The Space Hour

Modernizing space programs while maintaining operations is one of the most challenging things, and rings true for the U.S. Space Force. It's key though to keeping up with near peer competitors in the space front. Joining us earlier to discuss this issue, Dan Laubach, Senior Director of Programs for the technology consulting firm Raft.

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A new challenge looks to digitally recreate the planning of each module of the International Space Station. It's being put on by the organization Students for the Exploration and Development of Space or SEDS. "The Ambitious Machine Challenge" will be a year long contest where participants will compete in an array of categories while simultaneously collaborating to document the build of one of humanity's greatest engineering feats. To learn more about it and the SEDS organization overall, I spoke to Theodore Courtois, he's Chair its Board of Directors.

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Starting today with NASA where two proposals for missions to observe X-ray and far-infrared wavelengths of light from space were selected by the agency for additional review. Each proposal will be studied for a year and then a concept will be selected in 2026, to hopefully launch in 2032. The resulting mission will become the first in a new class of NASA astrophysics missions within the agency’s longstanding Explorers Program. To find out more about these proposals, I got the chance to speak with Mark Clampin. He's the director of NASA's astrophysics division.

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The Spacecraft Cybersecurity Act was recently introduced in the House this past summer. The legislation would require NASA to secure a cybersecurity protection plan from manufacturers applying to use federal dollars to build NASA spacecrafts. The introduction comes after thousands of cyberattacks from malicious actors, including China and Russia, have been launched against NASA, threatening the safety of Americans, including our astronauts. So what can and needs to be done to make sure cyber protections are considered during the manufacturing stage? To find out, I spoke to Shane Fry, CTO of the software security firm RunSafe Security.

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Space Nuclear Systems are being utilized more and more these days. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that adding the word nuclear to anything mean safety needs to be of the utmost importance. To help with that, the government enacted the National Security Presidential Memorandum or NSPM, 20 a few years ago. To learn how the process works, I had the pleasure of listening to remarks from John Fulton, who is a manager at Sandia National Labs. He spoke at the recent Space Nuclear Policy Summit, hosted by the Association of Commercial Space Professionals.

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The firm Aerospacelab, Inc. recently opened up a brand new satellite manufacturing facility in Torrance, California. The company plans on being to put out, on average, two satellites per week on a single shift schedule. Increased satellite production is now becoming the standard now in the space hardware industry. I wanted to learn more about that and how it got so easy to make your own satellites. I got the chance to talk about it with Tina Ghatore, CEO of Aerospacelab North America.

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Don't know if you realize it but there's a presidential election coming up in the next few weeks. Whoever does end up in the White House will have a lot decisions to make when it comes to U.S. space security. The National Security Space Association’s Moorman Center for Space Studies recently launched a series of papers to discuss space issues that need to be considered during the presidential transition process. To find out just what they are, I spoke to Christopher Williams, who is Vice President and Chair of the Moorman Center. 

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Space technology company Umbra has recently launched a new business line aiming to deliver high-resolution Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) satellites. Through the mechanisms of how the company is structured, it's been able to bring down the cost of those satellites. To learn more about how they do that, I got the chance to speak with Jason Mallare, Vice President of Umbra. 

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Next month, the Association of Commercial Space Professionals will be hosting the Space Nuclear Policy Summit in Washington D.C. It aims to get the two sides together, both nuclear and space, to help with some lingering questions. The future of space travel is going to require the aid of nuclear power, beyond the technical requirements for that are the regulatory and fiscal matters to deal with first. To get a preview of the discussions that will take place, we welcomed back Bailey Reichelt who is the co-founder of Aegis Space Law and Interim President of ACSP, as well as Caryn Schenewerk, president of CS Consulting.

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The company KBR may not be the most well know commercial space company for those outside the business, but it's one of the larger firms that does a ton of work with NASA. Which is how it ended up being selected as NASA’s Agency-Level Large Business Prime Contractor of the Year. To find out more about the firm and what this award means for it, I spoke to Todd May, Senior Vice President of KBR’s Science and Space Business.

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