Ordering a new space policy.
Ethan Cook: And I think the other really key thing with that strategy is getting a permanent lunar outpost on the moon. And that's a big one. Right? That's saying, "Hey. We're not just trying to, you know, get some more satellites in space or launch some more stuff. We're trying to get a permanent base on to the moon." And that -- if that's not a tone setter, I don't really know what is.
Maria Varmazis: Welcome. I'm Maria Varmazis and you're listening to "T-Minus Space Cyber Briefing." In this show we examine the evolution of cybersecurity in the global and orbital infrastructure that powers, protects, and connects our lives. [ Music ]
Maria Varmazis: Hi, and thank you for joining me today. After some of our more technical chats in recent weeks we are shifting focus a bit for today's show. That's because this week and next week we are doing a space policy deep dive and it just so happens that T-Minus' own producer Ethan Cook is the best person to nerd out about policy with. So let's get right to it. Well, it is my distinct pleasure, as always, to welcome back to the show he who is responsible for the show, Ethan Cook, producer of "T-Minus." Hi, Ethan.
Ethan Cook: Hello. Good to be back.
Maria Varmazis: In front of the mic I suppose as opposed to making all the things work behind the scenes. So thank you, Ethan, for all of your hard work as always. And it's always a treat -- yeah. It's always great to get to pick your brain. I know our listeners learn a lot from you because you have a vast array of expertise and a lot of things that I don't. So you teach me a lot. I feel like I should let you introduce yourself a little bit because you do a lot of work on "Caveat."
Ethan Cook: Yeah. So I work over on top of this show on "Caveat" which is our, you know, really policy and politics focused podcast. Not just U.S based, but internationally based as well. And, you know, it really ties back to my ground -- my background and where I came from. Both a history in political science bachelor's degree. So very grounded in, you know, not just what's going on in politics, but why it's going on and what powers and, you know, scope that is really available going on in the political world. And where that's probably going to lead us from a historical perspective or maybe what's the decisions that are deriving some of these things. So on "Caveat" you know we look at, you know, like I said, a lot of international stuff and domestic as well from the U.S perspective looking at whether it be major laws going through, major lawsuits, international conferences or decisions, or just scope and headwinds on major technologies whether that be incidents that are occurring or advancements that are occurring or trends that we're seeing across the world.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yeah. You are the perfect person to brain pick. I will not say that phrase again [laughs]. And essentially any time when we have an editorial chat or anything's going on in sort of the space domain that has any hint of politics which a lot of it does you're often the person behind the scenes that I go, "Hey, Ethan, what do you think of this?" Like what's your perspective on that. And this is a bit of behind the scenes inside baseball for our listeners. We recently had a chat about, you know, we've noticed that President Trump has had a lot of executive orders related to space. We've covered a bunch of them either sort of anecdotally on "T-Minus" or a little more directly as part of our weekly coverage on the "CyberWire Daily." And you and I both said, you know, I think it's time for us to maybe do a bit of a round up of what's been coming out of the second Trump administration regarding executive orders relating to space and space cybersecurity because there have actually been quite a few. And I know personally I was starting to lose track and it's sort of my job to keep track of these things so I'm going if I'm losing track of this then I --
Ethan Cook: It's a lot.
Maria Varmazis: It is a lot. And for our listeners who are not in the United States or are also just wondering why on Earth would we spend a whole episode talking about this, the United States is still by far with China really close behind, but still the United States is still launching the most things in to space right now. A lot of other countries are still using the United States to launch their own capabilities. So when it comes to space stuff, putting this really generally, as goes the United States as often goes a lot of the world. Not all, and certainly things are changing, but when it comes to space policy and politics that affect how space runs in the United States that actually affects a lot of countries around the world as well.
Ethan Cook: Yep.
