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 understand what’s at stake, 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 Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; 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, senior policy analyst for the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.

That Touted DoD Budget Plus-Up Cuts Into Space Force and Seeding Future Military Space Innovation

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 Institute for Deterrence Studies and author of the book “Reversing the Tao: A Framework for Credible Space Deterrence”; Namrata Goswami, an independent scholar on space policy and great power politics and co-author of the book “Scramble for the Skies”.

China’s Grand Strategy for the Solar System

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 Winter speaks with the authors of the book “Scramble for the Skies: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”, Namrata Goswami and Peter Garretson.

Starship's Second Flight Test and China's Reaction

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 Competition: AUKUS Nations - UK and Australia Aim to Plus Up Defense

Space Competition: Great Power Strategy, “America First”, and The Mars-shot

This week U.S. President-elect Donald Trump continued to shape his incoming government, naming cabinet nominees, including two authors of the controversial governance plan “Project 2025”, and enlisting adherents to the “America First” political philosophy. To understand how this plan, treatise, and talk of going to Mars, together will affect the space domain, Allies, partners, and adversaries, 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: The Great Power Competition to Control the Resources of Outer Space”; Malcolm Davis, a Senior Policy Analyst at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute focusing on space policy, security, strategy, and capability development; and Hermann Ludwig Moeller, Director of the European Space Policy Institute. 


Space Competition: How Space Allies and Adversaries Read “America First” and a Mars-shot

Space Competition: Trump’s South Korean Space Opportunity

This week China, Russia, and North Korea deepened their military bonds in exercises and meetings, presenting the incoming Trump 2.0 Administration with an illustration of how security in East Asia has become more fragile in the four years since Donald Trump was in the White House. Trump’s “America First” acolytes may find economically attractive opportunities in security burden-sharing in the space domain with South Korea. Laura Winter speaks with Sam Wilson, Director of Strategy and Program Support, and Katie Melbourne, a space security analyst, both of whom are with the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation. 


Space Competition: Trump’s South Korean Space Opportunity

From the Defense & Aerospace Report... This is The DownLink Podcast, hosted by Laura Winter.  From the intersection of space, business, and defense... Not just what's over the horizon, but what's happening above it.

The DownLink Podcast is 2023 and 2024 Defense Media Award-winner.

New tracks tagged #Space Security