The Space Hour

For this week, we'll be airing a panel that I hosted recently for AFCEA NOVA's Space Force IT Day earlier this month. My panel was on the topic of the State of the Space Industrial Base. My guests included Brigadier General Steven Butow - the Space Portfolio Director of the Defense Innovation Unit, Major Adam Burnetta, Program Manager of the Space Enterprise Consortium for the U.S. Space Force, and Hoyt Davidson, founder and managing partner of Near Earth LLC. We'll start with my opening comments.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Virgin Orbit, a sister company of Virgin Airlines and Virgin Galactic just recently launched multiple satellites into orbit for three of clients, the most well known one being the Pentagon, more specifically, the Defense Department's Space Test Program. Experts will tell you defense space research programs like these are important for ensuring America maintains a healthy footprint in space. One of them is Former Brig. General Mark Baird who was front and center for this launch as he is now president of Virgin Orbital subsidiary VOX Space. I had the chance to speak with Mr. Baird after the launch.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

NASA's Flight Opportunities Program is one that helps commercial space companies work with the agency to test out their new technologies, with the hopes of being able to use them for future missions. The program just recently made nine new selections for new tech under NASA's 2021 TechFlights solicitation. To learn more about those picks and the program overall, I got the chance to speak with John Kelly, who is program manager for the Flight Opportunities Program, and Stephan Ord who is the program's chief technologist.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Skull and Bones, Porcellian, Tri Delta. The exclusivity of these clubs have nothing on NASA's Astronaut Corps. With the agency looking to send Earth's best and brightest into space, you can imagine just what it takes to maintain that group. Well NASA's Inspector General wanted to stop imagining and actually have a look itself. One of those in charge of that was Jamie Smith, who is a project manager with the IG's office. I spoke with Jamie about what they found.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

With the retirement of the Space Shuttle program, the most popular one that NASA is best known for now is it's role in the International Space Station. Astronauts have lived and worked onboard the ISS orbiting roughly 250 miles above the Earth’s surface for more than 20 years. It has a planned retirement of 2024 but it's likely to go a few years longer than that. However to get ready for that day, NASA has committed to replacing the ISS with one or more commercially owned and operated space destinations. The agency's inspector general wanted to take a look at how much both options would cost, and what NASA would need to do in the meantime to get ready. For a look at what the IG found, I spoke with Rachel Pierre, who is a management analyst for the OIG.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Recently, astronauts on the ISS had to take shelter after a Russian anti-satellite weapon test created a dangerous cloud of space debris. Naturally, the US government is deeply concerned about the risk posed by space debris, this year's NDAA even includes a directive to identify efforts to advance alternatives to Hall thrusters. So what’s wrong with Hall thrusters? Well to find out, I spoke to Dr. Natalya Bailey, founder and chief strategy officer for Accion Systems.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Could NASA be doing more to protect us from asteroids? Should it bring the Space Shuttle back? Questions like these are being asked by the folks at the Concerned American Aerospace Engineers. While certainly budget concerns and changing political dynamics do play a role in these policy measures, there are some who think NASA needs a plan B. To find out what that could look like, I spoke to Don Nelson, who himself is a retired NASA engineer, and currently the coordinator for the Concerned American Aerospace Engineers.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

We'll start the year off talking about NASA's latest accomplishment, getting one of the biggest telescopes into space ever. Though the James Webb telescope still has a long way to go, the amount technical work that went into the project is one of the most astounding. Prior to it's Christmas Day launch, I had the chance to speak to Michael McElwain, who is the James Webb Space Telescope observatory scientist.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

From GPS, to weathertech, to national security, satellite imagery is used for all sorts of important aspects of life here on Earth. Now, one company is looking to vastly improve the quality of those images, which means improvements in all those sectors I mentioned. HySpecIQ claims it is now positioned to become the world’s leading provider of space-based hyperspectral imagery. To find out more, I spoke with the company's senior vice president of product and sales Tim Abbott.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

The role of NASA administrator is one of the more unique positions in the federal government. Many agencies have a tough time just planning for next year, well imagine having to plan for projects that could take 10 or 20 years. Over the past few decades, there have been differing management and planning styles by whoever is in the big seat, and now there's comprehensive research to show the results of them. Syracuse University Professor Henry Lambright recently penned a report, which draws on insights from recent and past NASA Administrators to chart how leaders have passed the torch toward enabling machine and human space exploration of Mars, and its long term impact on strategic priorities for the space program. I recently had the chance to speak with him about what he found.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.