Hey, humans. How's it going? Susan Ruth here.
Thanks for listening to another episode of Hey Human Podcast.
This is episode 377,
and I had a conversation with Colonel Rich Knisely.
Colonel Knisely is in the United States Space Force.
He serves as the senior material leader for the commercial space office within
Space Systems Command, one of three Space Force field commands.
That is a mouthful. I know we chatted about what his role is within Space Force,
what Space Force is, and I asked him all about what's going on up there.
I was super curious about a bazillion things. I could've asked him, uh,
all day questions, but he was super generous with his time,
and I think you're gonna really enjoy this. I don't know about you,
but I certainly did not know very much about Space Force,
and so this was really helpful. Check out, hey,
human podcast.com for links. And to learn more about my guests and the show,
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Thank you for listening. Be well, be kind, be love,
live long and prosper. All right, here we go.
Colonel Ley, welcome to Hey, human.
Thank you for having me, Susan. It's great to actually see you again.
Yeah, I'm really excited. We met on a random,
on an airplane you were staying across from me in uniform,
and I looked over and I thought, I think that's, I think that's Air Force,
but I'm not sure.
And then I looked at the patch on your Insignia and I thought that's is that,
oh my God, space Force. What? I was so excited.
So I really appreciate that you were so kind, uh, and talk to me and talk and,
you know, told me how to get ahold of you for an interview.
No, I was glad it, uh, worked out and, uh, you know,
I it's actually really cool to, uh, see your genuine interest in it.
And it looked like you had a thousand questions.
Just one of those awesome opportunities, uh, that, you know,
a Space Force Guardian can, uh,
reach out and just answer any questions you have. And, uh, anything about the,
uh, the Space Force or, uh, what we're doing in general, it's, uh, something,
uh, really cool and, uh, important that the public needs to know.
Absolutely. Well, let's start a little bit with you personally.
Where are you from? Where did you grow up?
What got you interested in the military?
Ooh, man. All right. So, uh, I'm, uh, what you call a,
uh, military brat. So, uh, my father is a, uh,
retired colonel in the, uh, air Force. Wow.
I have not known anything but the military in my entire life. So I was, uh,
born into the military and, uh, we, uh,
we made
1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 moves,
uh, as a kid. And, uh, you know,
I just saw how the military was taking care of my father and, uh, you know,
all the cool experiences that he had leading people and how they really,
uh, responded to him as a leader. My, my father was one of those, uh,
people leaders, and one of the things he always taught me was,
if your people are happy, the the work will get done.
I saw how they responded to him, and even when I was in high school, I did, uh,
what they call junior R o t c,
which is taking military classes as a high school kid.
So you learn how to use the uniform, uh, wear the uniform and, uh,
do drill and ceremonies and learn customs and courtesies
just kind of decided, you know, I, this is something I'm really interested in.
Went to college out at, uh, Colorado State and, uh, took R O T C there,
and I, uh, commissioned into the Air Force in, uh, 2000.
It's kind of funny to say that I spent 21 years in the Air Force,
and then I moved over to the Space Force,
and I've been here for about two years now.
That must have been quite a thing to wrap your head around,
did you grow up being interested in space, space exploration,
or even just the perimeter of the Earth and what's going on there?
So, my father was a space operator, so he, uh, was one of those,
one of those men and women that controlled the satellites from the ground.
He also commanded, uh, one of our, uh, sites out in Hawaii.
And so I've, I've been, I've actually grown up around space as I was growing up.
It's actually kind of just really cool how I came into the military as a,
uh, space acquisition, uh, professional, which is a program manager.
The first program I worked on was a, uh,
survivor radio that communicated with satellites as well as, you know,
point to point between, uh, the radio and, uh, the rescue helicopter.
So, most of my career has been in space as a, uh, acquisition person,
and I've done time working with Congress as a legislative liaison.
I've had the, uh, fortune of commanding twice and deploying,
and it's just what I've grown up in. So when the Space Force came into, uh,
our world in, uh, 2019 just was a natural fit for me to, uh,
raise my hand and, uh, come over as a, uh, space Force guardian.
Is that mostly where they got people? Was Air Force into Space Force?
The original group, yes. We're, uh, mostly Air Force folks,
but what we've been doing now is having a number of, uh,
what we're calling inner service transfers. So people from the Army, the Navy,
the Marines who were doing space jobs within their
respective services,
or there were some that just really wanted to become a part of the space
mission, uh, raised their hand and cross commissioned into the, uh,
space Force. So we've been doing that for, uh, the past couple of years now,
having a good amount of, of those inner service transfers.
