The DownLink Podcast

Space Money: Risk of Second Boots vs First Base China’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 episo...

Space Competition: The PLA May Not Be Ready To Fight In Space China 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...

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 Ame...

*2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best National Security Space Submission* *2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best Multimedia Military Submission* Space Power: Why States, National Guard Association Say “No!” To Defense Department Space Units Plan There’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 s...

Space Money: "For Those Who Can Execute, The Opportunity Is Massive" Jerome Powell, the Federal 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 a...

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...

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, Ste...

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 jus...

Space Money: “Get Used To Crazyville”, “Moon Mania”, And A New Defense Strategy Welcome 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, found...

Space Competition: Why SpaceX’s “Rapid Unscheduled Disassembly” Is Redrawing The Map To Success This 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 Con...

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 ser...

Space Power: Fines On Space Junk In The Pipeline And What’s Legal Salvage This 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...

Space Money: The Fortune 500 View From TE Connectivity’s Martin Cullen It 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...

*2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best Cyber Security Submission* *2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for The John Morrocco Award for Best In-depth Defence Reporting* 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 noth...

*2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best Cyber Security Submission* *2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for The John Morrocco Award for Best In-depth Defence Reporting* 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. co...

*2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best Cyber Security Submission* *2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for The John Morrocco Award for Best In-depth Defence Reporting* Space Tech: The Threat Landscape, A Cyber Vulnerability, And Ransoming A Satellite 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...

*2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for Best Cyber Security Submission* *2024 Defense Media Award Finalist for The John Morrocco Award for Best In-depth Defence Reporting* Space Money: When Nation States Target The Commercial Space Sector 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 spa...

Space Tech: A U.S. Space Force Bet That Could Truly Monetize Space Junk… For Real This 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 N...

Space Power: What the Space Force Needs Now For Cislunar Operations This 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 intens...

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...

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 Econom...

"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...

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...

U.S. Space Force Commercial Space Office: Bankruptcies And Consolidation Are Expected Our 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. R...

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 dea...