Spacepower Podcast

Space Force Association
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Spacepower is a strategic podcast from the Space Force Association exploring the leaders, ideas, and operations shaping the space domain. Hosted by SFA Founder Bill “Hippie” Woolf, the show features conversations with senior military leaders, policymakers, and industry experts on deterrence, maneuver, technology, and the evolving role of space in national security. Episodes include in-depth interviews and solo analysis breaking down the trends defining the future of spacepower.

  1. 1 day ago

    Gen. Saltzman & Jennifer Saltzman: The Partnership Behind the Space Force

    Nobody handed them the answers. When Chance Saltzman got engaged, two weeks before shipping out for missile training, neither he nor Jennifer knew what military life would demand. When he chased a brand-new weapons school, the personnel office told him it was "a terrible idea, an unproven path." So he did it. The through-line of a 35-year career and marriage turned out to be four words: we'll figure it out. That instinct built more than a family. It helped build a service. The Space Force is still writing its identity, what it means to be a Guardian, what traditions to keep, what culture to forge from scratch, and few people have shaped that answer more directly than its Chief of Space Operations. This is the story of the character behind the stars. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with General Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, and Jennifer Saltzman, back in the Space House where Bill first interviewed a brand-new CSO four years earlier, for a candid conversation about marriage, character, and how you build something that lasts without a blueprint. In this episode: - Why "an unproven path" was the exact reason Saltzman chose the Weapons School, and how a warning to stay away became the best career advice he ever ignored - How a physics scholarship he couldn't finish funneled him into ICBM operations, and why he was certain he'd gotten the better end of the deal - What it actually means that Guardians conduct combat operations from garrison, watch an adversary act in space, then drive home for soccer practice and help with math homework - The 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test, told from the ops floor, and the moment there was no hand signal for "they destroyed the satellite" - How the "floodgates" from missiles to space turned a generation of missileers into the Space Force's first operators - The surreal night a Hollywood director had dinner at their house, and what saying "yes" has to do with a whole career Standing up a service from nothing: no flag, no song, no uniform, and why "you have to pay the tax" of becoming real - Guardian #89, the 89th Weapons School space graduate, Bowling Green High class of '89 — and why Saltzman calls it karma - Saltzman's one regret as CSO - Why Jennifer is his "best sensor", the things Guardians will tell her that they'll never tell the CSO How a marriage that "grew up together" with the service became a lesson in connection and community The Space Force will be defined by its technology and its doctrine. But this conversation is a reminder that services are built by people, and that identity, partnership, and the willingness to walk a path no one has mapped are as foundational as any capability in orbit. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday General Chance Saltzman General B. Chance Saltzman is the second Chief of Space Operations, U.S. Space Force, and a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. A former ICBM operator and space Weapons Officer, he was among the first general officers to commission into the Space Force and helped stand up its foundational operational, readiness, and intelligence processes. Jennifer Saltzman A three-decade military spouse and advocate for Guardian families, Jennifer has been a constant presence alongside Chance across every assignment, and, in his words, his "best sensor" for what's really happening in the force. Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

