The DownLink Podcast

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 Suess, 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.