Can America Build Fast Enough to Win in Space?

Bill Woolf: Welcome back to Space Power. I'm Bill Wolff. So alongside our regular weekly episodes, we've got something a little extra for you over the next three weeks. Every Friday, we're dropping a bonus episode recorded live at the Redwire stage during the 41st Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. Today it's Matt Magana, President of Defense and National Security at Voyager Technologies. A big thank you to Redwire for making that happen. Enjoy. We were able to sit down with some really compelling voices from across the space community, and we can't wait to share them with you. And trust me, this one's worth your time.

speaker-1: Matt Magana is the president of Defense and Security at Voyager Technologies. ⁓ joining Voyager, Matt served as a president and CEO of Blue Canyon Technologies, where he led the charge in high-rate production for small satellite missions. His foundation was built over 16 years at Raytheon, where he managed billion-dollar portfolios covering everything from electronic warfare and space control to missile defense. Matt, you've seen the industry from the perspective of the primes and the agile new space disruptors. Welcome to the show.

speaker-0: Thanks Bill, sorry. ⁓ excited to be here. Thank you again Redwire for hosting this for us and excited to share my story and get some questions with you and show everybody what's happening up here at Space Opposite.

speaker-1: Awesome. Matt, you've moved from the world of massive defense portfolios at Raytheon to leading Blue Canyon and now Voyager. What's the biggest cultural difference in how we approach space acquisition in 2026 versus a decade ago?

speaker-0: Yeah, you know everything is transformed. mean it's been the conversation about what commercial is and how you actually execute commercial You know ten years ago was more of like a theory of what that looks like, you capital markets weren't you know, really as ⁓ Available as they are now ⁓ Now you have the speed of relevance because you know technology is moving so fast ⁓ and Acquisition reform is happening. So, you know more money is coming, you know We're always trying to figure out exactly where it's gonna fall but you know, we know that it's coming and and a lot more partnerships. The age-old, was like all the bigs around and they'd muscle around everything. I think that a full shift of that has happened across the board where we partner with those and bring on new space companies and new technologies and do it much faster than we ever did before.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's phenomenal. Let's talk about how you recently mentioned SpaceBeach and Long Beach as a hub for delivering for customers. Why is physical manufacturing capacity suddenly the most important metric in a domain that used to be defined by one-of-a-kind engineering?

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, as you look across all the architectures and all the things that are happening, we call it our ⁓ Leo lunar and Lagrange across the ⁓ NASA, NRO, ⁓ DOW, the need for proliferation of space capability and if you look from a weapons perspective, the reestablishment and reindustrialization of that base and being able to grow and then ⁓ repopulate our arsenal, ⁓ the need for us to be able to to reach production both on the space and defense side has been greater than ever before. ⁓ Massive strains on the supply chain side and so the focus now is not just, it's not tech that is holding us back, it's our ability to scale.

speaker-1: Yeah, and you talk about the supply chain. So how important is it to own the entire aspect of the supply chain? Or can you still work with other partners to bring in some of that technology or ⁓ software and capability that you need to produce?

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, I'd say like there's a few areas where vertical integration is really, really important for certain, I'll say markets and then how you're attacking that market. I think in what we're trying to do and what the nation needs now, it's really, you know, it's... not one person has been able to solve all these problems, whether that's ⁓ industrial scaling, even from a capital infrastructure and what it takes for us to go do that. From a technology perspective, it's really about partnerships and bringing in multiple people to the game that have expertise in certain lanes. so our strategy has been around bringing best of breed and then helping those best of breed scale, which means obviously a heavy focus on the supply chain and then the partners within that, and then helping the bigs and smalls try to find their place. and then do partnerships across those things to make it all happen.

speaker-1: Yeah, thank you. Let's talk about Voyager and the National Security Mission. So Voyager is positioning itself across defense, space solutions, and exploration. How do these three segments feed into each other to create what you call mission-ready systems?

