The DownLink Podcast
by The DownLink
Latest episode
Institutional Investors, Risk and the Space Asset Class
Institutional Investors, Risk and the Space Asset Class
About this podcast
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, 2024, and 2025 Defense Media Award-winner.
Episodes
The newest 20 of 244 episodes
- Institutional Investors, Risk and the Space Asset Class · 32 minInstitutional investors are diversifying their portfolios to include alternative assets, such as private equity and private credit. With the SpaceX IPO, some are seeking stakes…
- Words First, Then Money, Now Hardware · 39 minA year after German Minister of Defense Boris Pistorius spoke about offensive capabilities and pledged €35B to build up military space power, the interest, desire, and need for…
- Q3: Big Checks and Rocket Risk · 39 minSpace venture funding hit a record $3.1 billion in September — but the industry's real problem could be a scarcity of rockets, even if SpaceX’s Starship comes on-line. Laura…
- Don't Waste a Molecule. Close the Air Loop. · 42 minNASA Administrator Jared Isaacman knows that breathing efficiently is really the trick that unlocks human deep space travel. He recently paid a visit to Honeywell Aerospace in…
- U.S.-China Summit: Trump, Xi, and the State of the Space Race · 45 minDid space just get short-shrift at this week’s summit? Naming China as the No1 threat, U.S. military officials did just confirm the existence of on-orbit weapons and that it will…
- Orbital Space Weapons — Meh, Pivotal, or Both? · 39 minSecretary of the Air Force Troy Meink reveals that the United States has placed weapons in orbit, and the new Space Force Chief of Space Operations, Gen. Douglas Schiess, lays…
- U.S. Space Academy: "Doesn't It Make Sense?" · 38 minStates are already vying to become the home of the White House's proposed Space Academy, but what critical problem set should it solve? Do we really need it? This episode — Part…
- What’s the Payload the President’s 1,000-Launch Memo Should Deliver? · 38 minGen. Douglas Schiess just became the Space Force's third Chief of Space Operations, but in the days before the transfer of responsibility, President Donald Trump signed two new…
- Space Force: Targeted Growth In a Time of Budgetary Uncertainty · 35 minWhile operating on the brink of a government shutdown has become the not-so-new normal, a fresh take on the Space Force's FY 2027 budget request shows the service branch's plan…
- Satellites, War, and Humanitarian Law: The ICRC Explains · 47 minCompanies rarely know how a military is using their satellites — and that blind spot could quietly turn commercial infrastructure into a legitimate target, putting the civilians…
- SpaceX's Q2: A Neo Cloud With a Rocket Side Hustle · 57 minSpaceX posted its first earnings report as a public company this week, the same week its first share unlock hit the market, more than doubling the float. Elon Musk says revenue…
- Space Competition: China 1H 2026: Rockets, Vassals, and Purges · 43 minChina's on the cusp of truly competing with SpaceX with a reusable rocket, while it supplies Iran and Russia and Xi Jinping purges another of the nation's space heroes. Laura…
- Space Power: Should the Space Force Station Guardians on the Moon? · 49 minThe fact that the Chinese Coast Guard attacked Philippines vessels in three separate confrontations this week, may illustrate why the Space Force needs Guardians trained and…
- Space Power: Who Is the Next Chief of Space Operations? · 42 minLt. Gen. Douglas Schiess is on track to become the Space Force's third Chief of Space Operations after a 44-minute confirmation hearing. Who is Schiess, and how has the CSO role…
- Space Tech: Where "Resilient" Isn't a Policy Cliché · 44 minSave the eye-roll. There really are contracts and places where words "resilient" or "resiliency" drive the communications mission. Laura Winter speaks with Dr. Rajeev Gopal, Vice…
- Space Money: Q2 2026 — Deals, Divestitures, and Big Checks · 36 minRocket Lab is acquiring Iridium for $8 billion. Honeywell split in two. Driven by SpaceX, the first half of 2026, especially the second quarter, delivered a remarkable wave of…
- Space Power: Executing the International Strategy — Air Marshal Paul Godfrey · 44 minWith a NATO Summit two weeks away and Washington pressing allies to take on more, Air Marshal Paul Godfrey explains how a year of executing the U.S. Space Force's International…
- Space Money: The Demand Pull — Kevin O'Connell · 43 minThe SpaceX IPO didn't create the appetite for space investment — it revealed it. Laura Winter speaks with Kevin O'Connell, Founder and CEO, Space Economy Rising; former Director…
- Space Money: At $1.77 Trillion It’s SpaceX IPO Day! · 56 minSpaceX went public on June 12, 2026, in the largest IPO in history, valuing the rocket, satellite broadband communications, and AI company at $1.77 trillion. Laura Winter speaks…
- Space Power: What Is Taiwan Building? Why? · 44 min"Without rockets, nothing is going to happen." In the five years since Taiwan's Space Development Act, that island has started to build-out satellite constellations, a launch…
