Garrett Reim

Garrett Reim connects space and emerging technologies with the industrial and defense forces that adopt them, making new capabilities the center of his coverage rather than the hardware alone. As Space and Emerging Technologies Editor at Aviation Week & Space Technology, he focuses on the space sector, space startups, advanced air mobility and artificial intelligence shaping the future of aerospace and defense. His work spans news articles, in-depth debriefs and regular podcast appearances, tracing how policy, budgets and industrial trends turn speculative ideas into operational systems.

Space industry and commercial lunar missions

Reim’s core beat is the space industry, where he examines how commercial players and government agencies build and sustain leadership in orbit and beyond. In coverage such as “Why The U.S. Space Industry Is The Envy Of The World,” he explains why the United States holds a dominant position, linking launch providers, military space organizations and the wider industrial base into a coherent picture.

His reporting on Astrolab’s FLIP rover carrying four NASA payloads to the lunar south pole shows an interest in commercial lunar logistics and the way new rover platforms are used to deliver science and technology experiments to the Moon.

On Aviation Week’s Check 6 podcasts, he joins colleagues to debate whether the United States could lose its leadership in space, bringing his reporting on emerging companies and new government initiatives into an audio format. Across these pieces, he elevates space startups and commercial missions from isolated announcements into examples of broader competitive dynamics in the global space sector.

AI, autonomy and defense innovation

Reim regularly covers how artificial intelligence and autonomous systems are reshaping defense programs and military power.

In his “Debrief: AI Speculation Spills Over, Speeds Up Space Tech Development,” published in Aerospace Daily & Defense Report, he looks at how investor enthusiasm for AI accelerates space technology projects, linking financial speculation with tangible progress on new capabilities. His “Debrief: Replicator’s Legacy Keeps Shaping DOD Programs” in Aviation Daily traces the Pentagon’s Replicator initiative and its goal of fielding thousands of autonomous systems, showing how a short-term push continues to influence procurement and capability development years later. In “Debrief: How China Built Its Massive Drone Industry,” he examines the scale and structure of China’s small UAV manufacturing base, grounding his analysis in production figures and regional industrial strengths. Together, these debriefs show a consistent approach: he uses concrete program details, data and industrial context to describe how autonomy and AI move from strategy documents into actual fleets of drones and other systems.

Industrial automation and aerospace manufacturing

Beyond space, Reim spends significant time on automation and manufacturing within the aerospace sector.

In “Forget Labor - Industry Cannot Get Enough Automation In Manufacturing,” co-bylined at Aviation Week, he reports on the rising demand for automation in factories and supply chains, highlighting how aerospace firms turn to robotics and advanced machinery to meet production and cost targets. His article “AI Is Likely Part Of Boeing Negotiations, Engineers’ Union Leader Says” links labor talks with the introduction of AI tools, showing how technology adoption becomes a central issue in bargaining between companies and engineering workforces.

This strand of his coverage ties emerging technologies directly to shop floors and union tables, making clear that automation in aerospace is as much about people and processes as it is about new equipment. By following both corporate strategies and workforce concerns, he builds a nuanced picture of how manufacturers try to balance efficiency, capability and employment.

Policy, budgets and analytical formats

Policy and funding decisions are a recurring thread in Reim’s work, and he often uses Aviation Week’s debrief and podcast formats to unpack them. Articles such as “Trump Administration Plans Collide With ‘Science, The Endless Frontier’” show him tracing how government proposals interact with long-standing science policy frameworks, drawing a line between historical documents and current aerospace priorities.

In “The U.S. Military’s Secret Weapon?

Highly Skilled Immigrants,” he examines how immigration and talent pipelines influence military capabilities, treating human capital as a strategic resource alongside technology programs. On Check 6 episodes like “Do NASA’s Budget Cuts Spell Trouble For U.S. Aerospace,” he joins other editors to discuss funding trajectories, program impacts and the knock-on effects for industry.

His role in Aviation Week’s Space Tech Challenge Awards and related podcast coverage further underlines an interest in identifying and evaluating innovative technologies at an early stage. Across these efforts, he brings a consistent analytical lens: budgets, policy decisions and talent flows are described not in isolation, but as drivers that enable or constrain the adoption of new aerospace and defense technologies.

Reim’s through-line is clear across all of these beats: he covers space and emerging technologies with an emphasis on how they are implemented, financed and governed, rather than treating them as speculative trends. Whether he is writing debriefs on AI-driven space development, dissecting China’s drone manufacturing surge, or discussing NASA budget pressures on a podcast, his work is grounded in programs, numbers and industrial realities. For stories involving commercial space, autonomy, AI in aerospace or automation-driven changes to the defense and aviation industrial base, his reporting focuses on the intersection of technology, policy and the organizations that have to turn concepts into operational systems.