speaker-0: Thanks. Yeah, when you look across and you kind of hear it, you know, and the tone of what's coming out of, again, NASA, Intel, and the DOW, you know, there's a lot of commonality between those things. One being AI, how we use AI across these systems, the speed of relevance of, you know, inserting technology into these things, and then scaling. And so, those three elements you see across all of those different mission areas, you see that across all the different agencies, ⁓ and a lot of that technology is similar. you know, what we're being asked by, you know, folks like Jared, and salty and the rest of the leadership is, know, hey. how do you guys go develop technology for me that I don't have to go, Jared doesn't have to go ask you to do it, and Salty asks you to do it, and then the NRO asks us to go do it. How do we go leverage the capabilities and make it dual use, not only from a commercial's perspective, but from a utilization across all the Title X, Title 50 at NASA? And so I think that it's really a pivotal point for us to be able to say, how do I go leverage all those things and make a plan that's going to actually be able to scale across all of those demands. that are we see.

speaker-1: Yeah, you you bring up a great point and it's funny, I had an opportunity to sit down with General Saltzman yesterday and ask him that same question and he said exactly what you said, which is we shouldn't have to ask three different folks to create one thing, especially when we're going to use these triple use technologies to cover down on all three mission sets and three sectors of the space domain. So, ⁓ great put. Let's talk about the Golden Dome strategy and how Voyager is leaning into that. with recent legislative focus on the Golden Dome architecture, a $25 billion effort for integrated defense. Where does Voyager fit into that system of systems? Is the industrial base ready for that level of integration?

speaker-0: Yeah, I I think what you've ⁓ kind of seen in the news and what you heard about Golden Dome is it is a scaling thing. know, it's again replenishing and then bringing new systems online. ⁓ 100 % that this is a partnership thing that's going to happen. There's no single company that's out there that is going to fulfill a Golden Dome thing. That's, obviously as you saw the industry day that we had in Huntsville last year, thousands of people in a stadium. I was like largest industry day I've ever been to in my life. And that's just a telltale sign of what needs to happen and what needs to scale.

Space Force Association: The space domain is going to scale. That's not the question. The question is whether the industrial base is going to be ready, whether we have the production capacity and the partnerships to actually deliver capability at the pace and volume this moment demands. Conversations like this one are how we make sure the people ⁓ who need hear that message are hearing it. Thank you to Redwire for hosting us at Symposium.

speaker-0: across the demand and what's going to need to be there. ⁓ Voyager is well positioned across many of the asks that ⁓ GOOTLINE has put on the table around what needs to be delivered for a total golden dome. And that requires scaling infrastructure and like we talked about things like our Long Beach facility and rapidly innovating technology to actually get the stuff out to the warfighter. That goes with our ⁓ Voyager Defense Complex here in Pueblo.

Space Force Association: These episodes are a labor of love. We can't run this show without your support. So if you enjoy it, please follow the show and turn on notifications. And if you really love what we're doing here, share it with a friend. If there's something you'd like to see covered on the Space Power Podcast, let us know in the comments or by sending an email to podcasts at ussfa.org. We're a small team and we truly appreciate all the support.

speaker-0: 150,000 square feet to scale our weapons capability, which saw rocket motors, DACs, and ACSs, and then scaling of our factories. In Northern Colorado, when we talk about space, space maneuver, and then how we scale those things and really get to volume to be able to keep the prices down to meet the mission need.

Space Force Association: Space Power podcast is produced by TIE Holiday. Video and audio for this episode were provided by Redwire. Production support for this episode by Omar Mahmoud and Emily Honhardt. I'm Bill Wolfe. We'll see you next time.

speaker-1: Phenomenal. Let's talk about expanding the industrial base beyond the boutique satellite. For years, we built satellites like Ferrari's, expensive and rare. You've advocated for high volume production. How do we maintain exquisite capability while building at operational tempo?

