If there's one thing I've learned in the short six years that I've been working in the space industry, it's that we have a workforce problem. I've heard from companies that they cannot attract the talent that they need and that many students that come out of college do not have the practical skills that apply to their work. That's why competitions such as the Spaceport America Cup are so important at providing relevant practical skills that prepare students for transitioning into the workforce. Today was the first in-person judging day of the competition. Add Astra to the 122 teams that have made it this far. Team Minus. Twenty seconds to L.O.N. Pedra. Open aboard. Today is June 18th, 2024. I'm Alice Karuth and this is Team Minus. [Music] NATO makes investments in space innovation. The US and India deepen space cooperation. Space Systems Command awards laser communication contracts. And our guest today is Anita Jimenez, head judge at the 2024 Spaceport America Cup. I caught up with Anita in between judging assignments at the Las Cruces Convention Centre to find out more about her role in the Cup. [Music] Let's dive into Tuesday's briefing, shall we? And we're kicking off with some investment news. The NATO Innovation Fund has announced its first deep-tech investments to address challenges in defence, security and resilience, and includes some very interesting space companies. These initial equity investments made by the 1 billion Euro fund will help advance innovation in novel materials and manufacturing, AI and robotics. The NATO Innovation Fund is a venture capital fund backed by 24 NATO allies. The fund invests independently, with 24 nations supporting its portfolio's success and help to provide deep-tech entrepreneurs with access to both commercial and government markets. Among the name recipients are our friends at Spaceforge. Spaceforge utilises the space environment to manufacture advanced semiconductor materials for critical infrastructure, ensuring more powerful and resilient capabilities across telecommunications, aerospace and quantum. Joshua Weston, CEO and co-founder of Spaceforge, said in the press release that, quote, "This investment enables Spaceforge to develop the production class version of its Ford star architecture and provide a critical advancement in key technologies with its advanced semiconductor materials." He also mentioned that it's a privilege to serve the NATO alliance. Other companies receiving funding include Space Investment Fund, such as Alpine Space Ventures, an early-stage fund focused on investing in the space sector, Berlin-based Early Stage Venture Capital Fund, Join Capital and V-Squared Ventures, which invest in early-stage deep-tech companies. Congratulations to all. And staying with the international collaboration theme, the US and India have made significant strides towards deepening and expanding strategic cooperation across key technology sectors, including space. The two nations held the second meeting of the US-India Initiative on Interceptical and Emerging Technology, known as ISET, in New Delhi yesterday. The US and India are working to secure a carrier for the first ever joint effort between NASA and ISRO astronauts at the International Space Station, which will mark a significant milestone in the US-India space partnership and space exploration. They also announced a new partnership between the US Space Force and Indian startups, with the aim of advancing space situational awareness, data fusion technologies and infrared sensor semiconductor manufacturing. They have also committed to take concrete action to address long-standing barriers to bilateral trade, technology and industrial cooperation, including in the commercial and civil space sector. The US Space Force's Space Systems Command has awarded four contracts to Blue Origin, CACI International, General Atomics and ViASAT to develop Space Laser Communication Terminal Prototypes. The contracts are the first of three phases in the $100 million Enterprise Space Terminal Programme, known as EST. The EST programme aims to enable on-albit cross-link compatibility among future space systems via the use of standardised Enterprise Waveform implemented in long-range space optical communications terminal that is low in size, weight, power and cost. The Space Systems Command said that ESTs are a key building block in the broader space data network, which will build a space mesh network for resiliency and information path diversity. Rocket Lab has secured a 10-launch deal with Japanese Earth Observation Company's Synspective. Rocket Lab has been launching for Synspective since 2020, when they deployed the first satellite in their synthetic aperture radar constellation. Since that first mission, Rocket Lab has been the sole launch provider for Synspective's Strix constellation to date. Congratulations to Spanish propulsion start-up in iSpace, who have raised 3.9 million euros in the latest funding round. The new funding brings the total funding raised by the company to 7 million euros. In iSpace will use the investment to accelerate reaching the commercial production stage of its propulsion system, expand its client base for its software tools and open new facilities to accommodate its growing team. Hot on the heels of the announcement in May which saw 30 layoffs at Satelogic, a new filing shows a round of new layoffs, with an additional workforce reduction of approximately 70 full-time equivalents. The Uruguayan Headquartered Earth Observation Company expects the reduction to result in approximately $4.1 million in annual savings and to incur approximately $1.2 million in associated severance-related charges. Additionally, Satelogic expects to reduce non-salary operating expenses by roughly $3 million annually and to moderate capital expenditures to pace investment with revenue and customer growth. ExoLaunch has integrated its customer satellites for the upcoming Transporter 11 ride-share mission with SpaceX. The mission is expected to be ExoLaunch's largest mission of 