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Gen. Saltzman, 2nd Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force reflects on a common theme throughout his career. No one told him what to do next, and when he called to get advice on a path he was interested in, the answer he got was "its a terrible idea, its an unproven path". Every time someone told him it wasn't a clear path, it piqued his interest. Hear Gen. Saltzman's full conversation on the Spacepower Podcast.

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Endurance is often what determines victory in a long fight.

Gen. Whiting draws on the U.S. Navy's World War II experience in the Pacific, where underway replenishment transformed logistics into a strategic advantage. The lesson for space is direct. A force that cannot sustain itself across distance, time, and attrition cannot preserve combat power.

Space presents even greater challenges: radiation, debris, temperature extremes, launch complexity, and limited opportunities for repair. That makes resilient sustainment more important, not less.

Responsive launch, rapid satellite production, on-orbit servicing, mobility, repair, and refueling are the space equivalents of underway sustainment.

If the United States wants persistent combat power on orbit, it must be able to regenerate and sustain that power at speed.

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https://attendspacepower.org/


2026 Spacepower Conference is the Department of War’s premier space event, and its fourth year marks a deliberate departure from the traditional conference format. Bold, fast-paced, and built for action, it brings together the full Spacepower ecosystem: Guardians at every level, joint and allied warfighters, industry and investors, and the next generation of space professionals.

Spacepower is “the totality of a nation’s ability to exploit the space domain in pursuit of prosperity and security.” This conference puts that definition to work. Recent operations have made clear that space is not a supporting function, but central to national sovereignty. As programs like Golden Dome gain momentum, the urgency to act is real.

Grounded in the Space Force’s Objective Force, Future Operating Environment, and EO14369, attendees will hear directly how Spacepower is evolving: force design and budget priorities, modernized acquisition, and resilient, proliferated architectures. Key technologies on the agenda include AI, advanced data infrastructure, space nuclear systems, in-space servicing, mobility, and refueling.

The conference also focuses allied and partner integration, a stronger industrial base, and the workforce required to sustain dominance in the space domain.

This is where the next chapter of Spacepower gets written.

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He joined at eighteen because he wanted the tech school that would get him out of town the longest.

This is the season finale of Spacepower Podcast. Thank you for watching, listening, and sharing episodes. We are taking a short break, and we will be back with a new season soon. We cannot wait.

Forty years later, he is the Vice Chief of Space Operations, the number two officer in the United States Space Force. There was no plan. There was no map. There was a recruiter and a string of people who kept opening doors as he was ready to walk through them.

In this episode of the Spacepower Podcast, SFA Founder and host Bill Woolf sits down with Gen. Bratton, Vice Chief of Space Operations, to close out the season with the question every young person asks when they look at this service: is there a path for me?

The answer, as Gen. Bratton tells it, is that there are a hundred of them. He was an E-1. He was a staff sergeant in the Arizona Air National Guard fixing ground radars. He was a captain who walked into his commander's office and asked for a job earmarked for a lieutenant colonel. He flew high altitude balloons over the Nevada ranges. He volunteered for a deployment to Baghdad. He found out he was going to build STARCOM in a four car parking garage.

In this conversation, Gen. Bratton discusses:

* Why he told his recruiter he wanted whichever school kept him away from home the longest, and how that decision set up everything after it
* The doors and windows framework he has used to make every career decision since, and why he says he closed as many as he opened
* What it was like to be the first National Guard officer sent to the space track of the Weapons School
* How balloon experimentation at Nellis solved a real problem for troops calling in air support from Afghan valleys
* Walking into a three and four star Army planning session in Iraq as the only space officer in the room, with no shared language
* The moment US Space Command landed on the table, and why he missed the parallel effort to stand up the Space Force entirely
* Standing up an entire field command from zero to change of command in roughly six months
* Why he believes lieutenant colonels and senior NCOs change more lives than any general ever will
* What today's specialists and second lieutenants are being taught that he did not learn until he was a colonel
* Why he says the Guardians coming up now will be better at space warfighting than he ever was

Want to be in the room for the conversations that come next? Tickets for Spacepower 2026 are available now at https://attendspacepower.org.

Hosted by Bill Woolf
Produced by Ty Holliday

*Guest:*
Gen. Bratton, Vice Chief of Space Operations, United States Space Force
He enlisted in the Air National Guard as a radar maintainer, commissioned through Officer Training School, and served as the first commander of Space Training and Readiness Command. He now serves as the second highest ranking officer in the Space Force.

Learn more about the U.S. Space Force: https://www.spaceforce.mil/
Join SFA: https://ussfa.org/
Attend Spacepower 2026: https://attendspacepower.org

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

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A unique aspect of the Space Force is that Guardians conduct real combat operations from bases in the United States. Gen. Saltzman, the 2nd Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force, explains his own experience of watching China destroy a satellite during a 2007 anti-satellite test, returning home and being immediately thrown back into normal life. For his wife, Jennifer, it appeared to be a normal workday. Hear Gen. Saltzman's full conversation on the Spacepower Podcast.

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This video is private.

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