The DownLink Podcast

Software Drives Printed Rocket Motors, GSaaS, and New Calls for Collective Cyber Security for Space This 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 writer, 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 Everything The 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 Matter The 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. Goswami is an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics, a Faculty Associate at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, Arizona State University, and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”.

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 Quo In 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.