News & Publications Keep Updated On All Things Space

A decade ago, a carrier strike group leaving San Diego could cross most of the Pacific before China even knew it was moving.
Today, China can track it from the moment it leaves port. Persistently. All the way across. With targeting-quality data.
Randy Schriver, Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, puts that shift in concrete terms — and explains why every member of Congress with oversight of the Space Force needs to understand what changed, and how fast.
Full episode on Spacepower Podcast

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Mike Kuiken, Vice Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, traces the moment that shift changed everything for U.S. national security planning — and why General Saltzman's willingness to say it plainly in an open hearing was so significant for someone who has been watching this space for a long time.
The framing has changed. The question is whether our strategy has kept up.
Full episode on Spacepower Podcast

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The goal isn't the most sophisticated satellite. It's enough of them.
Mike Kuiken, Vice Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, reflects on watching two SpaceX rockets land simultaneously — and what that moment means for how America needs to think about the space race. The lesson from Iraq and Afghanistan applies here too: the 85% solution is sometimes exactly what you need.
We're in a competitive race with no finish line. The question is whether we're making deliberate enough decisions to fund it.
Full episode on Spacepower Podcast

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Most people think of space as a place we operate from. China thinks of it as a place to fight.
Randy Schriver, Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission, breaks down what the Commission has tracked — ASAT tests, directed energy lasers, jamming capabilities — and why China's counter space strategy is specifically designed to blind and silence U.S. forces before a conflict even begins.
Space dominance isn't a goal for China. It's a prerequisite.
Full episode on Spacepower Podcast

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Most people have never heard of the Air Force Research Laboratory. The Space Force couldn't exist without it.

Dr. Andy Williams has been at AFRL since 2003, long enough to watch the space domain go from what he calls a "relatively benign environment" to a fully contested warfighting domain. He now serves as AFRL's Deputy Technology Executive Officer for Space: the single point of contact between the lab and the U.S. Space Force, responsible for making sure the science that starts on a whiteboard at Kirtland actually ends up in a Guardian's hands.

He's the conductor. And in this conversation, recorded live on the Redwire Stage at the 41st Space Symposium, he and SFA Founder Bill Woolf trace the full pipeline, from basic research to operational capability, and don't flinch on where it breaks.

In this episode:

* Why Dr. Williams says space is now more important to the joint fight than air — and what that demands from a research lab
* What the "conductor" role actually looks like day to day, coordinating across AFRL's directorates at the seams, and where the baton gets dropped most often
* How a service still defining itself translates operational gaps into concrete research priorities — and why the only model that works treats S&T, acquisition, and operators as one team
* What always gets cut first in a resource-constrained environment, and why that's a problem that compounds like debt
* The ROSA story: three attempts, a decade of basic research, new materials no one planned to develop — and what it teaches about what it actually takes to get a technology across the finish line for the Space Force
* Why science and technology is exactly like a retirement account — and what decades of cuts have cost the service that's supposed to be the most technologically advanced in the world
* Dynamic space operations: the capability Dr. Williams believes could be decisive in future conflict, why the U.S. isn't leading it, and what he means when he says the Space Force needs velocity — not just speed

Recorded at the Redwire Stage at the 41st Space Symposium. Hosted by Bill Woolf

Produced by Ty Holliday

AV by Redwire

Production Support by Omar Mahmoud & Emily Honhart

Dr. Andrew "Andy" Williams is the Deputy Technology Executive Officer for Space at the Air Force Research Laboratory. He serves as AFRL's primary point of contact for the U.S. Space Force, integrating and executing the lab's space science and technology investment strategy and leading engagement across DoD, the Intelligence Community, NASA, industry, and academia. He has been at AFRL since 2003.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/

Learn more about AFRL: https://www.afrl.af.mil/

Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/

Subscribe for more conversations on spacepower, national security, and the future of the space domain.

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Randy Schriver left the Pentagon in 2020. When he came back to government and walked into his first intelligence briefing on China's space program, his words were: "My mind exploded."
The Chair of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission describes the moment he realized how much China had advanced in just a few years away — and why General Saltzman's use of the phrase "mind-boggling" in an open hearing should catch everyone's attention.
When a four-star general uses that language about an adversary, it's worth listening.
Full episode on Spacepower Podcast

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