Maria Varmazis: So it is highly relevant to all of our listeners to learn about what's going on here in the U.S when it -- regarding space. All right. That was my spiel [laughs]. Ethan, I think the most important thing for us to address before we really dive in to the details is what the heck an executive order is and what it isn't because I'm not even sure I completely understand that. And I would love for you to sort of lay that foundation before we dive in.
Ethan Cook: Yeah. Absolutely. So an executive order is not a law. Let's make that one thing very clear. This is something that does not go through Congress. It's not debated by representatives or senators within the legislative branch then goes to the president and gets signed. That's how laws are normally assigned within the United States. That is not what this is. An executive order is a official or, you know, written directive issued by the executive branch, in this case the president, that tells the various departments/agencies operating under the executive branch that they should do something. Now with that the order carries the force of law meaning it is treated as law, assuming it is obviously a legal order. You know, you can't go order them to do something crazy.
Maria Varmazis: And sometimes there are challenges to executive orders, you know, regardless of administration. This happens. They do get challenged. Yes.
Ethan Cook: You know, for especially over the past 20 years the executive order has changed in what people view it as and the way it's been used with each administration. It has become more I think the best word for it is aggressive. Right? The executive order originally was designed the whole intent of it was to allow the executive branch to basically operate and for the president to enforce and manage itself without having to go to Congress for every little thing. Right? We wouldn't have to every time we wanted to spin up a new agency or like a sub agency have to go to Congress which has just proved to be incredibly ineffective. Right? So we put in these or this kind of a side pathway saying, "Okay. We can have this process that allows us to create legally binding documents and orders that don't need congressional oversight or approval and can be followed through." That being said, because they are not officially laws they do not hold the same strength of a law meaning that the next president who comes in can without -- and this has already happened. It happens with every administration. Basically delete every single executive order that was signed by the previous administration.
Maria Varmazis: It's sort of a tradition now when the new president comes in. A lot of the previous ones --
Ethan Cook: Exactly.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. It's kind of a thing. Yeah. Yeah. It's always fun to see that happen.
Ethan Cook: And so that gives, you know, the current administration whether that's -- whoever's in charge, not literally the current, but the current administration the ability to implement very temporal -- temporary powers. There we go. Brain fart. Very temporary. Implement temporary laws so to speak that allow them to implement control over the federal government, implement/execute on their policy agendas for the short term without needing to go to Congress. And really kind of implement policy decisions that make impact. The -- obviously that they are -- like I said, they are very -- they lack the actual backing of a law. But part of the reason why these have become increasingly more important over the past couple years within the U.S is because of the gridlock that has been, you know, just growing worse and worse over the past 20 years within, you know, the U.S legislative branch.
Maria Varmazis: That's right. Yep.
Ethan Cook: Congress sets a new bar for putting in the most least effective Congress that we have ever had historically. So this allows administrations to get things done without having to go and debate relatively straightforward bills that I think most people agree on or a sizable amount agree on. Not everything, but some of the things that we'll talk about today are actually pretty bipartisan.
Maria Varmazis: Yes. Yep.
Ethan Cook: But now we don't need to waste time going to Congress. We don't need to go through there. We can just go in, sign this, get started, you know, and get executing. And whether or not the administration who follows this administration or in the future for every other administration chooses to uphold this or not, or modify it, we at least need progress without having to go through the absolute tire fire that is the U.S Congress.
Maria Varmazis: That is also a pretty bipartisan opinion honesty about how Congress is not working. Yeah. Really well said, Ethan, and I'm going to try and nutshell it and you please tell me if I'm sort of on target here because I'll be honest. I went through a pretty good public school. You know, Massachusetts public schools are pretty decent. And we studied civics and they're pretty good, but I've got to say the workings of how things work politically in terms of legislative judicial branches my understanding is probably below average. So I'm just fessing up to that. It's not great. Anyway so my nutshell understanding of sort of what you just told me is they're both they're not a law, but they're kind of like one. They have some teeth, but not a full jaw set of teeth like an actual law passed through Congress would have. They're not a, you know -- a fiat. But they're also not as weak as a memo, you know. It's not just going, "Hey, this would be nice." There is some power to this.
