The DownLink Podcast

Starship's Second Flight Test and China's Reaction Happy Thanksgiving! SpaceX just attempted a second flight test of its 28-stories-tall Starship space launch system. If Starship, an American-made rocket and spaceship, becomes operational, experts believe it will open up the space domain to travel and commerce, much like the railroad did for the American West. China is not standing idly by. Laura...

A Rogue Plan: The Right Tool For The Right Job On Orbit While all eyes are on SpaceX’s Starship Flight Test 2, one of the space transportation companies newest customers, Rogue Space Systems, is breaking the mold with technical iteration, science, and a fistful of Department of Defense contracts. To understand how and why, Laura Winter speaks with Rogue’s Founder Jeromy Grimmett.

Space Force Maj. Gen. Olson: ISAM Technology "A Core Part of Our Vision For The Future" NASA wants the development and deployment of In Space Manufacturing and Assembly, or ISAM, technologies to be a whole of nation effort that includes the civil, commercial, defense space sectors and academia. This would mean the routine use of robots to provide life extension services to spacecraft, and to build...

The United States and Australia just signed, what is in effect, a treaty that softens U.S. sovereign technology regulations and opens up Australia’s economy to the U.S. commercial space industry. The agreement could also force Australia’s Minister of Industry and Science Ed Husic to reverse the deep cuts he made to Australia’s sovereign space programs. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, Senio...

South Korea, Space Security, And The Plan To Become A “Space Economy” Power This week’s episode is about the Republic of Korea’s push to get a seat at the same table as other major space-faring nations, to secure its people from North Korean missiles and the nation’s economic future. South Korea is the seventh nation to use its own natively developed multi-staged rocket to launch into orbit a sate...

Critical Challenges to Protecting Human Habitats on Orbit, on The Moon, and Beyond This week’s episode is coming from the Space Information and Sharing Analysis Center’s Value of Space Summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado. It explores the future threats commercial and government actors need to prepare for when the at least half-dozen human-rated commercial space stations become operational in the...

A Permanent Off-World Economy Starts In A Garage With A Gas Cap This week’s episode features Orbit Fab. Don’t let the cute name fool you. Starting with the space-equivalent of a gas cap, this company has caught the attention of the U.S. Space Force, the Defense Innovation Unit, and the National Reconnaissance Office, in the form of multi-million-dollar checks. Laura Winter speaks with Orbit Fab’s...

Has The Space Economy Slowdown Hit Bottom? In Q3 inflation looked to be coming under control, but economic indicators pointing to another Fed interest rate hike and a recession persist. In this episode of The DownLink Podcast, Laura Winter discusses the latest economic trends and events impacting space business, investing, and the space economy with Chris Quilty, founder of Quilty Space; and Georg...

China’s Grand Strategy for the Solar System This week’s episode covers China’s Solar System plan, the U.S. Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Slatzman’s meeting with the Japanese Defense Minister Minoru Kihara, and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s one-on-one with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. Laura Winter is joined by Chris Stone, Senior Fellow for Space Deterrence, National I...

The Future of In-Space Security: Views From the C-Suite In this episode of The DownLink Podcast, Laura Winter discusses satellites, modern warfare, and future defense needs for protecting commercial interests in the Cis-Lunar region with Robert Geckle, CEO, Airbus U.S. Space & Defense; Patrick Zeitouni, Chief Strategy Officer, HawkEye 360; and Tom “Pumper” Nichols, Co-Founder & Chief Product Offic...

New Space Force Mission Statement…Is It A Brownwater or Bluewater Future? This week’s episode is about U.S. Space Force doctrine, the Secretary of the Air Force’s email signaling big changes ahead, and the new nine-word-long mission statement: “secure our Nation’s interests in, from, and to space.” Laura Winter discusses these developments and what they mean for the future of the Space Force with...

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 th...

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 unde...

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 nat...

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 F...

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;...

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 auth...

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...

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 Eur...

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...

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 s...

Officer Workforce Plan - The Space Force Told Them, “Begin With A Clean Sheet Of Paper” 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 novel proposal, which aims to balance space mission requirements and the careers of officers, has been delivered. Laura Winter speaks with...

Space Systems Command Wants More Face Time U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command, looking for faster ways to tap into and acquire developmental technologies coming from new space market entrants, is looking to break down barriers from inside a Virginia office park. Laura Winter speaks with U.S. Space Force Col. Rich Kniseley, Senior Materiel Leader and head of the Space Systems Command Commercial...

The U.S.-China Moon Race Heats Up This week China announced that it intends to put taikonauts on the moon no later than 2030, the U.S. Department of State released a new diplomatic strategy for space, and Spain signed the U.S.-led Artemis Accords. To unwrap this week’s events and provide a primer for what is at stake some 385,000 kilometers away on the lunar surface, Laura Winter speaks with Namra...

This week Microsoft reported that the Chinese hacking group penetrated Guam’s telecommunications systems. Because of the U.S. territory’s location and military bases, telecommunications there means a mix of platforms that includes space. 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 Fr...