15. Bill Bruner: Our Hypersonic Future

In this episode, Senior Fellow in Defense Studies Peter Garretson interviews Bill Bruner, CEO and co-founder of New Frontier Frontier Aerospace. They discuss New Frontier Aerospace's vision of a reusable rocket-based mach-8 hypersonic suborbital cargo system. The discussion covers the Space Force doctrine, X-15, DC-X, seams in air and space power projection, Space Tourism's recent successes with Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin, equity concerns with billionaire rocket programs and their answer, Space Force's Rocket Cargo program, China's hypersonic program, the movement and settlement of space, commercial roles, the drive of commercial space to make humanity multiplanetary, advanced space propulsion, and next steps for U.S. space policy. Bill Bruner: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bill-bruner-490b098 https://dbb.defense.gov/Members/Bill-Bruner/ New Frontier Aerospace https://www.nfaero.com/ National Security Implications of Inexpensive Space Access https://fas.org/spp/eprint/bruner.htm FAST Space Study https://www.thespacereview.com/article/3193/1 https://www.maxwell.af.mil/News/Display/Article/2384716/acsc-schriever-space-scholars-expands-to-meet-demand-for-space-studies/ Rocket Cargo: https://www.afrl.af.mil/News/Article/2646782/department-of-the-air-force-announces-fourth-vanguard-program/ https://www.airforcemag.com/rocket-cargo-air-force-fourth-vanguard/ https://www.defensedaily.com/wp-content/uploads/post_attachment/157919.pdf Chinese Hypersonics (airbreathing): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mzNhrUQ_Qls Al Globus' High Frontier: An Easier Way https://www.amazon.com/High-Frontier-Easier-Way-ebook/dp/B07FYWM41W NASA Nuclear Thermal: https://www.nasa.gov/press-release/nasa-announces-nuclear-thermal-propulsion-reactor-concept-awards DARPA Nuclear Thermal: https://www.darpa.mil/program/demonstration-rocket-for-agile-cislunar-operations Dusty Plasma Fission Fragment Rocket Engine: https://www.nasa.gov/pdf/718391main_Werka_2011_PhI_FFRE.pdf X-15 https://www.nasa.gov/specials/60th/x-15/ DC-X https://www.discovermagazine.com/the-sciences/dc-x-the-nasa-rocket-that-inspired-spacex-and-blue-origin AFWERX https://afwerx.com/