speaker-0: Yes, and I have built a lot of Ferraris in my life. I did that for many, many years from the best Ferraris that are out there that many of these customers rely on today. And we can't take that capability away from them. And so it's really around, back to the Long Beach and innovation side is we have to bring new tools, capability, and people to bear that is not the one to two year cycle time of us designing things and bringing them to the war fighter. This is about rapid integration and capability because technology is moving so fast. mean, look at where AI was two weeks ago, three weeks ago. Every week it's like multiplying by 10, and that's including hardware and how we do hardware. ⁓ And in order for us to actually do what the nation needs, we need to embrace that side and know that 12 months from now, we're not going to be talking about the same things that we're talking about today, but how do you build a company that's... ⁓ capable of actually taking that and inserting it into the need and actually delivering it ⁓ at the speed of relevance.

speaker-1: Yeah, let's talk about that supply chain sovereignty. From radiation hardened electronics to propulsion, where are the choke points in the current industrial base that keep you up at night?

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean those are the two for me is really like we talked about electronics and really there are electronics manufacturers out there but it's really you know this bespoke thing where everybody's off trying to do onesie twosie things that we can't do it that way anymore and driving again technology insertion for those and the other one is the propulsion side so you know if you look back on the last 10 years us developing new systems and capabilities for what we need for Golden Dome we had not been doing that. that we were falling behind on just scaling the capabilities for replenishing what we already had in theater today. And so now we have this complex problem of replenishment, which needs to happen and should have been happening over the last few years, and the new tech insertion that we need to do to go attack the new threat. ⁓ And those are gonna be the choke points that I know that everybody's been focused on over last few years. And for us, with ⁓ our Voyager defense complex here, in trying to go answer that problem.

speaker-1: Yeah, if you have an opportunity to sit in front of lawmakers, which you probably do on a regular basis, what are the things you talk to them about in terms of changing either standards or policies that need to be implemented to ensure young companies or small companies have the ability to get to the next step?

speaker-0: Yeah. doing a lot of that right now ⁓ on both sides of the house. Especially with the acquisition reform that's happening, there's been a lot of conversation and talk about what that looks like and what that means. ⁓ It's starting to come into practice and there's things and tools that are being used today that as we get into the first set of RFPs and source selections, they're modifying those things and we're trying to feedback on how can we make those things better and how do we get feedback into the right things to make sure that the budgets are put in the right place. I would say that they're very very open to that like they want to know you know they want to understand our business and understand like how you know we can bring capital markets to bear and what that means for how proposals come out that means you know how they allocate money what that looks like even with back to this whole you scaling you know capability for attitude control systems like a lot of that goes into you as you see lately multi-year type things so that we can bring the capital markets behind those things without a single year like hey we're guaranteeing I'll give you like 10 this year I don't know about next year you know it's really hard for me to bring capital markets to bear on that and so where they can give us multi-year contracts to help us go close that gap you know that's really important for us and so and the same thing on the NASA side obviously there's a lot of movement there and what we're trying to go do ⁓ new race to the moon and and and they're very structured and how they do all of their you know ⁓ all the law around how they ⁓ send money around and there are different things. And I think that they're open. I Jared's doing a great job of trying to break that red tape. And it is shocking to some people because it's not something that we've seen at NASA in a long time. And really for us, we're trying to embrace that and help them go deliver on a solution and ⁓ help maneuver those things both on the Hill and on the tech side.

speaker-1: Yeah, what does this new, min viable product concept that Secretary Mink, General Saltzman keep talking about, what's the impact to industry based on having a much larger scoped statement of work to allow you to develop some of those capabilities that you know need to be developed to support the civil sector and the national security sector?