And it's been really cool to have them over because you're getting a new,
you're getting new ideas of how to do things.
It's also really kind of reinvigorating the culture and, you know, it's a,
it's just really exciting.
When you speak of acquisitions,
do you mean the real estate of space in that, the place you put a satellite?
No, uh, when I talk about space acquisitions and, uh, it's actually the, uh,
primary, uh, mission of Space Systems Command,
which is the larger organization that I'm a part of, our mission is to,
uh, develop field launch and, um,
sustain space capabilities and, uh,
provide those capabilities out to our respective war fighters down range.
And I'm sure we'll talk a little bit later on about just the importance of
space, but that's really what I do as an acquisition officer,
is to manage the budget that, you know, the taxpayers trust us with,
because it's a taxpayer money. But what we're doing is, uh,
managing programs and providing capability out to the war fighter.
So when I'm talking about acquisitions, it could be developing a satellite,
it could be, uh, developing a user equipment that, uh,
utilizes space capabilities. It could also be, uh, developing the ground, uh,
architecture, you know, those, uh, command and control, uh,
elements that control all the satellites and stuff.
So the whole space architecture has many different facets,
but that's really what I'm trying to do as an acquisition officer.
I'm curious to know what space means to you, because, uh,
I think about what we know of space,
what we know of what's just beyond earth,
what's then the next step as you move out? Also,
what about quantum physics and what space means for quantum physics?
So how do y'all wrap your, your duties around that?
So you bring up . The whole space environment is just,
uh, very multifaceted right now,
but one of the reasons that we actually stood up the Space Force was just to
really, uh, raise the importance of space. Uh, I think, uh,
a lot of people don't realize how integrated we are in our
daily lives in with, with space capabilities. I mean, you, you, uh, I,
I would imagine you have an iPhone, an Android, you know, something like that.
It's conversation . Exactly. So, you know,
you turn on your phone, you, you,
and you turn on your Google Maps or Apple Maps,
and that's powered by the G P SS constellation.
And that is one of our most prized, uh, constellations that is, you know,
more or less powered by the Space Force. So, you know,
we've been operating that constellation successfully for a number of years,
but it's also communications, it's weather, it's, you know,
missile warning and missile track. You know, when,
when you hear about China launching a hypersonic glide missiles, it's,
it's our capabilities that are tracking these and ensuring that it
does not harm any people or any of our allies.
So, uh, when we stood up the Space Force,
we pretty much were declaring that, Hey, you know, this,
this is a very prized domain. It's also a very contested domain.
There's a lot of activity out there, but if you think about space,
it's very unique in that there are no dividing lines. It,
it is government, industry, academia, allies.
We're all operating in the same environment together. So it's,
it's very important that we, uh, you know,
preserve that freedom of movement within space,
because all walks of life are very dependent on this domain right now.
I've seen the map of stuff floating around out there,
and it seems pretty crowded.
Yes, it is, uh, getting more crowded. I'm sure you could even go on, uh,
the internet to see just how many launches each,
many different countries are doing right now.
I think each year I hear from our launch professionals, you know,
both on the eastern and western range,
that they've now broken a new annual record for launches,
because our launch ranges we're not just, uh,
launching just national security space emissions.
SpaceX is launching all their commercial emissions,
for the most part on the eastern and western range.
You've seen a huge number of, uh, small launch companies come into play.
It's just amazing how people are really utilizing
space to, you know, create new capabilities, new technologies.
The work that NASA's doing right now with the James Webb Telescope, you know,
taking pictures just of, uh, just, uh,
the farthest reaches of Earth and seeing the potentials of, uh,
like new life and new, uh, new, new planets to live on. It's, it,
it's, it's just incredible to talk about right now.
And what about the space between the space? What about the quantum level?
You're probably asking the wrong person on that. I am, uh,
I will be the first to admit that I am a, uh, program manager by heart.
And I have a number of really smart people that worked for me who could probably
talk more at that molecular level and everything. But one thing I will say,
for a while, we were just, uh, kind of operating on like the, uh,
what we call the geo or, uh, the geo orbit,
but now we're looking at cis lunar, and we're looking at, you know,
ways that we can utilize that further orbit. And it's, it,
it just goes out further than that. So as we're developing new launch vehicles,
a able to get out to those further reaches and, you know,
start putting satellites and sensors and, you know,
just really understanding what's going on out there.
Well, you mentioned SpaceX.