Ethan Cook: Yes.
Maria Varmazis: And I think the part for me personally that gets confusing with this is when we talk about things that are within the executive branch. Like, you know, agencies that are within, you know, the purview of the executive branch. This is where I think it gets confusing for everybody because some things are under the executive branch so an executive order absolutely affects how they run. And then other things aren't. So then it becomes like why is an executive order going to change how things work with these guys, but not with those guys. And the answer is mm.
Ethan Cook: Yeah. Yeah. So, you know, very good summary. So I think you're correct. The, you know -- when you think of the executive branch who falls under that? Obviously you have the White House and the media people in there. You also have all the various agencies at the federal level so the FBI, the CIA, the Department of the Interior, you know, the Energy Department, EPA, Environmental Protection Agency. All these agencies, you know, the alphabet soup agencies, all fall under the president's authority.
Maria Varmazis: Is NASA under that umbrella?
Ethan Cook: Yes. Additionally another person who falls under that is the military. Right? So when you think of, you know, anything military including, you know, relatively new space force, that is also under the purview of the military -- of the executive branch. And that branch is going to dictate what is going to happen, who -- not only who runs it. And obviously there are flows between, for example Congress has to approve who is running various departments through nominations. And on the flip side Congress also outlines funding. So, you know, great you have this...You have this branch, whatever. If Congress doesn't fund it it doesn't really matter. Right? Because it's great, you know, whatever. The executive order. When they're really signing these things what they're -- a lot of times what they're doing is saying to their agencies, "I want A, B, and C done within X time period." Right? Whether it's I want a summary of all -- like let's say take a cybersecurity. Hey, I want you to audit all of our cybersecurity systems. Each agency needs to go through an audit in cybersecurity system within the next, you know, 90 days. And provide the president a, you know -- a summary or high profile summary of what to -- what's going on. Right? So they can instruct the agencies on what they should be doing. They also can be instructed on funding, saying, "Hey, you know, within X amount of years we want a lot of funding in to this. We want your programs to hit this point." And these are the things that you're legally allowed to do like, you know, whether it's contracting with other private companies or working across agencies, etcetera.
Maria Varmazis: And a lot of executive orders are stuff like that, that kind of meat and potatoes, "I want you to do an audit. I want you to look at your processes." These are not very sexy. They don't get any headlines, but a lot of them are stuff like that.
Ethan Cook: Legalese.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yeah.
Ethan Cook: And the last thing I think that they're really good for is tone. Right? What they're saying is this is what this administration is about for this subject. So, for example, through -- you know, we'll take the Biden administration who published a cybersecurity. Right? You know, national cybersecurity policy through executive orders. They were saying, "Hey, under Biden these are the things that we determined from a cybersecurity perspective that we need to invest in. These are the things that are important. These are the things that agencies need to be doing. And these are the things that we are committed to." Obviously all the meat and potatoes stuff is still going to happen behind the scenes, but it also was a way to tell not just their own party members, their own internal agencies, and kind of steer that administration in a direction, it tells private companies, "This is what you should be expecting from us." Right? This is what you should be working with. And it also tells international partners this is what we're about. So there's no surprises. It's, you know, we said we're going to do this and we're doing it. So if you're shocked by that it's because you didn't read the fine print.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Contracts. I mean [laughs] but yeah. It is a very, very powerful policy implement, if you want to say. And you're going in exactly the right direction here, Ethan, in terms of setting the tone, especially when we're thinking about executive orders or what I'm going to call them, EOs, because I'm lazy. So if you hear me say EO it's executive order so I don't have to say executive orders a million more times. It is not a huge surprise that President Trump in his second term has a bunch of EOs that are space related because space is something that we saw in his first term that is something very near and dear to him. He created the space force. And I'm not going to touch with a 20 foot pole whether or not that should have happened because it exists and that's all I care at this point. It's there. So let's just leave the controversy about its existence aside. But he -- space has been an area that he's very interested in in terms of policy. It's something he cares about I think personally as well. And traditionally, as you sort of hinted earlier, Ethan, it is also an area that gets a lot of bipartisan support generally. This is something that when we were doing "T-Minus Space Daily" when I was talking to a lot more folks on the hill more regularly just talking about the space industry in general that was something they would often say was "Regardless of what's going on in the halls of Congress and all the fighting and shut downs that are happening usually if it's space related we can find support because everybody likes space." And, you know, it's important. So that's kind of a great place to be. So why don't we dive in to the executive order side of things? Like let's sink our teeth in. And we're not going in a specific chronological order in terms of executive orders that have been issued so far in the second Trump administration that are space related. We're just going to kind of go in an order that we feel makes sense to us.
