The DownLink Podcast

Space Tech: Is It A Bird? A Plane? Actually It’s A Drone Space 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 ISS This 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 SDA Space 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: SmallSats - Time To Plan, Procure, And Execute Almost seven years after U.S. Air Force General John Hyten said, “I will not support buying big satellites that make juicy targets”, the Space 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 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 Domain In 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.