The DownLink Podcast

Two meaty and divisive subjects are in the queue. First the U.S. Department of Defense Office of the Inspector General released its report on whether the 2021 decision to locate Space Command in Huntsville, Alabama ticked all the legal and policy boxes. And Second, California’s Sen. Dianne Feinstein, a senior Democrat, and Florida’s Republican Sen. Marco Rubio introduced the Space National Guard E...

This week in Paris Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron announced a further deepening of their defence cooperation. This time it includes the space domain. To understand why this agreement is significant, Laura Winter speaks with Narayan Prasad, a long-time space entrepreneur based in Berlin, and Pranav Satyanath, a research analyst with the Takshashila Intituti...

China celebrates Space Day of China with announcements, putting the U.S. on notice that it means to get to and stay on the moon sooner rather than later, according to Malcolm Davis, a senior policy analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute. Laura Winter also speaks with Hawkeye 360’s CEO John Serafini and National Security Space Association Executive Director and Founder Steve Jacques a...

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States is unilaterally giving up direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) testing. This type of ASAT test is known to create orbital debris, which almost everyone agrees is a danger to space-based infrastructure. But was this ban the right thing to do? That depends on the perspective. Laura Winter speaks with U.K. Amb. Aidan Liddle, Britain’s...

Most of the world's space agencies and companies are winding down their cooperation with Russia, while other major space-faring nations are making agreements. Laura Winter speaks with the Secure World Foundation’s Washington, D.C. Office Director Victoria Samson, who explains what this may mean for future international cooperation in creating a stable space environment.

Too bold? Or not bold enough? The U.S. Secretary of the Air Force revealed how the Biden Administration intends to shape the U.S. Space Force’s mission and future this week at Space Symposium. Laura Winter hosts a discussion with Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council, coauthor of Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer...

The Biden Administration’s FY 2023 budget request dropped this last week, with $24.5 billion for the U.S. Space Force. Laura Winter hosts a discussion with Charles Beames, who before becoming, the chairman of the board for York Space Systems and the SmallSat Alliance, was a Pentagon insider responsible for all space and intelligence acquisitions; Peter Garretson, a senior fellow at the American Fo...

While Russia’s state-owned space corporation Roscosmos is hunting for customers, there’s anecdotal evidence that some in the commercial space industry outside of the country are seeing a bump in sales related to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Laura Winter speaks with Matt Desch, the CEO of the U.S.-headquartered mobile satellite communications company Iridium, and with Hans Steiner the CTO of the Europe...

It almost slipped under the radar… The U.S. Space Force Space Training And Readiness Command, or STARCOM, released its planning doctrine, the foundation of how to plan the execution and leveraging of spacepower. This is the first space warfighting doctrine in roughly 18 months since the new branch released its inaugural doctrine, "Space Power". Laura Winter’s guest is Christopher Stone, a senior f...

Resistance against the Russian war in Ukraine comes in many forms, such as just remaining at work and refusing to leave. In this episode, Laura Winter speaks with two former heads of the State Space Agency of Ukraine, Volodymyr Usov and Lyubomyr Sabadosh, and their colleague Liliya Shevchuk, the director of the country’s Space Initiatives Center. But first, Winter speaks with Homer Hickam, a retir...

How is the space sector reacting to Russia’s war in Ukraine and mitigating against an uptick in cyber threats to space systems? Laura Winter speaks with Dan Dumbacher, Executive Director of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, or AIAA; and with Frank Backes, Senior Vice president of Kratos Federal Space and Board Chair of the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center, or Spa...

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, s...

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, abo...

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 war...

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 th...

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...

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 Advantag...

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 sho...

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 Corporat...

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 G...

This week on The DownLink, Laura Winter speaks with Iridium Communications, Inc. CEO Matt Desch to discuss what he hopes will remain a rare story - the hypersonic bust-up of his company’s satellite in orbit. Many who serve the defense policy-making ecosystem, here in the United States and within multinational organizations are coming to better appreciate the fragile nature of the near-earth space...

This week U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris convened the Biden Administration’s inaugural National Space Council meeting. It had three agenda items: STEM education, to create the future space-based workforce; using space-based assets and the data they produce to combat climate change; and space-based security, which at present has precious few rules or norms governing behavior. Also, this week, th...

In this episode of The DownLink podcast, Laura Winter is shedding light on satellite communications over the optical part of the electromagnetic spectrum. It’s called laser communication or optical wireless communication. DARPA, the Space Development Agency, the United States Space Force are already working with the commercial sector to develop and deploy laser satellite communication. What makes...

This week’s episode take a closer look at Monday’s Russian anti-satellite missile test and the debris field it caused, which forced the seven astronauts and cosmonauts on board the International Space Station to take cover. Jamie Shea, who after three decades with NATO, and having served as that organization’s Deputy Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges, says he does not be...