Ethan Cook: Makes to do it. For reference, people, the amount of executive orders has -- because they've become more popular have begun to grow exponentially. We're not going to go by name. We're going to go by the official name of like hey what they're called because if we were to list out the EO number we would be in the 14 thousands. And saying 14,000, you know, yada, yada, yada, is probably confusing.
Maria Varmazis: You all aren't going to remember that. You're just not going to remember it. So we'll give you the name and the date so you can look it up and maybe we'll say the number once. But that's it. All right. So let's start with Ensuring American Space Superiority. This was December 18, 2025. And I'll say the number. It's EO number 14,369. All right, Ethan. This one was a big one, and that's why we're starting with this one first. Why don't you -- can you try to walk me through this one?
Ethan Cook: Yeah. So when we -- so when I said earlier that this is like, you know, some EOs are tone setters, this is a tone setter. Right? This is saying that this is what this administration is about from a space perspective. It talked about various components. It talked about national security. It talked about commercial investment. And it talked about national -- just the space strategy for the U.S. It kind of hit on a wide lens which is why I say it's a tone setter because within each of these subsections did they go in to the immediate like, "Oh, we're going to do A, B, C, and you know go through the whole alphabet of every little goal that we're going to do." No. But it's saying "Okay. These are probably the top three to four big things that we're focusing on in this category and we're probably going to be adding more to this over the coming months to years." So for like a national space strategy, you know, the order really just emphasized that we want to get Americans back in to space. You know, obviously the U.S led the space race in the '60s. They look or -- this says that we want to lead the space race to Mars throughout the 2030s by getting -- you know, starting the ground working of getting those missions going. And I think the other really key thing with that strategy is getting a permanent lunar outpost on the moon. And that's a big one. Right? That's saying, "Hey, we're not just trying to, you know, get some more satellites in space or launch some more stuff. We're trying to get a permanent base on to the moon." And that -- if that's not a tone setter I don't really know what is.