I know that they are seeking to have a moon base,
and there's all sorts of reasons why that might be a potential interesting
situation. I,
I imagine that at some point we will have jumped the shark
of capabilities of getting minerals and precious metals from
this planet.
And obviously there's a whole lot out there on the moon on Mars,
potentially all these things. Is that part of, also,
when you talk about acquisition, is that also part of it,
or is it really more about defense for space force and keeping
an eye on privatized space that they don't overstep or even
get in their own melees while out there?
If China wants to throw something out on the moon to harvest,
I'm just using the moon as an example, you know mm-hmm. , but then,
then how do, how do y'all step in for that?
Well, exactly. So, you know, uh, well, there's a couple things there. So, one,
our primary mission right now is, you know, national defense and, uh,
defense of our allies providing space capability, you know,
for our nation's war fighter. That being said,
we have incredible partnerships with nasa,
and we're working together on many different, many different, uh, projects.
I actually stood up in office on, uh,
how do we best utilize the, the space that you have in a,
in a rocket fairing, you know, the big cone.
We were many times just launching single satellites,
and there was so much more space that we could have just packed more, uh,
capability into.
So I stood up an office that reached out to all those different other
agencies that had capability on the ground and said, Hey,
if you're gonna be ready on this at this time, almost like a bus rider,
I've got a ride for you. And, uh,
one of my first launches was actually launching a, uh,
payload working with a, a NASA organization,
and I was actually fortunate to, uh,
do one of the first military integrations onto a NASA launch too.
So it's just really refreshing to see the, the partnership, uh,
between both defense as well as, uh, science and technology.
So we're working together on those different aspects. Now,
when you're talking about exploration of the moon and everything,
that's very much a NASA mission,
but we are working together to ensure that near pure adversaries,
such as a China or a Russia, does not get that advantage,
if you will, to take over a moon or, or something to. Well.
What about a privatize though, for an Elon Musk who wants to put a base there?
And I mean, just to your point, before I get to that question, though,
I just have to make the,
I'd love that NASA teaches everyone how to pack for space
that they are, there's have you've ever seen,
I'm sure what goes on a Mars rover , that's amazing.
All the things that are on the rover in such a small amount of space mm-hmm.
.
Space.
Yeah. Engineers.
Yeah. That's why things, uh, take a long time to get up there.
They are doing painstaking detail because what,
what a lot of people don't understand is the atmosphere of space and the physics
and everything that goes on. Even just launching something.
And when you're thinking about shock and vibe and some of the hottest
and coldest temperatures that you can go through, there's a lot of, uh,
what we kind of call mission assurance that goes into play to ensure that that
payload will actually make it to the right orbit, and then at that same time,
do the job that it's supposed to do. You know,
a lot of people in the space world, you know, say that space is hard and,
you know, but it, you know, there's,
there's just so many different variables to it.
Back to what you said earlier,
that so much of our life is reliant on these satellites doing their jobs,
and somebody has to put them up there. The technology,
not even just our safety, which is obviously a concern,
but then there's counter-terrorism for computers and the
things that we, that we know about that operate our daily life,
but we don't think about at all. Uh,
how do you convince a populace who some don't even believe we went to the
moon.
, how do.
You,
so how do you explain to people who really don't understand
space in general, don't understand why we would need those technologies there,
why we would spend these humongous budgets to do the things
that are being done? How do you,
aside from talking to people like me who try and get the word out,
but how do you let people understand or,
or lead people down that path of understanding? Yeah.
I think you actually just kind of hit the nail on the head. Is it,
it's on us to have more interaction with the general public and
everything. So, you know,
part of one of the hurdles that we had to get over with, you know,
the Space Force was, you know, obviously showing that this is a,
a no kidding, a, a vital mission to our,
our way of life. But also, you know, when the Netflix series came out,
obviously we had to like, you know, clear that hurdle to show like,
no, this is,
I cannot explain a service that is operating
daily as much as the space force. Our satellites don't stop.
Our technology doesn't stop. I mean, you know, with the Air Force, you know,
planes, pilots, they take breaks and everything,
and they're doing great missions and stuff,
but our operators are there 24 7.
Those satellites are running 24 7.
The ground systems are running 24 7. And the, the, the,
uh, missions that our other operators, whether it be the Air Force,
army and Navy,
they are relying on these capabilities to be there at any given point.
I mean, think about a naval ship at sea,
obviously that sun goes down and you know,
that g p s that it has,
that's how it's getting from point A to point B and ensuring that it's not gonna
hit something in the water in the darkness.
