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Orbital Command
Podcast: Are we Building the Golden Dome with Fool's Gold?
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Podcast: Are we Building the Golden Dome with Fool's Gold?

Getting U.S. Air and Missile Defense right

Welcome to Orbital Command, your weekly bulletin on space, security, and strategy—brought to you by ⁠Building our Future⁠.

This week, host Alex Reid surveys a national security landscape under pressure—from the chaos inside the Pentagon to the volatility shaking global markets. As President Trump lashes out at Fed Chair Jerome Powell, the economic uncertainty deepens—and a walk-back of the 145% China tariff may signal a sudden course correction.

Meanwhile, Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth faces bipartisan calls to resign following a second leak of sensitive operational details—this time through a Signal chat group. With credibility at the highest levels of defense leadership unraveling, Congress is on edge.

We also take a closer look at Golden Dome, the ambitious U.S. missile defense initiative aimed at protecting population centers from advanced threats. The vision is bold. The costs? Trillions. But the urgency has never been higher.

In this episode:

  • Why Hegseth’s latest leak may be the final straw—and who’s calling for his ouster

  • What a smarter path to “Golden Dome” looks like—and why resilience must come first

  • Space Force delays launches amid unexplained interference in Florida

  • Boeing, Northrop, and Rocket Lab move aggressively on defense-tech contracts

  • Blue Origin’s Orbital Reef gets a boost, while NASA eyes Moon-Mars mission balance

  • SAIC wins big on SDA integration, and Pulsar Fusion unveils a nuclear-powered rocket

  • Foreign space players surge: China’s lunar nuke, India’s docking success, Poland’s new constellation

  • VC spotlight: Bridget Mendler’s Northwood raises $30M to build ground station networks

Subscribe, share, and join us as we map the battlespace above.


Intro / outro music: Experimental Cinematic Hip Hop by ⁠Rockot⁠.

Cover art created with OpenAI’s DALL·E 3 model.

Alex Reid is a fictional host created using OpenAI’s GPT-4o and ElevenLabs' Eleven Turbo v2.

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