to commercial satellite operators that provide services to the DoD? To get the answers, Laura Winter speaks with David Koplow, former Special Counsel for Arms Control to the General Counsel of the Department of Defense and the Scott K. Ginsburg Professor of Law at Georgetown University; Chris Kunstadter, Global Head of Space at AXA XL; and Kaitlyn Johnson, Deputy Director and Fellow, at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Aerospace Security Project.
This week on The DownLink, Laura Winter speaks with Iridium Communications, Inc. CEO Matt Desch to discuss what he hopes will remain a rare story - the hypersonic bust-up of his company’s satellite in orbit. Many who serve the defense policy-making ecosystem, here in the United States and within multinational organizations are coming to better appreciate the fragile nature of the near-earth space environment. Nevertheless, debris and junk orbiting the earth at hypersonic speeds feels somewhat academic, even with last month’s Russian anti-satellite missile test. Putting the Russia-Ukraine crisis to the side, but not completely out of view, Desch tells the story of the Iridium-33 and gives us his take on what policy-makers, leaders, and space operators need to do to preserve our freedom of action - a.k.a the ability to project power over the horizon - in low earth orbit.
This week U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris convened the Biden Administration’s inaugural National Space Council meeting. It had three agenda items: STEM education, to create the future space-based workforce; using space-based assets and the data they produce to combat climate change; and space-based security, which at present has precious few rules or norms governing behavior. Also, this week, the U.S. Department of Defense shared that it had completed its Global Posture Review, but didn’t include space in its report, which has raised more than a few eyebrows. To unpack the week's events, Laura Winter speaks with Victoria Samson of the Secure World Foundation, Daniel Dumbacher, the executive director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and Sarah Mineiro, a true space and defense policy nerd, who is an adjunct fellow with the Center for a New American Security.
In this episode of The DownLink podcast, Laura Winter is shedding light on satellite communications over the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It’s called laser communication or optical wireless communication.
DARPA, the Space Development Agency, the United States Space Force are already working with the commercial sector to develop and deploy laser satellite communication. What makes this recently recognized technology so special is that by all accounts it’s near impossible to jam, spoof, intercept, or even detect.
Laura speaks with Bridgecom CEO Barry Matsumori, who is a veteran of Qualcomm, SpaceX, and Virgin Galactic, about how optical wireless works to defeat adversaries. In the episode’s second half she speaks with a laser communications pioneer, David Czajkowski, the co-founder and CEO of Space Micro. Space Micro has been in the news this week because Venture Space Holdings announced earlier this week that it is acquiring a majority stake in Czajkowski’s company.
This week’s episode take a closer look at Monday’s Russian anti-satellite missile test and the debris field it caused, which forced the seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the International Space Station to take cover. Jamie Shea, who after three decades with NATO, and having served as that organization’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, says he does not believe the ASAT test is a coincidence, but part of an effort to keep the Allies on the back foot as tensions rise on Eastern Europe’s border with Russia. Daniel Dumbacher, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics’s Executive Director and U.K. Amb. Aidan Liddle discuss their efforts to codify norms of behavior and what’s at stake if governments do not agree to a set of rules for space.
This week on The DownLinK, we’re looking at U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris’s four-day trip to Paris. She had a number of events, but what we’re interested in is her discussion with French President Emanuel Macron, very specifically the portion of their chat at the Élysée that covered cooperation in space. There were three key developments. To unpack these developments, Laura Winter spoke to Xavier Pasco, director of the Foundation for Strategic Research; Dimitrios Stroikos, from the London School of Economics; and Todd Harrison, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies. They are space and defense experts from both sides of the Atlantic.
This episode is about infrastructure, a subject, no doubt, that you have probably been hearing a whole lot about these past few days, especially if you are in the United States. That’s because the U.S. Congress is getting set to vote on two multi-trillion-dollar bills, one of which is called the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. The success of that feat depends on whether the lawmakers can actually reach an agreement. What’s kind of funny though, is that there is another infrastructure debate going on in this town, and it’s about space infrastructure - that’s both the assets on orbit and on the ground. Laura Winter explores the question of whether the Department of Homeland Security should designate space systems a critical infrastructure sector with Ron Keen a cybersecurity expert with the Department of Homeland Security’s National Risk Management Center; Samuel Visner, a technical fellow at the Mitre Corporation, which bills him as its in-house global thought leader in national security, cybersecurity, and space systems security; and John Doyon, the executive vice president of the Intelligence National Security Alliance. Visner also spoke at this week’s Aspen Security Forum and is a key author of a white paper titled “Designating the U.S. Space Sector as Critical Infrastructure,” which INSA published this week.
The U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley not only confirmed that the U.S. intelligence community, and therefore the Department of Defense and the U.S. administration believe that China test-launched a new hypersonic weapons system sometime in late July, he said it was close to a Sputnik moment. To understand better what Gen.Milley is saying, I spoke with one of the most knowledgeable hypersonics and hypersonic weapons systems experts and aeronautics engineers, the former DoD’s former Director of Defense, Research and Engineering, Mark Lewis. He’s now the Executive Director, Emerging Technologies Institute at the National Defense Industrial Association. Later Sarah Mineiro from the Center for a New American Security and Kaitlyn Johnson from the Center for Strategic and International Studies discuss their take on Milley’s statements, and what the U.S. Space Force is doing to coordinate with the defense and space industries and to also work with Congress on getting the funding to meet current and future threats and challenges.
What the heck did China send up into orbit? The Financial Times says China launched a hypersonic glide vehicle carrying a fractional orbital bombardment system into orbit in the July-August time-frame and shocked the U.S. intelligence community. If true, this development could make it much easier for the peer competitor to threaten the U.S. homeland. Everyone can agree that China launched a rocket, but beyond that, it gets murky, very fast, like faster than five times the speed of sound. Laura Winter interviews space policy, emerging technologies, and China military modernization expert Malcolm Davis, a senior analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, and Todd Harrison, Director of the Center for Security and International Studies Aerospace Security Project.
This is the first episode… Or just episode zero in podcasting parlance.
Episode zero is usually used just for sending out an RSS ping to all of the podcast platforms, like Soundcloud, to let those platforms know there are more episodes on the way. It can be long or short, but episode zero doesn’t get much love and attention.
If you are a bit nerdy like me, I actually listen to them. So for this episode-zero - Transmission #000 - I’d like to get some ideas and some questions about space, the space business, and how it all relates to defense, up on the mental white-board for you.
I got some help from Jeff Hill, the chairman of Satellite, one of the largest - if not the largest - must-attend annual space industry conferences here in the United States.
I hope you enjoy the conversation.
And thank you for listening,
Laura
P.S.: You can find Jeff Hill’s podcast “On Orbit” here: https://soundcloud.com/user-903466448