Also be able to communicate between boats, between land,
that that is all done through space. And, you know,
it's just really exciting to talk about.
But I think the Space Force is doing a great job about, you know,
getting out there. Also just outreach with young people,
just like getting involved in the schools STEM programs.
It's really starting to invigorate, you know,
getting people really excited about math, about science,
about engineering, uh, when you start talking about these missions,
and I don't, I don't wanna sound like Whitney Houston and say that, you know,
the children are our future or anything like that, but, you know,
these are the folks that are gonna take us to the next level. For sure.
In my office, in the commercial space office,
we have increased our industry days by, you know,
I would say well over 200%. And that's just talking to industry.
But one of the other things that I do is I,
I go to a number of different speaking engagements out in the, uh, community,
whether it be folks like yourself, members of industry, academia,
members of Congress, because they need to understand it.
We need to advocate for that money and help them understand that
that money is going towards vital interests for us.
So I think, you know, kind of a long-winded answer is,
is to get out there into the community, talk to folks,
and show them the mission, and kind of explain to 'em how,
how integrated space really is in everything that we do.
How much of what you do, and by you, I mean the royal you of,
of Space Force mm-hmm. is safety protocol,
is protecting the populace versus
potentiality, meaning the real,
real problem versus potential threat problem.
As a service. We're always looking ahead. One of the great things that, uh,
our secretary of the Air Force and even our chief of Space operations has
kind of put on us is, is that we have to innovate,
kind of giving you a history lesson. I mean, obviously the us you know,
we used to be the only people in space for the big majority.
Obviously you had the race to space, uh, between the US and Russia,
the majority of the space assets were US assets.
But now we do have near peer adversaries, such as China and Russia,
who have, you know, increased their capabilities,
making us needing to go faster,
which we need to be smarter with how we buy things, uh,
with how fast we can get stuff out to the, uh, war fighter,
meaning not build everything in house through the space force,
but go out into the commercial industry,
seeing how we can take their capabilities and not buy,
and when I say take, not take, but, you know,
buy their services and integrate them into our, uh,
into our space enterprise. At that same time,
our allies are doing amazing things in space too, and it's, uh,
helping us work better together,
knowing that each of our assets will be there for each other.
So it's, it's been really good from a teamwork aspect.
We are still very focused on the now,
but we are equally as focused on what's out there.
And one thing that we do like to tell the public is, is that, you know,
those near peer adversaries, they're still going full steam,
and we need to be ready for, uh, potential conflict.
So what we're doing is getting ready for something like that
to ensure that our way of life will still be maintained.
That's a lot to unpack, , right?
It's a lot to unpack as a human being. It breaks my heart to,
to think about the fact that as we move off planet, it does,
that we take all our problems with us, that we take the,
the, the adversarial stance instead of,
for example, the space station, which is a community stance mm-hmm.
, uh, it bums me out for, in Frank, in frank terms,
it's a real bummer. You know what I mean? .
Yeah. I, I would say as far as a military service, I'm not, uh,
my mo my focus is not on adversarial.
I think where my head is at is,
is to more or less preserve. So when, when I think about,
I wanna make sure that you are able to enjoy the
space technology that's out there and to live your,
your lives and everything. So, you know, when I joined the military,
it was more like, you know, I would've probably joined a different, uh,
service if I was more that rah rah, gung-ho, and, you know, all that stuff. I,
I'm more.
Names.
. Yeah, exactly. Uh, and believe me,
I met with all of 'em when I was coming outta high school, and I'm like, yep,
I'm, I'm not gonna do that. I think it's just more of the,
the human aspect of things where it's, you know,
there's just so much wonder and amazement and space that we
need. It's,
it's on us as a space force to maintain the ability
to, you know,
keep performing that exploration and to do that.
But in order to do that, we need to,
we need to be able to support what could potentially happen.
Yeah. I just,
I think if all the countries came together with their best and their brightest,
it's just the potential of what that could be.
But I know that's not the real world. It's just, that's the part that,
that frustrates me, is that,
that we do have to think in terms of protecting and, and, and all that.
And I get that. And to me,
I think the great irony is people have really no
true idea about what's happening to keep them safe on a daily
basis. But if TikTok goes down for 20 minutes, or Instagram goes down,
all hell breaks loose, right? Yeah.
That's a, that's.
A shot heard around the world, .