  2. 6 days ago

    Maj. Gen. Keener: The Layer Between Capability and Combat

    There is a version of ready where the hardware works. There is another version where the people, the doctrine, the joint playbooks, and the partner relationships all hold under the pressure of an actual conflict. Building the second one is a full-time job, and almost none of it is visible from the outside. The Space Force organizes, trains, and equips. U.S. Space Command employs. The layer in between, the exercises, the wargames, the training architecture, and the doctrine that tells the joint forceMaj. Gen. "Bull" Keener: Inside Space Command's Exercise and Wargaming Architecturehow to operate together in a contested domain, belongs to the J7. As adversary counterspace capability moves from projection to fielded reality, that layer is where readiness is either proven or exposed. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Maj. Gen. Samuel "Bull" Keener, Director of Exercises, Training, Wargames, and Experimentation (J7) at U.S. Space Command, to walk through how a combatant command builds itself into a warfighting organization. Why U.S. Space Command's area of responsibility begins at 100 kilometers and has no upper limit, and what that means for who actually provides the forces that operate thereThe difference between the Space Force and U.S. Space Command in the plainest terms you will hear it, from someone who gets asked constantlyWhy a combatant command needs a Tier 1 exercise at all, and why standing one up was the first thing Gen. Keener was told to go buildWhy you cannot replicate a thinking adversary on a white card, and how red cells, red teams, and space aggressors are used to close that gapThe modeling and simulation problem nobody has solved: why no single tool can accurately represent the space fight, and why artificial intelligence and machine learning are now part of the answerHow the Space Force's Future Operating Environment 2040 and Objective Force 2040 nest with Space Command's Space Warfighting Environment 2040. One defines the environment, one defines the force, and one defines how the joint force fights and wins within itWhy satellites in geosynchronous orbit are, in the commander's framing, static targets, and what maneuver has to do with self-defenseThe 1941 Louisiana Maneuvers analogy, and why an exercise that reorganized the U.S. Army's armored divisions before World War II is the model for what happens on orbitWhat coalition training requires in a domain where you cannot put allies in a formation and fly a mission together, and why communications and classification remain the hardest problemsWhy lessons learned measured in weeks or months is no longer fast enough, and the push to find a problem and implement the fix in daysCapability delivered is not capability employed. The distance between the two is measured in exercises, in wargames, and in the honesty of the models you train against. That distance is the J7's work, and it is where the Space Force's investment either becomes joint warfighting readiness or does not. Editor's note: this conversation was recorded several months before U.S. Space Command published the Space Warfighting Environment 2040 on July 28, 2026. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday

  3. 20 Jul

    How the Space Force is Delivering Launch at the Speed of Need - SYD80

    Earlier this year, a finished GPS satellite was sitting in Florida ready to fly. The rocket assigned to it needed more time. The warfighters waiting on that satellite could not. So System Delta 80 moved it. Different rocket. Full recertification. On orbit in about six weeks. What normally takes two years happened in a month and a half, and it was the fourth time the team had pulled off something like it. Nothing in national security space gets off the ground without System Delta 80. Every satellite this series has covered, the SATCOM links, the GPS constellation, the systems certified by OTTI, all of it begins at the launch pad. This episode is the capstone: how the Space Force gets its most critical capabilities to orbit, what it takes to keep multiple launch providers viable, and what becomes possible when satellites are no longer constrained by the fuel they launched with. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Col. Ryan Hiserote, Commander of System Delta 80 at Space Systems Command, to discuss the National Security Space Launch program, the GPS rocket swap that made headlines, and the on-orbit servicing mission that could fundamentally change how the Space Force operates in space. In this conversation, Col. Hiserote discusses: - Why System Delta 80's claim — that nothing in national security space gets off the ground without it — is literal, not rhetorical - How the dual-lane NSSL structure works: Lane 1 for competition and capacity, Lane 2 for no-fail missions with complex requirements - What it actually takes to certify a new rocket for national security missions — and why that process takes years - How the GPS 3-8 rocket swap worked, why it happened, and what it signals about the Space Force's willingness to move at the speed of need - Why Rocket Lab and Stoke Space were added as Lane 1 providers in early 2025 — and what the service is looking for as it evaluates more - The on-orbit servicing mission: what Starfish Space's Otter vehicle and Astroscale's refueling demo are designed to prove - Why Gen. Whiting at U.S. Space Command has been calling for a maneuver warfare strategy in space — and how on-orbit refueling enables it - What it means for a satellite to be "no longer constrained by its gas tank" — and how that changes tactics - Why Col. Hiserote describes launch as a team sport — and who all the players are - Why he calls this the most exciting time to be in the launch business since the Apollo days The Space Force can build the most advanced satellites in the world. They mean nothing until they reach orbit. This is the mission that starts everything else — and it's about to get a lot more capable. Hosted by Bill Woolf Guest: Col. Ryan Hiserote, Commander, System Delta 80, Space Systems Command Col. Hiserote commands System Delta 80, the Space Systems Command unit responsible for space access — launch, range operations, and on-orbit servicing. He also serves as dual-hatted program manager for the National Security Space Launch program, the largest dollar-value program in the Space Force. A certified mission director, Col. Hiserote personally served as mission director for the two most recent GPS launches. Learn more about Space Systems Command: https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/ Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

  4. 9 Jul

    The Space Force's Invisible Battlefield: Why Test and Training Infrastructure Changes Everything

