[MUSIC] Did you know that humanity has sent just around 700 people to space since the 1960s? But we've actually never sent anyone into a polar orbit. Sure, we have sent people to the moon, and we've had humans in low Earth orbit continuously since November 2000. So why not fly humans over the North and South Poles? Such orbits are favored by spy satellites, weather stations, and commercial photo reconnaissance satellites because they fly over the entire planet as it rotates beneath them. And SpaceX has been wondering this too, by the way, and said, let's rectify this. Fram2's new flight trajectory plans to unlock new possibilities for human space flight. [MUSIC] >> Team, minus 20 seconds to alloy. [INAUDIBLE] >> Open aboard. [MUSIC] >> Today is August 13th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmasas, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] SpaceX announces the crew for the Fram2 mission. BP and NASA sign a space act agreement. Airbus and Astroscale UK signed an MOU for on-orbit servicing. And our guest today is Roosevelt Ted Mercer Jr., retired USAF Major General, CEO, and Executive Director of the Virginia Spaceport Authority. Ted manages the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport, better known as Mars. And we'll be sharing details about the facility with us in the second part of today's show. [MUSIC] >> Happy Tuesday everybody, let's get into it. And we're kicking off our show with big news out of SpaceX and no it is not the announcement of the fifth Starship launch Cool Your Jets. The company's Falcon 9 plans to launch Dragon's sixth commercial astronaut mission called Fram2 later this year. And yes, I'm also wondering, what exactly is Fram2? Well, it plans to be the first human space flight mission to explore Earth from a polar orbit and fly over the Earth's polar regions for the first time. The mission is named in honor of the Norwegian ship that helped explorers first reach Earth's Arctic and Antarctic regions. Fram2 will be commanded by Chun Wang, an entrepreneur and adventurer from Malta. Joining Wang on the mission is a crew of international adventurers. The vehicle commander is Giannik Mikkelsen from Norway. The vehicle pilot will be Australia's Eric Phillips. And Germany's Rabia Rogge will be joining as a mission specialist. This will be the first space flight for each of the crew members. The mission will last for three to five days and the crew plans to observe Earth's polar regions through the Dragon's cupola at an altitude of 425 to 450 kilometers. Leveraging insight from space physicists and citizen scientists, the study unusual light emissions resembling auroras. The crew will be studying green fragments and mauve ribbons of continuous emissions comparable to the phenomenon known as Steve, which actually stands for something. It stands for strong thermal emission velocity enhancement. Steve has been measured at an altitude of approximately 400 to 500 kilometers above Earth's atmosphere. The crew will also work with SpaceX to conduct a variety of research to better understand the effects of spaceflight on the human body, including capturing the first human x-ray images in space using just in time training tools, and studying the effects of spaceflight on behavioral health. All of which will help in the development of tools needed to prepare humanity for future long duration spaceflight. The Falcon 9 will launch Fram 2 to a polar orbit from Florida no earlier than later this year. And flipping things entirely on SpaceX, SpaceX is getting its hand slapped again for polluting waters in and around its Boca Chica launch facility in Texas. CNBC is reporting that the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, otherwise known as the TCEQ, released a report stating that SpaceX violated environmental regulations by repeatedly releasing pollutants into or near bodies of water at its starbase facility. The state agency received a total of 14 complaints alleging that SpaceX was discharging deluge water without TCEQ authorization. These reports are likely to cause delays to SpaceX's application to hold up to 25 launches a year of its Starship and Super Heavy rockets from Boca Chica. NASA has signed an agreement with BP America to work on common goals in space exploration and energy production. As part of the agreement, the organizations will share digital technologies and technical expertise from decades of experience operating in harsh environments. The Space Act Agreement aims to empower the integrated energy company and US Space Agency to collaborate on a variety of technologies, such as digital models and simulations that allow engineers and scientists to visualize equipment in remote locations more than 7,000 feet under water or millions of miles away on another planet. The initial phase of the BP NASA Space Act Agreement will focus on developing standards and expanding the capabilities of visualization and simulation models. Later phases could include the exchange of remote operating practices, including safety, communications, process control and monitoring, integrity management, predictive analytics and artificial intelligence. A collaborative effort involving CEDA Space, Zeomass Technologies, NASA and Harvard University is planning to demonstrate rapid fire detection capabilities using a stratospheric balloon platform. Apologies if I'm mangling this company name. Zeomass Technologies will be using CEDA Space's FeatherEdge onboard computing system to be used to process high resolution thermal images captured by Zeomass's advanced infrared sensor. The stratospheric balloon is scheduled for launch in October of this year. SpaceJunk has been dominating the news as of late, understandably, and it gives us hope when we hear of organizations working together to resolve this very important problem. Airbus and Astroscale UK have signed a memorandum of understanding to explore collaborative opportunities in the field of on-orbit servicing and space debris removal. Airbus and Astroscale UK are aiming to leverage the strengths and capabilities of both companies to address the growing challenges of space sustainability and