Yeah, exactly. And from a space standpoint, you know,
someone lost their DirecTV. Here we go. So, no, no, you're,
you're exactly right. Now, one thing it's been allowed for us to do,
now that we do have the space forces to kind of have more of those conversations
of what some of those other countries are doing, you know,
like you were talking about cyber, you know, cyber, uh,
cyber attacks are probably one of the cheapest and most effective ways to do
harm. And I'm sure you could like, turn on the news and hear about, you know,
cyber bank, uh, cyber hacks on banks, and, uh, you know, other,
um, uh, necessary assets when we're putting up space capabilities.
That's one thing that we definitely look at is, is what we call cybersecurity.
Ensuring that, uh, no nefarious actors can break into those, uh,
networks so that, you know,
we can make sure that the data that are coming back and down through, uh,
many different communication channels and, uh,
data paths are actual true data, and that hasn't been tampered with.
So we're, we're definitely keen on, uh, what's, um, what's going on, uh,
in the ground, not to mention what's going on up in the sky.
I get 20 emails a day from Nigerian princes who want to make me a millionaire,
so I get it.
Yeah. Yeah. Just, just don't click that link. No.
, do not click that link. Uh, let's talk asteroids.
There was a talk in the news, of course, recently. It,
it makes me laugh because the clickbait is all, oh, we nearly missed Earth.
We almost got obliterate by an asteroid, blah, blah, blah. And then you look,
and it's the distance to the moon times 12 or something. And I think, well,
I mean, I guess apples and oranges, it's close in some regard,
but how much of our satellite
is protecting us from those sorts of intrusions?
Our satellites aren't really focused on that. Now, that being said, uh,
nasa, I, gosh, and I can't remember when they launched. Uh,
last has a program called dart. And, uh,
what DART was doing was to basically land on an asteroid
and to start, you know, thinking about what that looks like,
not to sound like the movie, uh, Armageddon or anything like that,
but that they, NASA has looked into that mission of, you know, what,
what that would look like. And, uh, I mean, if anything,
also drill on those asteroids and-ing and look at,
look at some of those minerals and stuff. But, uh, that's,
that's one of the missions that, uh, NASA's been looking at,
where our satellites are more focused, supporting, uh,
missions on earth and the, the defense and everything. But our,
our capabilities that we're producing right now,
we're not really focused on asteroids.
What about things, and I'm, I'm pulling out stuff just randomly,
but what about things like, um,
weapons that are focused to a particular focal point or a sonic weapon?
Are there ways to protect against that sort of thing?
Or any heads up that gets, that satellites prepare us for,
assuming that we're talking mostly about satellites here for what the program is
all about, and not, not further off world than that?
Yeah, no. So our, uh, one of our major constellations, uh,
when we're thinking about protecting folks is our missile warning,
a missile track, uh, constellation. Uh,
the majority of that is powered by a, uh, satellite called, uh, srs.
That Constellation has six satellites up there right now. Actually,
we just launched our last, uh, SRS satellite just, uh,
this past year, I believe. Don't quote me on that,
but now we're working on the next generation, uh, of that, uh, architecture.
It's called, uh, next, uh, next Gen Geo.
So we're working on the next two satellites that we're gonna launch into Geo.
Uh, we're working on launching other ones, uh,
that go into a different orbit called, uh, polar.
And then we're also working with partnership with the, uh, space, uh,
development agency who actually just launched their first satellites of what
we're calling tranches.
And these are smaller satellites that are gonna be in the, uh, the, uh,
Leo orbit, which is the orbit closest to the Earth.
They're gonna be launching many of those, uh,
with a constant replenishment rate. So from a missile warning and missile track,
uh, standpoint, we're actually doing very well with that. And to, uh,
counteract any, uh,
issues where you maybe have seen through China or, uh,
North Korea or anything like that. So we're doing really well there. But,
uh, also a lot of our satellites are protected from, uh, you know,
if, if there was gonna be a nuclear blast in space, a lot of our, uh,
assets are protected against that. So if something were to happen,
they would be able to survive something like that and be able to still function
and support our troops on the ground.
I imagine they're,
they're built to withstand radiation to a certain extent anyway, right? I mean,
obviously mm-hmm. where they are. Mm-hmm. ,
and I also assume that as the technology improves,
you're getting smaller and smarter with it.
Oh, , that is, uh, I absolutely, what we're doing it, our, uh,
service acquisition executive honorable, um, Frank Elli,
he's actually said,
we are done with these long-term builds that have taken, you know,
10 years and everything, things should be getting out there faster,
shorter contracts so that we can allow innovation.
It's actually been really refreshing. You know, I,
I still consider myself somewhat young that it's like, okay, good.