2024 to date, servicing 42 small satellites for 23 global customers. Scheduled to lift off later this summer, the Transporter 11 ride-share mission will launch on SpaceX's Falcon 9 from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California. On yesterday's show, we were discussing very low-Earth orbit satellites as commissioned by DARPA, now researched out of the UK, showing that the Vlio market is about to heat up. A new study from Juniper Research found global investment in Vlio satellites will reach $220 billion by 2027, jumping from only $17 billion this year. Why is Vlio growing in popularity? Well, it's easy to reach and it enables reduced communication latency and high-resolution imaging. I think we'll be hearing more about Vlio from now on. NASA held a press conference this afternoon to provide an update on the Starliner mission return. The undocking from the International Space Station is now planned for late June 25th, with an expected landing at White Sands missile range in the early hours of June 26th. Now there's also backup days starting four days later. NASA and Boeing explain that they have been dealing with thruster issues on board the Starliner capsule. The team have used the data collected so far and have been trouble shooting the issues. They also found another helium leak on the capsule, but they say that the leak rates are going down. They assured participants on the call that they're confident that they've solved a lot of the issues so far and they expect a safe flight back to Earth. That concludes our briefing for today. You'll find links to further reading on all the stories we've mentioned throughout the show in our show notes. Hey, Team Miners crew, if you're just joining us, be sure to follow Team Miners Space Daily in your favourite podcast app and also do us a favour, share the intel with your friends and co-workers. Here's a little challenge for you. By Friday, please show three friends or co-workers this podcast. A growing audience is the most important thing for us and we'd love your help as part of the Team Miners crew. If you find Team Miners useful, please share so other professionals like you can find the show. Thanks, it really does mean a lot to us. [Music] Our guest today is Anita Jimenez, head judge at the 2024 Spaceport America Cup. I caught up with Anita in the main conference room between judging sessions. It was loud, to say the least. 122 teams have turned up for the competition so we were surrounded by over 1,500 students. I wanted to know what it means to be a judge at the world's largest intercollegiate rock engineering competition. I'm Anita Jimenez. I am the 2024 Spaceport America Cup director of competition operations. What does that really mean? That means I am in charge of the judges that get all these scores from technical reports to the built and designed quality side of the teams. This is day one of the competition. We're at the last cruises convention centre. Talk me through what it means to be a judge at this competition and what it is they're looking for. Actually, judging starts a month ago. May 10th, when the teams turned in technical reports, judges reviewed those and actually grade them based off the rules and requirements. We started a month ago already. Those scores are part of it. Half of the scores, they're assigned teams. The judges will go to their assigned teams and start asking the design and build quality questions that we have for the teams and evaluate them, how they respond and show us what they did, basically. My judges will go to them and talk to these teams and report the feedback to me. What sort of participation does it require for your judging teams to look at the safety? I know they've gone for a range safety evaluation before they even get it. We are very different from range safety. We as judges do not make any opinions or actual feedback for safety. That is where we draw the line. We are all how you analysed it. We are able to explain it to us. Have you written it into your verbal skills? We follow that one. Range safety is a whole separate thing. They are not involved or we're independent of each other. We draw that line and I make that very clear to my judges. We are focused on how the teams are performing right in front of you. That is what Flight Safety Review is for and we stay out of their side of that house. Can you talk me through some of the opportunities for these students to take care of them? We have the category awards. Your altitude is the 10k Cots or 10k. The altitude if you are going to hit that or your 30k. We have the Cots and the SRAD side of each one. You have those category altitude awards. We have your technical awards. Those come from the podium sessions. 24 teams were selected from their entries. Their judges will also go sit in there and evaluate them based off of the 4-5 technical awards we give for those. They are presented on Saturday of course. That is what they do for technical awards. You have your sportsmanship award. You have your big cup award. You have the chili cup award as well. There are lots of awards that go on on Saturday. That is a really good opportunity. Are we looking at 120+ teams we think are coming out this year? What would you say is normally the stand out? Is it the commercial off the shelf Cots categories or is it the student research and development SRADs? I would say both sides have opportunity. It is really what your rocket does in that flight but also how you wrote that technical report. Half of it is that technical report written stuff that you turned in and then what it does in the flight and safely recovering this. That is a huge aspect of this competition. We need to talk about how you got involved in this competition. You have a history with the space ball America cup. I believe my seventh year coming. Five years with the University of New Mexico, the rocket team. That is where I started as a rocket tier. Last year as an ESRA volunteer with flight safety and range safety. I did last year and I was continuing