Maria Varmazis: Truly. I mean and it's interesting from a non political in my case to sort of thinking more of the years of conversations on the industry side where that was a goal that a lot of organizations and companies and just people who are interested in space had been saying for a long time "We need to do this. We need to do this." A lunar outpost is the only way. We've got to have a foothold. And, you know, I'm not saying who's wagging the dog here or whatever, but seeing that actually laid out as a policy directive from the president of the United States was very much in alignment with what a lot of industry folks had been saying for a long time. So it's like they're in lock step with each other. I know when this executive order came out a lot of folks in the space world were like, "Yeah. This is what we were sort of hoping to see, and it's good to see the president echoing what a lot of us have been saying for a while." Like it -- as you said at the beginning, funding is always the thing. And that comes from Congress. Funding is really where it -- it's really easy to put out these policies. It's really hard to get things funded. But at least when you have the policy in alignment with what a lot of folks in industry have been clamoring for then that is, you know -- it seems to be a positive step. [ Music ]
Maria Varmazis: We'll take a quick break now. Be right back. [ Music ]
Maria Varmazis: Welcome back. Producer Ethan Cook and I were just in the middle of discussing a major tone setting executive order regarding the United States' priorities in space. Let's get right back to that now. I mean I'm looking at the EO right now and literally the top of the second section says that "My administration will focus its space policy on achieving the following priorities." Number one is leading the world in space exploration and expanding human reach and American presence in space by: and a whole bullet list of stuff. So that's long. I'm not going to read it. But it is. It is almost like a shopping list of what folks have been hoping to see. You know, like golden dome sort of gets a mention in there. As you said, a lunar base as a foothold for Mars. I mean a lot of these things we heard Elon Musk saying for years that he wanted to see. So again this is not hugely surprising. But a lot of things also about national security space which so again that's the military angle there. And even things like spectrum allocation which is such an important scaffolding for how space works that again a lot of people sort of in the general world don't quite understand. It's a finite resource and we kind of really -- it is like more precious than gold is the spectrum that you hold and can use. And so being able to monetize that or make better use of it is extremely important for space operations. So seeing that mentioned in there was really important. Nuclear power in space. I'm just scrolling through, but it's like it's a lot. It's a lot.
Ethan Cook: And I think, you know, to the point about, you know, funding, like we said, this is not a funding bill. He cannot just say, "Oh, I'm going to give my administration an extra $50 billion to work with."
Maria Varmazis: Yeah.
Ethan Cook: But what --
Maria Varmazis: He wants to see these things.
Ethan Cook: Yeah, but he can also say is to point with private industry saying, "Hey, I'm willing to work with you guys on this subject." Let's say it's someone who's developing lunar -- permanent lunar assets. Right? They're someone who we're going to contract out to if we're -- hypothetically speaking. What kind of -- what kind of investments can you provide to NASA? Right? And partnering and making those deals and getting the groundwork laid for those things because, you know, while Congress may set the parameters of who can and cannot be contracted too, the administration is a person who ultimately decides who's going to get those contracts. You know, the agencies are the people deciding those things. These directives, you know, and especially with this one really outline to private industry to your point these are the things we're focusing on. And to I also see it as a call to action for those private industries to say, "Hey, if you are involved in A, B, C, whatever in that massive bullet point list -- if you're involved in these things or you think you can contribute to them, we want your aid and your support." Right? And we want to make those deals. We want to make those contracts because if you get us to executing these things then we want to be a partner with you.
Maria Varmazis: Yep. Yep. And notably because we are "T-Minus Space Cyber" the phrase space security comes up quite a few times in this specific EO. Now to be, you know, absolutely fair space security often means physical, you know, protection from kinetic things or, you know, the classic is someone going to blow up my satellite threat. Or security that comes from assets that are in space. So ground security provided by assets in space. So it doesn't necessarily mean directly space cybersecurity. However it's part of that whole part and parcel. So that is sort of the relevance for the cybersecurity side there. However, you know, anything that's going up in to space needs to be secured on a cybersecurity level so it's all relevant truly. It's all baked in. I hope that's not too much of a stretch for me to say that, but --
Ethan Cook: No. No. No. I don't think so. I think that's pretty apt.
Maria Varmazis: And maybe a little obvious. But I just want to make sure that I mentioned it. Yeah. It is a -- it is a huge executive order and it -- there are a lot of marching orders in here for different -- I'm looking at -- I'm scrolling down a little bit.
Ethan Cook: Well, I think in terms of -- in terms of spee -- I think, you know, in terms of speed one of the most interesting, you know, to point again about this being a tone setter is it calls -- the order calls for space acquisition reform. Right? This is something that's, you know -- to zoom out a little bit on this administration, obviously this administration is not a fan of federal bureaucracy. And I'm not advocating for or against these things. It's just --
Maria Varmazis: It's just a fact.
Ethan Cook: The tone.
Maria Varmazis: Yep. Yep.