speaker-0: Yeah, I mean, there's quite a few things that go into that thing, but for us, I'll say one of the things is most of the time it takes them forever to get the requirements set and the set requirements modify. Like the minute I get a contract where they're already moving requirements and we're and I think that's the hard part. You even for them within all the commands on making sure that they got those requirements laid flat and that's a long, long poll for them to make sure that they get it right. And then they turn it over to us and we try to figure out how to decipher what that means and try to build a business around it. And really some of that, and we've seen in these programs, have been wiped away and saying like, look, I just want you to go do this mission and I need you to go get this target at this point in time. Go tell me what you can bring. That allows us to have a whole lot of autonomy into what I bring to the fight. And if you look at... you know, how that has come to fruition on some of the recent proposals, ⁓ us being partners with quite a few of them. And you look at the solutions between one and another. I mean, they're different solutions. They're different ways that they go out to fight both great things that they're bringing to the table. And both of them will probably work in totally different ways, which probably would have never happened if they would have said, here's the set of requirements that you have and you got to build to this. They would have not. They would never gotten to these multiple capabilities and how they're going to go attack the problem. And now the government has solutions that they can go look at to make sure that they go get the mission done. ⁓ And so that's been, you know, I think it'll be transformational as that starts to take hold more. think, you know, there's still the want to tell us exactly how to go do it. ⁓ And I think that's part of what the leadership is trying to shift within the organizations of like stop trying to tell them how to do it. Just tell them what the mission is and what you need to do for the mission and let them fix the parameters.

speaker-1: Yeah, that's a great input. You know, you get to talk to lot of smaller tech firms. What's the one thing the Department of the Air Force could do tomorrow to help commercial companies bridge the gap from a successful pilot to a program of record?

speaker-0: transparency, you know back to that and I think it's getting a lot better now, you know. They have a lot of movement internally and what's happening and what they're gonna go put on contract and their thoughts around what the architectures look like. And the small companies, they have gotta be very focused because they don't have a lot of money to look at 15 different solutions and trying to figure out the timing of those things. And so even when, and sometimes the government, things are getting stuck, ⁓ they can't get through certain things, it's really for the small companies is getting the signal and understanding the timing of those because they're trying to bring their capital markets to bear and if they're playing a game of timing and they can't really get that aligned then it becomes really hard for them to execute their business and if they're transparent with them and say like hey you know here's the things that are happening these are things we're looking at shifting it's going to take us another two months then the companies can better adjust their businesses you know to make sure that they can weather those changes and then you know adjust so that when it does come they're ready to bring the capital markets to bear.

speaker-1: If you're a guardian sitting in a Delta right now, how should you be thinking about the commercial industry? Are we a vendor or are we an extension of the front line?

speaker-0: They should be thinking, as all of them said, partner, partner, partner, partner, I've heard this from leadership all this week. This is no longer a supplier, a mother-father relationship, and like, hey, we're gonna tell you how we're go do it. This would be like really sitting at the table and trying to find out what is the mission that you're really trying to solve, and then having a back and forth dialogue around what are those potential solutions that you guys have, and not necessarily like, here's requirements. go give me an answer, you failed the test, try again, I'll give you a C on this one. It's really around like, let's actually talk about the problem and let's talk about what's gonna work for you and not work for me and then us build something around it and so, from a guardian perspective is embracing the industry and really trying to find a way to not just do that but insert yourself and we see a lot of that with folks coming out, like guardians coming in the industry, like really already having some of the experience and knowing what but we need to help drive the mission. And so that just makes them better guardians and makes them know for their career and what they're gonna go do, puts them in a really good position. So partner early and be really supportive of the industrial base.

speaker-1: Let's talk about how exciting the space domain is right now. I mean, it's the most important domain of our time. And as young people coming into the industry, they probably don't have a good way to get involved. Or they might not know what the on-ramp is to get involved in the space industry. regardless of the sector they want to join. Let's talk a little bit about the spark that you had as you were growing up that helped lead you into this industry and how you're helping create sparks for young people getting into the industry.

