NASA takes a bite out of VIPER.

[MUSIC] NASA budgets give-off and NASA budgets take-off away. This time it's the lunar rover Viper that's feeling the cold hand of fate upon its shoulder. Sorry friend, even though the US federal government spent nearly half a billion dollars on your development, after cost increases and lots of delays, your time is finally up. [MUSIC] >> Today is July 18th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmasas and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] NASA discontinues the Viper project. Firefly Aerospace parts with its CEO. Astra Space completes its take private transaction. And our guests today are Christina Corp and Nicole Stott talking about their joint outreach initiatives called AIM Hire. They're doing incredible work to reach communities across the world and share space with them. Find out more about it later in the show. [MUSIC] It's Thursday already. Crushin' it. Let's get into today's briefing, shall we? And we're starting with some unfortunate news from the US Space Agency. Another program bites the dust. NASA has announced its intent to discontinue development of its Viper project. Viper, which stands for Volatiles Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, was originally planned to launch in 2022. NASA cited cost increases, delays to the launch date, and the risks of future cost growth as the reasons to stand down the mission. The vehicle was under development by Astrobotic. The commercial space company says additional schedule and supply chain delays pushed Viper's readiness date to September 2025. And independently, its clips or commercial lunar payload services launch. A board, Astrobotic's Griffin Lander, has also been delayed to a similar time. NASA says continuation of Viper would result in an increased cost that threatens cancellation or disruption to other clips missions. The space agency has notified Congress of the agency's intent. And before we all dismay about the waste due to the cost of the project so far and the materials already supplied, we should know that NASA is planning to disassemble and reuse Viper's instruments and components for future moon missions. The space agency has also stated that prior to disassembly, they will consider expressions of interest from US industry and international partners by Thursday, August 1st for use of the existing Viper Rover system. As long as there's no cost to the government, of course. So if you're looking for a project to tinker on in the garage, brush off that soldering iron, this might be it. And after a series of allegations against Firefly Aerospace's CEO, the company's board of directors have announced that Bill Weber is no longer serving as the chief executive officer of the company, effective immediately. Firefly board member Peter Schumacher will serve as interim CEO while the board initiates a search. Schumacher previously served in this role at Firefly and hopes to lead the 700 employees through this transition. Astra Space has announced the successful closing of its take private transaction. The company is being purchased by Apogee parent Incorporated, which is an entity formed by Astra's co-founders, Chris Kemp and Dr. Adam London. Under the terms of the purchase, they will acquire all of the outstanding shares of the company's Class A common stock. With the completion of the take private acquisition, the Class A shares ceased trading prior to the opening of trading today, July 18th, and will no longer be listed on the Nasdaq capital market. We wish Astra the best of luck. The Space Foundation's annual finance report finds that the global space economy totaled, brace yourself for this number, $570 billion in 2023. That is 7.4% higher than 2022's revised sum of $531 billion. This growth is consistent with the industry's five year compound annual growth rate of 7.3% and is nearly double the size of the space economy a decade ago. All positive news for those of us working in the industry, huh? Commercial revenues continue to account for 78% of the total economy number, while US space budgets made up 13%, and non-US spending accounted for the final 9%. Lidos has been awarded a $476 million contract to continue providing cargo mission engineering and integration services for NASA's International Space Station program and Artemis campaign. Under the contract, Lidos will provide analytical and physical processing for NASA missions and perform engineering, maintenance, and operations support. Lidos will also develop, fabricate, and certify hardware to support mission objectives. The award has a base performance period of two years, and the work will primarily be performed at Lidos' facilities in Webster, Texas. Hawkeye 360 has been selected by AFWORKS for a Sibber Phase 2 contract, focused on the delivery of radio frequency sensing data to address the most pressing challenges in the Department of the Air Force. The Small Business Innovation Research contract allows the Air Force to collect data on situational trends derived from radio frequency geospatial insights. NASA held a news conference yesterday to share details about the mission with SpaceX to de-orbit the International Space Station. SpaceX says it plans to use a modified Dragon capsule to bring the ISS out of orbit. The capsule will do a series of burns to maneuver the ISS and get it ready for a safe re-entry. The mission is aiming to bring the