Ethan Cook: But I think, you know, there has been some valid criticisms over the past, you know, two decades that the federal government is way too slow when trying to get things. You know, trying to get acquisition for new technologies, new power plants, etcetera. Name the thing. The general statement is that we move too slow.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yep.
Ethan Cook: I think the tone of this is saying we need to reform internal processes within agencies to speed up how fast we can go by and make these deals. Right? I don't want to sit on a deal to try and get a technology that takes a year because we have to vet and go through this whole process that takes way too longer than it should. And by the time we actually get the deal the technology's no longer relevant because it's been outpaced by another technology.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah, and that's especially from customers within the military that's been a very frequent pain point of, you know, the speed of innovation, especially in the private sector is crazy fast by necessity. And certainly the United States' adversaries are not trying to slow things down on their side. So yeah. Speed of acquisition and procurement is a huge one. It's again completely right on. Not a surprise to see that in there. There's a lot. Like there's a lot about that in this.
Ethan Cook: Yeah. And I think, you know, this, you know, creates a nice segue in to kind of one of the next biggest EOs that we outlined which is the Enabling Competition in Commercial Space Industry or --
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. Yeah. Let's go to that one. Yeah.
Ethan Cook: Since you set the tone, EO 14335.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. August 13, 2025. So it was --
Ethan Cook: So this one was published slightly before the other one. And I think this one again, you know, it's obviously self in the name. Enabling competition in the commercial space industry. Right? Like big shocker what we're trying to do here. We're trying to get the commercial -- the domestic commercial infrastructure to be not only more diverse to spur greater innovation -- you know, the more people in the field the more innovation, the more chance that we get some big crazy break through. But I think we're also trying to increase our reliance on these things rather than trying to have it all internalized through the federal government. Why try and spin up our own, you know -- hire a bunch of engineers who then have to come in. We have to then spin up an agency or make new projects within existing agencies. You know, wait for them to do it when we could just let them stay at the private companies that they're already at, pay them whatever the service is worth, and internalize that so we don't have to have everything going through the federal government. And obviously there's trade offs with all of these things. You know, it gives a lot of power to, you know, select space vendors, you know, let's say Starlink for one. But it also allows us to, you know, to point, create innovation. We wouldn't be where we're at with space right now without Starlink. We can groan and roll our eyes a little bit, but it's kind of true.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. No. No. It is 100% true. And it would be silly to say otherwise. Honestly it's a -- a lot of this stuff it's not about, you know, how we feel about certain people. It's just it's the reality of how things are. And I'm looking through -- I'm looking through this executive order as well. And I will completely admit my eyes just glaze over with a lot of the legalese. This is just not my forte at all. And I know the devil is always in the details with stuff like this and there's a lot of under 51 USC blah, blah, blah section and my brain goes, "Oh no." But --
Ethan Cook: I think for most people it does.
Maria Varmazis: I know there are people who enjoy this stuff though.
Ethan Cook: Yeah. I'm one of them.
Maria Varmazis: I'm not one of them. I'm not one of them. But it is this is where a lot of actual important stuff happens and, you know, a lot of policy really moves the needle on how the rest of us go. Okay. So there's a section six in here about the secretary. It's called reforming regulatory leadership and accountability. So again not a huge surprise given the current Trump administration are big on deregulation and reforming how regulation works in general, if not just trying to get rid of as much of it as they can. So I may be misremembering this and I'm sure listeners will correct me if I'm wrong, but I remember for quite some time the person who was in charge of space commerce was sort of nested several layers down in the bureaucracy of the federal government. And this executive order essentially moves that person way up the food chain. So I'm looking at a certain line in here. It says within 60 days of the date of this order the secretary of commerce shall elevate the office of space commerce in to the office of the secretary. That sounds like a big deal to me. And that sounded like a big deal to me at the time in terms of, you know, space business is now big business. We are moving space commerce in to the office of the secretary which to me is kind of as high up as you can go. Right?