We're getting into a new mindset here of getting things out there faster,
not waiting for the a hundred percent solution,
because what I always like to say is, uh,
60% of something is a hundred percent better than nothing.
So get something out there right away,
and then you have time in the background to innovate on it and stuff,
or better yet, get it out there, shake, rattle, roll it, make sure it's working,
but also, you know, talk to the war fighter, talk to our allies,
talk to all these folks and say, okay, what else could we do differently?
And stuff. So it's a constant communication instead of throwing it out there.
And then now you're waiting 10 more years to get the, the next best thing.
Yeah, pretty soon it'll just be Apple watch size, satellites, .
I wanna see constellation of air tags all over the place. It'd be kind of cool.
.
There you go. I, I would be remiss if I didn't ask,
obviously in the news lately have been a lot of talk about
machines that are flitting about,
that are of quote unquote unknown origin or capability.
So if we have all these satellites out there, how are we not, maybe we are,
and I know you probably, if we are, you're not about to say it,
but you understand where I'm going with the question.
Where is that stuff and why are we not seeing it on the satellites?
If it blips in and blips out, is it there? What does it mean?
How do we wrap our heads around that? If we're,
we're thinking about protecting ourselves from China, are they malevolent?
Are they benevolent? There's, there's a lot of to unpack with that one as well.
I, well, I would say what we are doing right now is, uh,
we're keeping an eye on everything that is going on in space right now
to kind of get to your question. I, it's, it's probably above my pay grade,
any of that stuff. I'm not privy to any of it.
But what I would say as far as the Space Force goes is,
is that there is no better force out there that is
doing right with space and is really just got their eye on
the ball of, you know,
seeing everything that is going on there right now, so that, you know,
more or less everybody can, you know,
sleep well at night and just continue on with their lives and just really keep
utilizing just a lot of the capabilities that are out there.
I imagine things get thwarted left and right that the general public never
hears about, and there is this mm-hmm. ,
that's the other frustrating thing is, you know, people scream and shout about,
I I think that teachers should be paid more. Absolutely.
But I do think that we have to have a well-maintained military because things
happen that there's a reason we don't know if we did,
we would all be running around needing Prozac every five seconds. .
Right.
I agree. Having lived that, uh, Washington life for a while,
there are whoever has to balance a budget out there, you know,
deserves like a gold star, because I, I like to,
I even tell my family all the time, it's like,
there's just so many mouths to feed,
and it's just a juggling act of like, you, it's exactly what you said. You know,
we need to have a modernized strong military.
But at that same time, you know,
we need to ensure that our children are growing
up and getting the proper education that they need. Uh,
we need to make sure that roads are maintained. Uh,
we need to make sure that we have, you know,
law enforcement and, and, and, and just every, everything out there,
it's just really tough as far as the military goes.
That's why we need to do the smart thing with those dollars.
My, my commander, uh, Lieutenant General Mike Gwin,
he's actually got his head in the right direction of what he likes to call
exploit by build.
And the build stuff is the stuff that we've been doing for years. It's the, the,
the big satellites. It's, it's the,
it's the eight to 10 year developments and everything. I mean,
these are exquisite capabilities, but, you know,
in order to go faster,
we need to kind of start pivoting away from that and start really
taking into account what is the commercial industry offering, uh,
what are our international allies offering so that we can just buy that stuff
and integrate it. If it's already available,
we should be buying it because we could get it out there tomorrow.
And then when you think about exploit,
we're starting to utilize our own capabilities in ways that they weren't even
intended, because A, we can, but b,
it helps us stay ahead of the threat. And then it,
it's also, it, uh,
we have the ability to share data that's just hitting the cutting room floor and
proliferating it to our partners so that they don't have to do the same thing on
their own.
So it's a really refreshing mindset of how we having to go faster
to be more innovative. Our, uh, space systems command,
we have a number of different in, uh,
initiatives to also tap into the intellect and the innovation
of our own workforce. We have offered up, uh, programs to say, Hey,
if you come with, uh, your like, great idea, and if it makes sense,
we're gonna find some money to fund it, because it, it's a great idea,
and we're gonna get that out there to the war fighters.
So we've actually had a number of, uh, really cool initiatives.
It's really sparked something with the workforce, which is, it's,
it's just exciting.
Yeah. Do, do privatize space, uh,
groups share their toys, um,
when something really innovative happens, do they let y'all know and vice versa,
so that you can work together assuming they're allies?
