In this episode of Space Minds, host Mike Gruss sits down with Maj. Gen. Stephen Purdy, one of the U.S. Space Force’s most influential acquisition leaders and recipient of the SpaceNews Icon Award for Military Space Achievement.Purdy discusses how 2025 is shaping up to be a defining year for Space Systems Command (SSC) and why this past year represented a major shift toward the “ground game”—software, training systems, and modernized infrastructure. He describes how Guardians are driving adoption of AI tools, how SSC is integrating commercial innovation at unprecedented speed, and why this current wave of acquisition reform may finally stick.
