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”.

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.

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 a deep discussion on space debris, rules and regulations, and the legal challenges posed by salvage operations. Joining her for this discussion is Laura Megan-Posch, Assistant Chief Counsel, Regulations Division, Federal Aviation Administration, Department of Transportation; Gabriel Swiney, Director, Policy, Advocacy, and International Division, Office of Space Commerce, NOAA, U.S. Department of Commerce; Charles Stotler, Professor of Practice and Director, Center for Air and Space Law, University of Mississippi School of Law; Vic Gardner, President and Global Head of PreSales, LeoLabs Federal, Inc.; and Lee Steinke, Chief Operating Officer, CisLunar Industries.

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 traded companies are navigating risk to get in on the space economy and deliver value and returns to shareholders.

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 space sector. This is the fourth and final in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Samuel Visner, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC) Board Chair and Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation; Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”; and Sean Costigan, the lead for NATO’s cybersecurity curriculum, and Director of Cyber Policy at Red Sift.

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 space sector. This is the third in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Samuel Visner, Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center (Space-ISAC) Board Chair and Fellow at The Aerospace Corporation; Greg Falco, an Assistant Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell University; and Ang Cui, Founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security.

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 space sector. This is the second in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Greg Falco, an Assistant Professor at the Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering and the Systems Engineering Program at Cornell University; Ang Cui, Founder and CEO of Red Balloon Security; and Hector Falcon, a Cyber and Space Intelligence Integrator at the Space Information Sharing and Analysis Center. 

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 space sector. This is the first in a series of episodes examining cyber attacks and space systems. Laura Winter speaks with Nick Saunders, Visat’s Chief Cybersecurity and Data Officer for Government Systems, in his first sit-down interview since the satellite communications company weathered a notorious cyberattack on February 24, 2022; Erin Miller, the Space Information Sharing and analysis Center’s Executive Director; and Frank Backes, CEO of Capella Space, a company providing earth observation products to government commercial customers.

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 Neumann Space’s CEO Herve Astier and Chief Scientist Paddy Neumann.

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 intensify in Cislunar space. While the U.S. Space Force has the remit to secure U.S. interests in the Cislunar region, it is not truly equipped to do the job. Laura Winter speaks with Charles Galbreath, a Senior Resident Fellow for Space Studies at the Mitchell Institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.