    Fighter pilots don't go to war on day one. First comes Red Flag, the punishing mock combat over the Nevada desert designed to be harder than anything a pilot will ever face in actual conflict, so that when the real moment comes, it isn't the first time. For most of the space mission's history, that rehearsal didn't exist. Guardians operated systems that had only ever been tested in benign environments. The capabilities were real. The training wasn't. System Delta 81 is the unit changing that. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Col. Corey Klopstein, Commander of System Delta 81 at Space Systems Command, to discuss the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure, OTTI, the Space Force's answer to Red Flag, and why building it is one of the most consequential things SSC is doing right now. In this conversation, Col. Klopstein discusses: - Why the Space Force went this long without a Red Flag equivalent, and what changed in the threat environment to make OTTI urgent - The three layers of space test and training infrastructure: digital simulation, physical on-orbit assets, and the data architecture connecting them - Why a simulation is only as honest as the live data feeding it, and what it takes to build a physical lane that validates the digital one - What a range-as-a-service contract looks like in practice, and how a commercial satellite's on-orbit maneuver became a live Guardian training event - Why SYD 81 pairs with multiple commands simultaneously, Space Training and Readiness Command and Combat Forces Command, rather than a single Mission Delta - How the Joint Simulation Environment, already used by F-35 pilots, is being extended for space - What Gen. Saltzman told Col. Klopstein about delivering an F-22 without a training infrastructure, and why that analogy captures exactly what OTTI solves - Why "when I say football and you say football, we need to mean the same thing", and what that has to do with building a shared operational language across commands and allies - What ruthless prioritization looks like for a mission area with more requirements than people and more requirements than money You can build the most advanced satellite in the world. If the Guardian operating it has never trained against a thinking adversary, you haven't delivered combat power. This episode is about the infrastructure that closes that gap, before the conflict starts. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday Guest: Col. Corey Klopstein, Commander, System Delta 81, Space Systems Command Col. Klopstein commands System Delta 81, the Space Systems Command unit responsible for developing and delivering the Operational Test and Training Infrastructure for the Space Force. On his 13th year at Los Angeles Air Force Base, he serves as both the SYD 81 commander and the Portfolio Acquisition Executive and Program Acquisition Executive for infrastructure. SYD 81 works across Space Training and Readiness Command and Combat Forces Command to ensure delivered capabilities are tested against real threats and Guardians are trained to operate them before the first flag event. Learn more about Space Systems Command: https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/ Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

  5. 25 Jun

    The Signal the World Runs On: GPS with SYD 831

    Your phone knows where you are right now. Your bank recorded the exact millisecond of your last transaction. The plane you flew on landed safely in low visibility. The farmer who grew your food planted rows one to two centimeters apart. Every one of those things runs on a signal broadcast from twelve thousand miles overhead, a signal the United States Space Force has guaranteed to the entire world, by law, since way before its inception, 1978. GPS is the closest thing the planet has to a shared utility. It is also something the Space Force has to defend, every single day, against adversaries who cannot out-engineer it and are actively trying to deny it. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Col. Neil Barnas, Commander of System Delta 831 at Space Systems Command, to discuss what makes American GPS the global gold standard, what it takes to keep a 31-satellite constellation running against active threats, and what the next generation of GPS will be able to do that the current one cannot. In this conversation, Col. Barnas discusses: - The three pillars that make American GPS the global gold standard, accuracy, transparency, and a legally guaranteed service level - Why GPS is certified for human flight operations, and what that standard means in practice - How the signal has been continuously broadcast since 1978, and why the satellites being launched today are designed to serve for 15 years or more - What GPS Space Vehicle 10, the final GPS III satellite, means for the constellation and the warfighters waiting on it - The GPS III-F upgrade: a 1,200-kilometer spot beam capable of up to 63 times the baseline M-code signal power, focused on exactly the area of the Earth where it's needed most - How 63 international partners integrate GPS user equipment into their own aircraft, ground vehicles, and munitions - Why agriculture is one of the most GPS-dependent industries on Earth, and what differential GPS does at the centimeter level - How AI tools are now processing eleven hundred pages of technical documentation to accelerate acquisition decisions - What the System Delta construct means for a mission area as globally consequential as position, navigation, and timing GPS is often called a gold standard. This episode explains what that standard actually requires to maintain, and what happens to the joint force if it degrades. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday Guest: Col. Neil Barnas, Commander, System Delta 831, Space Systems Command Col. Barnas commands System Delta 831, the Space Systems Command unit responsible for developing, fielding, and modernizing the GPS constellation and the ground and user equipment systems that deliver positioning, navigation, and timing to the joint force and to civilian users worldwide. SYD 831 is paired with Mission Delta 31, which operates the GPS constellation daily. Learn more about Space Systems Command: https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/ Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

