Hello Dear Readers,
I apologize for not posting the last two episodes. I have been battling through COVID. It definitely delivered all of the debilitating symptoms as advertised. While I don’t know for sure, I believe the vaccinations and boosters, plus a course of Paxlovid kept me out of the hospital. Got to love science!
Here’s an interesting feature piece on the 2023 Nobel laureate Katalin Karikó, whose creativity and research was instrumental in developing two COVID vaccines. The article in Forbes is by Conor Murray and titled, “Researcher Demoted By University Of Pennsylvania Wins Nobel Prize For mRNA Discoveries—And Some Academics Urge Penn To Apologize”.
Below you will find those two DownLink episodes I produced whilst ill.
The DownLink is a winner, baby!
On Sunday, October 8, at the National Press Club, The DownLink became an award-winning podcast having received a Defense Media Award for the Best Military Propulsion story. The episode that garnered the prize was “There’s No Need To Be So Toxic!”, which reveals a potentially disruptive group of “green” thruster technologies that are already being used by space agencies and on U.S. Space Force, DARPA, and other Department of Defense missions. The DownLink Podcast was a finalist in five categories.
In this Episode
In this episode we’re looking at national economic indicators for the third quarter and what they mean for the remainder of the year, because the economy is a weird mixed bag.
The number one signal that a recession is coming is an inverted bond yield curve, which has remained stubbornly inverted for more than a year. On the flip side, Friday’s jobs report revealed that employers added 336,000 jobs last month, nearly double what economists had predicted.
Financial analysts believe that the jobs report may become one of a number of reasons the U.S. Federal Reserve Board may again raise interest rates when it meets at the end of this month. If they do raise the rates, many investors may opt to divert their capital into short-term bonds and certificates to cash-in on sure money, instead of into stocks or venture capital deals.
These data points are important to the entire space sector because it and its investors are particularly vulnerable to macroeconomic trends. Nevertheless, this week’s guests are bullish, saying that they are seeing signs of investment picking up.
We also talk about how Virgin Galactic is soldiering on. On the same day as the jobs report, the space tourism company sent aloft Mission-4, its fifth successful launch of paying tourists in as many months.
Who’s on this week’s episode
Chris Quilty - Founder, Quilty Space
George Pullen - Chief Economist, Milky Way Economy
The two missing episodes
The Future of In-Space Security: Views From the C-Suite - September 16, 2023
This episode comes to you from the stage of U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Annual Global Aerospace Summit, held here in Washington, D.C. To discuss satellites, modern warfare, and future defense needs for protecting commercial interests in the Cis-Lunar region, I was joined by Robert Geckle, CEO, Airbus U.S. Space & Defense; Patrick Zeitouni, Chief Strategy Officer, HawkEye 360; and Tom “Pumper” Nichols, Co-Founder & Chief Product Officer, True Anomaly. This episode was recorded at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s 2023 Global Aerospace Summit in Washington, D.C.
China’s Grand Strategy for the Solar System - September 30, 2023
This 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. I’m 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”; and
I’m attending the Value of Space Summit in Colorado Springs, Colorado next week. If you’re there, be sure to say “Hi”.
Ad Astra,
Laura