that up until February when I got asked to be the director of competition operations. My role changed and here we are today. Trying to get the team scored and awards on Saturday. You are now working professionally in the aerospace industry and we can't go too in depth into that. Can you tell me what it is like as a professional aerospace engineer coming and seeing these students. How important is a competition like this for them? It is amazing. No matter what you do in your career it gives you those interpersonal skills as a team and being able to present your ideas to not just your peers but someone that doesn't understand engineering or rocket tree. You are going to see that a lot in the field and you have to be able to talk technically or make it simple so you get your prone across. Talking in front of not just your team but podium sessions or even your judges that you never know is a true testament to what you will do in your field and you will be uncomfortable. It is better to do it in a safe space like here before you get out of the industry. I like that. That is some really good advice to give to people. If there is somebody listening to this that is thinking I want to get involved in the car in future years, what advice do you give to them? Two things. Of course, always if you want to come out here, don't need a rocket tree. That is the first thing. Two, be willing to swelter in the heat because it is always hot. Three, sign up for the Astra Google form and be patient because we start kicking things off more in January. We do stuff behind the scenes all year round but we start pinging our teams a little bit later as we get towards the competition or right away and right after. Start early, be prepared. Everything should be. Do expect it is hot. There is no way to get around that but that is why I come back. Tell me what you are doing this week because it is a lot and you are a volunteer, correct? Yes, 100% I am a volunteer. This week, my week started when I landed in Mexico on Thursday. We have been doing all the stuff to support my judges to get teams scored and that is what I have been doing and keeping the massive score sheet. That is my responsibility. Updating it all the time. Tell me about your judges. What kind of background are they? People are interested in getting involved. I did your first judge in person because we try to get a lot of in person as always because we are all here. One of them will either have been a judge before and have that rocket tree experience. Either it is a level one, a level two or a level three. We accept all. Most of them have been doing it for years which is great. We are seeing a lot of alum like me come back and say I have my level one, two or even three and we want to come back and support that which is awesome. You have one that may or may not have that rocket tree experience and not. I am like you are willing to be here and willing to stand and let us go. I see a lot of that and it is great. That is the dynamics. Then of course our third judge, someone who is online and they just help me score the technical report. There are many ways to help this event and not necessarily be in person either. Somebody is from this area. What is it like to see this competition come back here every year? I know what I am doing every June. I love it down here. As a student it was great to be able to see all the teams compete. Now as a volunteer coming back I love supporting the teams. That is why I do it. We stay up all night to do all of this for them. I will be joining the Experimental Sounding Rocket Association's live stream tomorrow at Spaceport America. I have added a link in the show notes so you can tune in to see some of the 120 teams launching from New Mexico. We will be right back. Welcome back. Student competitions are a great opportunity for workforce development. It provides practical hands on skills that enhance classroom learning. Of course the Spaceport America Cup isn't the only rocket engineering competition. It just happens to be the largest, one of the only international competitions and one that I have been involved in for a number of years. NASA also holds an annual student launch competition which is growing. Over 1,000 students from across the US and Puerto Rico launched high-powered amateur rockets on April 13, just north of NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. Now this competition is open to younger students, middle school age and up, and these students were tasked to design, build and launch a rocket and scientific payload to an altitude between 4,000 and 6,000 feet and making a successful landing and executing a scientific or engineering payload mission. Kind of similar to the Cup but certainly a lower altitude. NASA has just announced that the University of Notre Dame is the overall winner of the agency's 2024 student challenge followed by Iowa State University and the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. A full list of winners can be found by following the link in our show notes. When I implore you, dear listeners, to get involved in one of these competitions, regardless of where you are in your space career, it's a great way to give back to the future workforce and it's a great way to learn more about the industry if you're just starting out. And who doesn't want an opportunity to watch more rockets launch? This is it for T-minus for June 18th 2024, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. We're privileged that N2K and podcasts like T-minus are part of the daily routine of many 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. This episode was produced and presented by me, Alice Caruth, our associate producer, Islis Dokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jen Iben. Our executive editor is Brandon Kaaf. Simone Brotrella is our president, Peter Kelpie is our publisher. And Maria Valmarzis, our amazing host, will be back on the microphone on Thursday. Thanks for listening. [Music] T-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