  6. 18 Jun

    On Our Worst Day, These Links Have to Hold: Inside Military SATCOM with SYD 88

    On the worst day imaginable, the day a nuclear decision has to be made, the President of the United States needs to talk to commanders and allies anywhere on Earth. That conversation runs through space. And the people responsible for delivering it just did so two full years ahead of schedule. But this episode isn't just about a single acquisition win. It's about a fundamental shift in how the Space Force thinks about buying capabilities. For decades, a cultural wall separated the people who acquired systems from the people who fought with them. Requirements passed over a fence. Timelines drifted. By the time a capability arrived, the threat had sometimes already moved. System Delta 88 exists to make that model obsolete. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Col. A.J. Ashby, Commander of System Delta 88 at Space Systems Command, to discuss how the Space Force is rewiring military satellite communications acquisition and what it looks like when acquisition becomes a warfighting function. In this conversation, Col. Ashby discusses: Why the Space Force created System Deltas in 2025 and how they differ from traditional program officesWhat "acquisition is a warfighting function" actually means in practice, not just on a slideHow SYD 88 won the 2025 David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award, the Department of War's highest acquisition team honor, for delivering a critical NC3 capability two full years earlyThe cultural wall between acquirers and operators, and the specific steps SYD 88 is taking to tear it downWhy new SYD 88 personnel earn a SATCOM patch the same way an operator earns a ratingWhat "zero daylight" between SYD 88 and Mission Delta 8 looks like in a weekly ops meetingThe commercial-first philosophy: where industry solutions win outright and where the hard military-specific problems beginWhy vendor lock is one of the biggest risks in the SATCOM portfolio and how open architecture changes thatWhat it means to deliver capability at the speed of threat relevance, not just the speed of the program scheduleHow junior acquirers who have never read a requirements document are being trained to think like warfightersMilitary satellite communications is invisible on a good day. It has to be invisible, reliable, and unjammable on the worst one. This episode is about the team building it and the reform changing how the Space Force buys for war. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday Guest: Col. A.J. Ashby, Commander, System Delta 88, Space Systems Command Col. Ashby commands System Delta 88, the Space Systems Command unit responsible for developing and delivering military satellite communications capabilities to the joint force. Under his command, SYD 88 received the 2025 David Packard Excellence in Acquisition Award for delivering a critical nuclear command, control, and communications capability two years ahead of schedule. It was the largest source selection in Space Force history across a $24 billion portfolio. Learn more about Space Systems Command: https://www.ssc.spaceforce.mil/ Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

  7. 10 Jun

    Small Force, Big Mission: Jennifer Saltzman on the People Behind the Space Force

    Ten thousand Guardians. That's it. The entire United States Space Force fits inside a mid-sized college campus. And yet the domain they protect underpins every GPS route, every weather forecast, every financial transaction, every call you made today. Jennifer Saltzman has been part of that community since before the Space Force existed, since before most people had heard the word "Guardian," since the uniforms were still being designed and the swag hadn't been invented yet. As the spouse of Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, she has traveled to bases and installations across the country and around the world, meeting families in places where a handful of Guardians are embedded in a much larger military community, sometimes feeling invisible, always doing critical work. Thank you to CXAL (Connected Alliances) for sponsoring this episode of Spacepower Podcast. To learn more about CXAL, visit ⁠https://cx-al.com In this conversation with SFA Founder Bill Woolf, a decades-long friend, Jennifer talks candidly about what military family life actually looks like inside the Space Force, why "deployed in place" is harder to explain than it sounds, and what it means to build a community from scratch inside the newest branch of the U.S. military. In this episode: Why the Space Force's small size makes community-building both harder and more urgentWhat Jennifer means when she says "connection" is her favorite Space Force valueThe Buckley Spouses Alliance: how a group of spouses built a food pantry from the ground up, logging over 5,500 volunteer hours and distributing 38,000 pounds of food in two yearsThe Peak Food Pantry at Peterson Space Force Base: up and running since September 2025 and already distributing nearly 23,000 pounds of foodWhy "deployed in place" is a uniquely difficult experience for Guardian families and why it deserves more attentionThe Space Force uniform journey, from borrowing Air Force gear to service dress on the mannequin at clothing salesWhy Jennifer has been handing out space-themed chocolate for years, and why a Guardian told her he still has a piece she gave him two years agoWhat it felt like to watch the first Basic Military Training class graduate in full Guardian service dressWhy talking about space with your neighbors, your kids, and your coworkers is one of the most meaningful things civilians can do right nowThis episode doesn't talk about orbital mechanics or acquisition strategy. It talks about the people holding the community together while Guardians do work most Americans will never see. That story matters too. Hosted by Bill Woolf / Produced by Ty Holliday Guest: Jennifer Saltzman is the spouse of Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force. She is an advocate for Guardian families, military spouse programs, and public awareness of the Space Force mission. Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://linktr.ee/ussfa