Oh, absolutely. part of my job as, uh, leading the, uh,
commercial space offices. I, I meet with industry all the time.
I think I already had, uh, five meetings today alone,
just to see what each industry partners doing. And,
and it's all across the board too. It could be how to fuse data together,
you know, where you're, where you are going all the way from doing, uh,
mobility and logistics in the sky.
One thing that we're looking at right now in the Space Force is possibly
repairing satellites in the sky. You know, having modules do that,
uh, refueling our capabilities with gas,
almost like a gas station in the sky,
moving things down so it enters the Earth's atmosphere faster.
There's a lot of stuff as well as doing the right thing for the space
environment,
which is also cleaning up orbital debris and making it a little bit cleaner.
I was.
Just gonna ask that question. Yeah.
Our group called, uh, space Works, which is a very innovative group,
actually awarded a number of different contracts looking all at orbital
debris. And, uh, there,
it's really cool when I see these satellite companies saying, well, hey,
when it's de-orbiting, I can, you know,
more or less deploy an umbrella and drag a bunch of
that trash down with me and everything. So,
and then it burns up in the earth's atmosphere.
There's a lot less clutter up there,
because what that clutter's gonna do is now it's gonna start damaging
satellites. And, you know, more or less,
when you're talking about bringing our problems up into space, uh,
I would say as far as a, uh, a race,
we have not exactly been the cleanest of the group. I think it's something,
if we start the behavior now, I think, uh,
it'll benefit us down the line.
I have another question about AI capability. The idea that mm-hmm.
an AI machine learning, uh,
quickly learning device to go up and,
and be almost like a mechanic or a lineman in the sky mm-hmm.
to fix these things.
Is that something that is also being worked on?
We're definitely looking at that technology. In fact, we held a, uh,
industry, uh, event just this past, uh,
may with the help of Microsoft,
and the whole event was all about artificial intelligence and machine learning.
And, uh, we invited a, a bunch of industry there to, you know,
talk about the benefits of ai, uh,
while at that same time talking about, you know, how do we set the,
the right guardrails to ensure that you're really bounding the
technology so that it doesn't, you know, go out and, you know,
take over where it's not supposed to.
So I know that the right people are in the discussions right now,
but the one thing I would say about AI is, you know,
I I'm very positive probably the, uh,
our near peer adversaries are utilizing it.
So I think it's something that we need to really wrap our heads around it
and figure out the best ways to employ it.
One way that AI is just super beneficial is,
is that you could utilize this technology to do a lot of the,
I don't wanna say the meaningless tasks,
but there's artificial intelligence capabilities that can write an entire
contract for you, where it takes our people, maybe, you know,
let's just say three days to input it into the system.
This AI technology could write it for you in the span of seconds,
and then you could have a human in the loop, read it,
and make sure that it makes complete sense.
So there's just so many different ways that it can
make our lives easier, but I would say that there's,
there's still work that needs to be done. Yeah.
As a creative, it's a slippery slope I can see in science and technology, yes.
But in the creative realm for paintings and songwriting and, and movie writing,
keep your, your AI pause off my work .
Well, at that, at that same time, uh, me, uh, that has a, uh,
a young kid, I have to ensure that he's not chat g p Ting, uh,
his report, and he is actually, uh, learning the material and stuff. So, uh,
it's, uh, it's added a, uh, it's added a challenge as a parent,
as a, uh, military member. I definitely see the, uh, the utility in it.
There's always a catch 22.
There is, there is, there's.
Always a catch 22. Uh,
could you tell everybody how they can learn more about what you do and about
Space Force and about the command center and all of that?
Is there a good central place for them to go and,
and scoot around and find out more information?
Absolutely. So, uh, my, my recommendation, uh,
because I'm just so bad with websites, is to,
to Google the United States Space Force.
And I know they have a public website that you can talk, uh,
you can learn about, uh,
the mission of the Space Force and also the history of it. It,
it's weird that we stood up in December of, uh, 2019,
but there's just so much that's already happened in the, uh,
close to four years that it's, uh, been around just as a personal plug.
Also Google, uh, the Space Systems Command. Um,
one thing I'll say is under the, uh, space Force, there are three, uh,
field commands, which is our major commands, uh, space Operations command,
which are the, uh, folks that do the, uh,
organized training and equip for all of the, uh, operators, but also the, uh,
operations of the satellites and the, uh, ground equipment, Starcom,
which, uh,
is focused on training and testing and writing doctrine and, uh,
tech, uh, techniques, tactics and procedures for the, uh, major acquisition,
uh, space systems command. Look at all the missions that we do,
whether it be development, fielding, uh, launching. I mean,
there's nothing more cool than a launch if you've ever been to Vandenberg or,
uh, Patrick or Cape Canaveral, just to see those, uh,
big rockets or small rockets go up. Really cool.