orbiting lab back to Earth to crash land in the oceans, sob, sometime in early 2031. Two procurement experts from the US Space Force are the first Guardian civilians to graduate from the demanding Azimuth Aerospace Missions Training Program for early career personnel. Azimuth is designed to immerse top performers in the broad range of aerospace missions conducted across military services. The curriculum includes a wide range of aerospace training, including, for those whose careers may one day include supporting human space flight, conducting experiments in micro and zero gravity on a parabolic flight. And continuing with civilian space program stories, a group has been established to address the gap in human research for civilian space flight. The Human Research Program for civilian space flight aims to address the health, safety and performance of civilian space travelers in the commercial space sector. Go check out their manifesto by following the link in our show notes. Oh, and while you're there, check out the additional story included in the selected reading section on the updates at Cape Canaveral from our friends at nasaspaceflight.com. AT-MINUS crew, if your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership or recruit talent, Team Minus can help. We'd like to hear from you. Just send us an email at space@n2k.com or send us a note through our website so we can connect about building a program to meet your goals. Our guests today are good friends of the show, Christina Korp and Nicole Stott. They've been traveling the globe to inspire folks to get excited about space with their AIM Hire program. Christina starts us off with more information about their mission. I'm Christina Korp and I am known as the astronaut Wrangler and founder of Space for a Better World. We're trying really hard to connect the space curious to the space serious and educate about the ways that space benefits life on Earth. So in the whole space of talking about that, you know, a lot of times we're talking about people who care about climate and environment and they don't understand that it's the space people who are usually giving them that data. And a lot of times people think space is this far away place. And as we like to say, we live on a planet in space. And lately what Nicole has been saying, which I love, is we live on an ocean planet. And so getting people who think about the oceans and coral restoration or different things that we have to do better at taking care of the sea, we're trying to get people to think about that interconnectivity of sea and space. And so one way to demonstrate that is the way that the moon affects the tides. And that's just one simple way to try to get people to wrap their heads around. That space isn't far away. We live on a planet in space that is totally affected by our moons and planetary orbits and all of that and the way the sun affects us. So that's the idea behind it. And just trying to bring these worlds of ocean and space together in a more obvious way. >> Yeah, I'll just add one more thing too, which is we try to get people to understand every astronaut is a scuba diver. So for astronauts, people working in space, sea and space is a totally natural thing. >> Yeah, Nicole, I imagine you might have a follow up to that. >> It's interesting because I think there's so much of this, whether you just talk about sea and space or the fact that we live on a planet or my gosh, astronauts are scuba divers. It seems surprising. And yet when you're in the world of it, it just doesn't. It's like, my gosh, exploration for me to be able to understand how to work as a crew, how to be in this extreme environment, how to function and be comfortable in these places that are not necessarily intended to support our life just directly, it makes perfect sense. And so we love sharing that in a way to perhaps surprise people. But also just to raise their awareness of how cool it is to consider the interconnectivity of everything. >> Absolutely, so let's get into some of the cool activities that you all have been so busy with that show that and demonstrate that connection between the two. So, Christine, I'm seeing this gorgeous video that you've posted in Jersey, not New Jersey, I'm not being casual in Jersey in the UK. It's just a stunning, it's stunning. I'm gonna make sure we have a link to it. Can you tell me a bit about that event, because it is really beautiful. >> Well, we've been doing this for a couple of years. I started doing aim higher artworks and the idea about aim higher is just try to get people to think about aiming higher for the things that they care about, aiming higher for their dreams. And then we do these as a group teamwork kind of activity. It's primarily me and Nicole who actually build the main artwork, but then we bring in kids and teachers and adults and whoever wants to participate. And so we've actually already done them in the Maldives. We've made a rocket out of coconuts and branches. We were in Turks and Caicos in April and we made, this was a sea and space one that was really a wave for the palm tree and the moon and to kind of showcase that again. And then our bodies are always making the stars. Usually if the sand is dry, we'll lay on the sand. And if you have five people, you can make a perfect star and we do that with kids. And so that's one way. The one that we did in Jersey, the sand was wet. So we