  8. 4 Jun

    What the School That Trains Space Warfighters Has Built, and What Comes Next

    Space has been a contested domain for years. The doctrine, the training, and the culture needed to fight and win in it have been built, mostly quietly, at a squadron at Nellis Air Force Base. Most people who care about the Space Force have never heard of it. Most of the people shaping how space warfare is conducted today came through it. This year, the 328th Weapons Squadron turns 30. Three decades after the Space Division was stood up at the Air Force Weapons School in 1996, the institution that started by teaching fighter pilots how to integrate space support into their missions now graduates the tactical and operational leaders who will contest the domain against peer adversaries. The transformation is real. And according to the officer commanding the 328th right now, it's far from finished. In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Lt. Col. Brian "Knuckles" Peterson, Commander of the 328th Weapons Squadron, to talk about what the space weapons officer community has built, where it's going, and what the next 30 years demand. In this conversation, Lt. Col. Peterson discusses: Why the 328th is a domain WIC, not a platform WIC, and why that distinction changes everything about how space warfighters are trainedWhat it means to graduate 450 weapons officers over 30 years in a service that still needs to double in sizeHow the course evolved from space support integration to full orbital warfare and EW combined arms, and why that shift wasn't just curriculum, it was cultureThe debrief culture that distinguishes weapons officers: why failure is designed into the course, and what that teaches about decision-making under real-world pressureThe feedback loop between operators, testers, and acquirers, and why building the widget before figuring out how to fight it is one of the Space Force's cardinal sinsWhat it looks like when a Guardian truly understands the joint force, and why that connection is the foundation of everything the 328th producesWhy the school is expanding: a new building, an intelligence course, a cyber course, and what that signals about where the Space Force is headingWhat the 30th anniversary Reblu is actually for, and why reconnecting 450 graduates matters as much as the classified combat updates on day oneWhat the 328th needs to keep producing to ensure the Space Force wins the fights that are comingThe Space Force of 2045 is being built right now at Nellis. The 328th turns 30 this month and the celebration isn't just about what's been accomplished. It's about what the weapons officer community owes the joint force in the next three decades. Hosted by Bill Woolf Produced by Ty Holliday Guest: Lt. Col. Brian "Knuckles" Peterson, Commander, 328th Weapons Squadron, Space Delta 1, Space Training and Readiness Command Lt. Col. Peterson commands the Space Force's weapons school at Nellis Air Force Base — the institution responsible for producing the Space Force's tactical and operational warfighting experts. He brings a background in missile warning, three combat deployments, and time in the Space Force's futures division to the role. Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/ Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/ Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

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About

Spacepower is a strategic podcast from the Space Force Association exploring the leaders, ideas, and operations shaping the space domain. Hosted by SFA Founder Bill “Hippie” Woolf, the show features conversations with senior military leaders, policymakers, and industry experts on deterrence, maneuver, technology, and the evolving role of space in national security. Episodes include in-depth interviews and solo analysis breaking down the trends defining the future of spacepower.

Information

  • Creator
    Space Force Association
  • Years Active
    2020 - 2026
  • Episodes
    67
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © 2026 Space Force Association
  • Show Website
    Spacepower Podcast

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