But also we're doing amazing things with sustainment and ensuring that when we
launch something and it gets into its orbit, that it,
we're able to maintain it and, uh, you know, keep it going.
Your recruitment centers must be fascinating.
Oh, yeah. And, uh, that's all part of, uh, Starcom,
and it's really getting out there. In fact, I, uh, we just, uh, had the, uh,
chief master sergeant of the, uh, space Force visit us just this week,
and I just learned that Space Force is now gonna have its own honor guards. So,
you know, when you think about the folks going out and into the, uh,
football games and to, and displaying the flags, but also, uh, military,
uh, ceremonies like funerals and stuff to really, uh,
pay honor to, uh, those members, you know,
it's just really important to have and to, uh, bring importance to the, uh,
to the force.
Now, if, uh, a being touched down in your, you have kids,
so you probably aren't gonna do this, I know what my answer is,
but if a being touched down and said, come, we're gonna take you deep space,
you could explore everywhere, would you go.
Oh, geez. You know, uh, , I don't know.
I've been watching all these videos on all this, uh,
space travel and space exploration and everything. And I'll, I'll tell you,
uh, I have done a lot of crazy things in my time, and I will probably,
if the opportunity comes, I'll add that to my mix. So absolutely,
I will go out there, and I think it'd just be just an incredible experience.
Yeah.
I don't, I wouldn't, I'm not really interested in orbiting the planet.
I wanna go full on Star Trek Deep Space, the,
the prime directive, , sign me up, .
Keep, uh, keep watching some of these, uh, companies because, uh, they are very,
I mean, just the excitement of, you know, going back to the moon,
that's, that's huge. Human, uh, space exploration is back.
I mean, we're gonna have, uh, SpaceX has, uh, uh, gotten out to the, um,
space Station a couple of times. I know the United Launch Alliance is, uh,
going out there. I think everybody is just,
it's just an exciting time for space right now.
Yeah. Let's hope it unifies people a little more.
Now, one thing I would say, you know, just as kind of a, uh, you know,
and I hate to consider myself an old guy in the military, but I'm going to,
right now,
it's been really awesome watching our junior force take
on more responsibilities. You know, I remember when I first got in,
you know, you were handled with kid gloves and, you know, uh, yeah,
you're, you're not quite old enough to make coffee,
so you could go fill the cream and everything. But, uh,
I've been working with some very young, uh, company, great officers, and,
you know, in military speak, those are the, uh,
lieutenants and captains and I personally have been excited just
to say, you know what? Hands off you go run this.
Let me know what you need from me. And just seeing that the, uh,
the results that they're bringing back, it just brings such a smile to my face.
And I, I think, you know,
as we build the Space Force and we, you know,
continue the momentum of excitement that we have, you know,
as we're bringing in all of this talent,
I have great confidence in where everything is gonna go.
And one and one more thing, to your point,
I would say the cooperation between the United States and its allies
is at an all time high with regards to space right now. I mean,
at Space Systems Command, we host a number of different countries. Uh,
the uni, uh, United Kingdom, the Australians I'm meeting with, uh,
the Japanese next week, the Dutch have come. I,
it's been really cool to see how they wanna get involved
and, and just work together across, and we have an amazing, uh,
international affairs office here that's just,
just doing just a amazing work bridging, uh,
these partnerships. So I would definitely say, you know,
as far as the United States and its allies,
the cooperation with regards to the space Domain is, is you're,
you're in good hands.
It's exciting. It's really exciting. It is.
Thank.
You so much for taking the time to speak with me. Uh,
you were really gracious about it, and I appreciate it.
Yeah, no, I was glad that we were able to make it happen. I, I was actually, uh,
I was pinging our public affairs team. I was like, is it gonna happen?
Because she was so cool to talk to. So, no, it was great.
I'm really excited about getting this out for my listeners, which by the way,
thank you for listening everybody, and thank you.
And keep in touch if there's something exciting you wanna talk about,
you have an open door always.
And if you got a physicist running around back there, send them my way.
Awesome. And no, it was great talking to you and, uh, you know, thank you, uh,
to your listeners for, uh, taking interest and, uh, you know,
it'd be kind of cool to do it again sometime.
Hey, thank you. Bye everybody. Thank you.
Bye.
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