Ethan Cook: Yeah. It's certainly up there. I think, you know, to your point, I would agree, right, that saying that this is an emerging market or I should say probably not emerging, but more of a rapidly increasingly diverse marketplace.
Maria Varmazis: Yes. Well said. Yes.
Ethan Cook: That is only going to get more important and we as a federal government should have oversight and purview in to this now and not in four years when we go, "Man. I really wish we did that a couple years ago." It's one of those things where, you know, I think it's the easy, you know, low hanging fruit to always just criticize the federal government with being too slow and always reacting too slowly.
Maria Varmazis: Well, what would we talk about if we couldn't say that they were too slow?
Ethan Cook: But I think this is one of those times where I think the -- we're maybe not proactive enough in this measure, but we're not certainly too slow. I think we're kind of right on the point where obviously a year or two earlier would have been fantastic, but we're at the point now where I'm like yeah. This -- we're not behind. This feels like very timely and apt to get this going now. And I'm glad that we're doing this now and not in five years.
Maria Varmazis: I completely agree, and it -- the timing of this was yeah. You really said it. It was right on because if you look around globally what's been going on with the global space economy is other players outside of the United States are rapidly ramping up their capabilities. No. They are not, with the exception of China which again is very close behind -- everybody else they're not I would not say within, you know, making people really sweat. But we have seen, you know, missions that are with sometimes U.S based companies. They've said essentially it was too hard and too burdensome to navigate through U.S regulations and the whole process here and they went to other countries to, you know, for launch or for retrieval purposes. There's a whole bunch of stories that we've covered in the past about stuff like this. We'll include links in the show notes. But it's just other countries are now able to start filling gaps left behind when either we don't have capacity or our processes in the United States are just too slow for the pace of international business. And that's only going to increase. India, Europe, Australia, Japan, I mean those are just a few, but certainly China and I'm sure one day they'll probably start opening up their markets more broadly. Even, to some degree, Russia still, you know, they all capabilities and their -- our money's as good as anyone else's. So, you know, if we -- if the United States doesn't increase its pace and make things more streamlined, I should say, for space business space businesses will go elsewhere if it makes sense for them. And certainly they have. So yeah. This was good timing. And I think I remember when this EO came out. I think I'm pretty sure I heard some voices in Texas and California go, "Finally."
Ethan Cook: You can hear an echo.
Maria Varmazis: An echo here across the continental U.S like "Oh my gosh. What took them so long?"
Ethan Cook: The sigh of relief heard around the world.
Maria Varmazis: Yeah. I -- this still it's been only a little more than a year since this happened so I feel like it's still a little too early to say if this really moves the needle that much. But it's certainly a step in the right direction. It seemed to be. But I will be curious when you and I reconvene maybe in a year from now on this exact topic to see did this actually do what the industry and the federal government hoped it would. Did we actually see the pace of things increase? I don't know that we can say that just yet. But it will be interesting to see how that goes. [ Music ]
Maria Varmazis: And that is "T-Minus Space Cyber Briefing" brought to you by N2K CyberWire. A reminder that part two of my chat with Ethan Cook will be running in next week's episode so make sure to tune in for that too. And if you like what you heard today you will also enjoy our newsletter "Signals and Space." You'll get research and notes pulled together by our producer Ethan cook and me along with this week's top space cyber news stories. Make sure to subscribe by visiting thecyberwire.com/newsletters. We'd love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing cybersecurity landscape. If you like the show please share a rating and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space@n2k.com. We are proud that N2K CyberWire is part of the daily routine of the most influential leaders and operators in the public and private sector from the Fortune 500 to many of the world's preeminent intelligence and law enforcement agencies. N2K helps cybersecurity professionals grow, learn, and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, the technology, and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how at n2k.com. Thank you for listening to "T-Minus." I am your host Maria Varmazis. This show is produced by Ethan Cook and Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben with content strategy by Myan Plout. Peter Kilpe is our publisher and we'll see you next week.
