The DownLink Podcast The Defense & Aerospace Report

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 be doing the opposite. Laura Winter speaks with Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Juliana Suess, a Research Fellow on Space Security, at the Royal United Services Institute, and host of the podcast “War in Space”.

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, Steve “Bucky” Butow, the Defense Innovation Unit’s Director of the Space Portfolio; and 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”.

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 just what the administration is communicating strategically, 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 Charles Galbreath, a Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.

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, founder of Quilty Space; George Pullen, Chief Economist at MilkyWay Economy; and Robin Dickey, Policy Analyst, at The Aerospace Corporation’s Center for Space Policy and Strategy.

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 Connectivity’s Senior Manager for Business Development and Strategy; Kayhan Space Co-Founders Siamak Hesar and Araz Feyzi; Matthew Randall, Empulsion Inc.’s Director of Business Development; and Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”.

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 services. Laura Winter speaks with 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, a senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.