speaker-0: Yeah, I think there is a little, I got a little bit cheat code probably when I was young. I spent a lot of time on the airborne domain and did a lot of radar, EOIR, stuff for more of the tactical side. I got introduced onto the intel side in which that you realize the importance of space to the war fighter. And I think that you probably have heard here over the last week, what's happening with the war in Ukraine, what's happening in Iran is totally shift. combatant commands on how they're thinking about fighting wars. We're not sending thousands of troops in there to fight a traditional war. Everything is from the high ground and overhead. And then you go look to the NASA side with what Jared and team are doing, a whole new focus on the moon with Mars rovers and landers and infrastructure. We just circled the moon. So like you said, it's a super exciting time that's happening right now. And for those young folks, really understanding the implications of what space has on all of those things, not just on our everyday life of GPS and all the things that... It's a lot more known of what's happening out there. And so I think for young folks, it's super exciting. I would love to be a young folk now and be like, you'll see, this was not available to us to know all the information that was happening in space. this is the most exciting time. Money is flowing to go make stuff happen and exciting time for young folks. And for us, we're doing things that as part of our Long Beach facility, we've included NASA Hunch, which is high school kids united with NASA to create Create, I almost got it, Create Hardware. There we go, almost nailed that one. Sorry, Dan. And it's really one of those programs to help ⁓ high school folks. come into STEM where they get to understand how are you going to develop and build the hardware for space programs. They get to actually cut parts. We fly some of those parts to the space station. They get to see their hardware in real time. Something that I wish I had that when I was a high school student. trying to bring that spark ⁓ to the kids now across the nation. Super excited about that program and super excited about our new facility in Long Beach to do that.

speaker-1: Big congratulations to the grand opening of the Long Beach facility. It's really phenomenal. If we get the industrial base right, what does a contested space domain look like for us in the U.S. five years from now?

speaker-0: ⁓ What does that look like? I mean, I always go back to like what we think AI was five years ago and what it is being used for today. mind-blowing, know, if I rewind back at that point time, think like, would I wake up every morning and use my chat, TVT or Gronk or whatever, Claude, never would have thought that was happening five years ago. The space domain is gonna be the same with the amount of money that's getting pushed into this domain, the amount of capital markets that are there, ⁓ the amount of alignment between, you know, the Hill, all of the agencies and capital markets. It's just, the... Universe is the limit. say sky's limit, we're well beyond sky, so universe is the limit on what it's going to be in five years from now.

speaker-1: What's one thing industry leaders should stop doing if they want to truly support the Space Force mission?

speaker-0: Oh man, that's a good one. For me, I would say get rid of everything that you've known over last 30 years. And that's actually the hardest one. I, you know, people come up to me all the time about how exciting Voyager is, and I find myself all the time falling back to, you know, my old ways of, like, oh, well, that's really hard. That's gonna take a long time. And they're like, stop. Don't do that. You know, it's a new world. And stop. rid of everything that you've known over last 30 years. I find myself all the time falling back to, my old ways of, like, oh, well, that's really hard. That's gonna take a long time. it's a new world. limiting yourself to what people are capable of today and what technology has brought to bear and really just full throttle through it and you're gonna come out on the other side with something pretty damn exciting. ⁓ people are of and what technology has brought to bear ⁓ and really just full through it and you're gonna come out on the other side with something pretty damn exciting.

speaker-1: Matt, I really appreciate you taking time out of your very busy schedule. I appreciate you also serving on the board of directors at the Space Force Association. Can you tell a little bit about what's happening there?

speaker-0: For those of you guys who are not part of Space Force Association, please join today. Go click that link and make sure that you're member. Space Force is, how old are they now? Six, seven, going on seven. Relatively new branch of the military. Have you watched some of the speeches that have been going on? Us training and equipping the Guardians, partnerships with industry, that's a really important part of what needs

speaker-1: going on.

speaker-0: to happen, understanding the importance of space and the importance of how Sprace brings capability both on the NASA and the war fighting domain. Space Force Association is that organization that really goes helps Salty and the rest of the organization really bring knowledge and capability to the general population on how important that this is for the nation and really brings avenues for guardians and their families and then people in industry to understand what's happening on the guardians side and kind of bring that broker between them. super proud to be on the board, super passionate about those things and helping guardians and really helping the nation understand the importance of what Space Force brings to bear.

speaker-1: Thank you so much, Matt. To learn more about the Space Force Association and all the activities going on, please visit usfa.org. You can also find out about the Space Power Conference that we host every year in December that really is a homecoming for all Space Force Guardians. Until next time, I'm Bill Wolff, the host of the Space Power Podcast.

speaker-0: And I'm Matt Magana. See you later.