actually had the kids standing, holding hands, forming the stars and like moving around. And the whole thing about that one was we were there for World Oceans Week with ocean people. And even they were saying people are probably wondering why we brought these space people here, but now we're going to talk about connectivity of sea and space. And that place on Earth, the island of Jersey, which is closer to France than it is to the UK, their land mass doubles in size because of the ebb and flow of the tides, which again is because of the pull of the moon, of the gravity of the moon. And so just getting people to ship, they're thinking about how they're affected by that and that place that they care about. That's kind of what we're trying to do with these kind of artworks. And what I really love is that Nicole and I both, we work hand in hand on it. We get on the beach and that's, okay, what are we going to make? I love, but just not real thought out from the beginning. So. >> Find some seaweed and make an octopus, yeah. Which you know, in this case with this event was really meaningful. The group that invited us over is an organization called Ocean Culture Life. And they were hosting this really wonderful week on Earth World Oceans Day and week. And amazing kids activities going on and bringing able to bring kids from all over the island together to create this beautiful octopus reaching up to the moon. And then as the stars kind of floating around it. But what Christina said about the tide there, I think people just grow up in that place and just, it's kind of just this thing that happens. The hour tide goes out, it goes way out, comes way in. You see the boats sitting in the mud and then they're not in the mud. And I don't think even there where it's such a pivotal thing, this relationship, this partnership with the moon. And it comes to life in such an amazing way through the shift in the tide. And it was like watching these kids and even their parents, like their eyes open up again, like, oh my gosh, that's right. This is tides are because of the moon. >> I was going to ask about those aha moments when you're helping people make those mental connections about the, in this case, especially the connection between space and our moon and the ocean. And what that must be like, especially for people who maybe are just like, yeah, whatever space or having that still like, why are space people here at this ocean event? I mean, that must be extremely rewarding to help people have that moment. Maybe Nicole will start with you and Christina, you can answer too. >> I love it because I think in some ways it seems pretty simple, right? Oh, wow, moon tide, who doesn't know that? Even if I don't actively think about that every day, I do know it. Now you reminded me. But it's like, you see this like almost joyous reaction to it, right? And then there's this hope. I mean, we have this hope that, okay, let that stick with them, right? Because the bigger part of that is, is the, oh my gosh, that reminds me that I live on a planet. I am in a planet in space. And we want people to leave any conversation they have with us, remembering, like keeping that active in their lives, that they live on a planet. And how that extends to them needing to accept their role as crewmates. >> And what I'd like to add is, so we're making these artworks, but then we're also speaking at events. So we're speaking to kids, we're speaking to families, teachers, that sort of thing. But then we're speaking also to influential people. And that's kind of like the model of what we try to do everywhere, where we have this opportunity to hopefully get people thinking about, okay, I live on a planet. I'm interconnected. This place I live is interconnected. So what's going on in space exploration? Well, let's tell you about the satellites that are monitoring the vital signs of our planet. How can that stuff be used to help with the things you care about, like the ecosystem of the ocean, right where you live? And what I always like when we're doing these talks, is having people, you can see them, their arms crossed. Sometimes people who are just probably totally opposed to space exploration. And then by the end, I feel pretty proud when I see them nodding, and their faces like they look like they're wondering, and you kind of maybe open up their minds a little bit. And the hope always is, you don't know if it'll be an immediate impact, but maybe that person starts to think about, well, maybe I should support what's going on in space. Or maybe what's happening in space, I can learn more about how that can help the thing that I care about. And as Nicole says, being a crewmate, how could I use this knowledge of what these guys have just told me to start doing something proactive about where I live? Or maybe it just inspires them even to be, want to go do a beach cleanup or do coral replanting, or do something helpful. The other thing is, is like, you get to the big people who make decisions, or have power with money, then they start asking, well, how does space affect us? And in one case, we were talking to asset management people. And they said, well, how can you make this relevant to us? And I said, well, let's turn off all the satellites and all financial transactions stop all over the world. And then they're ice-coated. And they're like, you can space. Doesn't matter to you. A whole not in