The DownLink Podcast

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.