Eric Felt, the Air Force officer who leads the Space Vehicles Directorate and its team of 1,000 military, civilian, and on-site contractors, will talk with SpaceNews Staff Writer Sandra Erwin and Editor-in-Chief Brian Berger about the R&D investments the directorate is making to help the U.S. military maintain a technological advantage in the space domain.
* How can the U.S build more resilient space technology in the face of anti-satellite threats?
* What is the role of the private sector in bringing innovation into military programs?
* How does the standup of the U.S. Space Force change the thinking about R&D investments?
Also joining the conversation will be Paul Jaffe, a U.S. Naval Research Laboratory engineer and principal investigator for a space-based solar power experiment flying on the X-37B autonomous spaceplane the Space Force launched May 17. Jaffe will discuss the experiment and what it could mean for future capabilities to harvest power from space.