a wall. It's, yeah. Yeah. So the whole point is, we're doing these inspiration projects that are really in these artworks to welcome people in, in a very inspiring way, not technical, not talking over their heads. But then our hope is, while we're there, we're talking to people that we have the opportunity to get them to think about how they're using space all the time. And they just don't realize that they're using it, or how they're using it. Or how they could be, right, Maria? How they could be. But Christina is saying, it's really just this like, call to action from it. It's awesome. It's wonderful. I live on a planet. The interconnectivity. And when I think about the inspiration of these artworks, it is, it's a much bigger inspiration, like she described. To any contact we can have, it's finding the way to inspire the thought of this connection between sea and space, or between whatever planetary challenge or interest that these people have right here on Earth, how is space influencing that? What positive effect has happened already? Or could maybe I be a part of to influence even more positive change as a result of it? This whole idea of aiming higher and reaching audiences that might not otherwise even know there's anything that has anything to do with them in space, influencing their daily lives, but then how they could be a part of it. And I love that, Christina, she's always saying, every job we need down here on Earth, we need in space as well. And people tend to think of that being such a separate thing from them. And so if you can get these kids thinking about what their place in space could be, and that doesn't necessarily mean off the planet. I mean, that means in space on our planet as well. Yes, that's right. That is such an important distinction. Yeah, it's not all about the astronaut and the person traveling in space. It's about how those things happen and what's brought back to Earth as a result of it. But being, I mean, literally hands on is what pretty much anybody with whatever skill they have could be a part of. And I love that. I mean, I tend to think of it from the kid's standpoint, but Christina is really good at considering the, this whole idea of workforce development and the space industry being, people should be laser focused on what they could do in that place. And yet they feel like it's prohibitive in some way. Or transfer their skills. That's something that we're kind of like realizing that, no offense to most of the people in space, but they're not that great at explaining how they have all these-- It's true. It's true. How we have all these-- How we go to talk into ourselves. You know, that's what's happening with it. Yes, it's great true. Well, that's where I'm grateful kind of for my blue color background with my family, because I can see that the skills that my dad is a truck driver, my uncle who's a mechanic, my brother does drywall, my brother's a garbage man, all of those jobs are relevant in space. Like using those skills for things that are within space. So the call we just had, like Nicole said, is we're going to work on doing aim hire all over the country in different states. And the intention with this is it isn't always going to be seen in space. It's going to be different places that have different types of environments. But even that is perfect, because that's-- Like when we go to Mars, we go to the moon, there's not going to be oceans there. You know? It's true. Well, maybe. I mean, yeah. But the idea though, when we go to these places, and we hopefully can reach communities that don't normally get-- You hear from the space community, number one. And number two, maybe shine a light on what's already going on in space in their community that maybe they didn't realize was right around the corner from them. You know, that's kind of what it's about. We'll be right back. Welcome back. A few weeks ago, we shared that a sailor heading to the Paris Olympics from Team USA studied aerospace engineering, specifically rocket propulsion, at Stanford as an undergrad. But it seems that Hans Hanken isn't the only member of the US team with a space background. Found this one out today. Canyon Berry, who is heading to Paris to play 3x3 basketball in the Olympic Games, is also an engineer with L3 Harris. Yep, talk about an overachiever. Not only has he competed around the world to qualify and prepare for the Olympic Games, he has somehow managed to maintain his day job with an aerospace and defense company. On that, Berry said, "I think a lot of athletics parallels engineering or high achievement. Just what drives you to be a great athlete, I think drives you to succeed in the professional workplace, whether it's time management, leadership skills, being part of a team, having drive, working through adversity. All of those are very applicable to other aspects of life." Anyone else feel a little inadequate right now? No, just me. That's it for T-Minus for July 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 by Alice Caruth, our associate producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester, with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Iben. Our executive editor is Brandon Karp. Simone Petrella is our president, Peter Kilby is our publisher, and I'm Maria Varmausus. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [Music] T-Minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]