satellite longevity, with a particular focus on advancing the UK's efforts in the on-orbit servicing and manufacturing industry. The European Space Agency's GAIA mission has discovered moons around more than 350 asteroids previously not known to have a companion. GAIA had explored binary asteroids, which are asteroids known to have moons, and confirmed that the telltale signs of these tiny moons show up in the telescope's ultra-accurate astrometric data. That GAIA can conduct blind searches to discover completely new candidates too. That's very cool. Highspace has signed a consulting agreement with Komatsu, which is a global manufacturer and distributor of construction and mining equipment for the development of construction equipment for the lunar environment. Komatsu was selected in 2021 for the project for promoting the development of innovative technology for unmanned outer space construction, managed by Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology as part of the Stardust programs. Komatsu aims to develop construction equipment for the lunar environment, and with this new agreement, IceSpace will provide Komatsu with consulting services based on IceSpace's expertise in designing space test equipment and with selecting space-proven components and materials. A sounding rocket carrying student experiments for the RockSat X mission successfully launched from NASA's Wallops Flight Facility early this morning. The rocket reached an altitude of 102 miles, carrying experiments developed by nine university and community college teams as part of NASA's RockSat programs. The payload will be recovered from the Atlantic Ocean, and the experiments will be returned to the student teams for analysis. And that concludes today's Intel Briefing. Head to the selected reading section of our show notes for links to further reading on all of the stories that we've mentioned in today's episode. We've also included an update on NASA's Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope Visor testing ahead of integration later this year. Hey T-minus crew, if you are just joining us, hi and welcome, and be sure to follow T-minusSpace daily in your favorite podcast app. Also, if you could do us a favor, share the intel with your friends and coworkers. So here's a little challenge for you. By Friday, please show three friends or coworkers this podcast. A growing audience is the most important thing for us, and we would love your help as part of the T-minus crew. So if you find T-minus useful, and we always, always, always, always, hope that you do, please share the show so other professionals like you can find it. Thank you so much for your support. It means a lot to me and all of us here at T-minus. [Music] Today's guest is Roosevelt Ted Mercer Jr., retired major general USAF, CEO and executive director of the Virginia Space Port Authority. Ted manages the Mars launch facility, and we started our chat with him providing some background on how he ended up in this role. So I've been around space and the space business for a long time, well over 40 years. I started out as a second lieutenant in our nation's air force in the intercontinental ballistic missile business, sitting in underground missile silos and standing the nation's watch on our nuclear arsenal. So I grew up in that business. I spent well over 32 years in our nation's air force, retiring as a manager general, a two-star general out of our country's air force. I got into the space lift business when I was the commander of Bannonburg Space Force Base out in California, doing the launch operations there. I was the commander of the Eastern Launch Range down at Cape Canaveral, what is now the 45th space delta. They had multiple assignments at various headquarters from the Pentagon all the way to what was then strategic air command and now strategic command in Omaha, Nebraska. So I failed at retirement though miserably, failed miserably three times. I did serve the nation in that capacity, like I said, for well over 32 years. Then I left and retired. I thought I was going to retire. And then I got the call immediately from industry. So I immediately then went into a company that was called ITT Corporation. They later became ITT Excellus. And then I thought I was going to retire. Then within a month, I'd gotten a call by the Federal Aviation Administration to come and take over what was called their interagency planning office for the next generation air transportation system. It's called NextGen. So I worked there for five years. And because of my prior government and military service, I could retire after five years from the agency. And so I said, okay, this is my final retirement. I'm done. I'm going to retire and hang up my spurs. And then I got a call from an individual that asked me what I'd be willing to put my name in the hat to get back into launching rockets, to become a CEO of the Virginia Space Portatory. So that's how I got to where I am today. I love what I'm doing. It's the only reason that I'm doing it and continuing to do it is because I love it. What an amazing career you continue to have. It makes so much sense that you are where you are right now. There's so much good stuff happening at Mars. I mean, I know you all run it. So I would love to hear more about all the good things that are happening because I just, I hear all these fantastic headlines all the time about all these new companies that are setting up there. And it sounds like a very exciting time to be there. It is an exciting time. Mars actually stands for the Minutelanic Regional Space Port. We are one of only four public space boards in the United States licensed by the FAA for vertical lift to orbit. Now you will hear many people talk about the fact that there are 14 licensed space ports in the United States. Yes, that is true. There are 14 licensed space ports in the United States, but all space ports are not the same. You have four that are licensed for vertical lift to orbit. Those four do 98 to 99 percent of all orbital insertion for the country. Those four. There are two on the West Coast, Alaska, Kodiak, Alaska, and Bannonberg Space Force Base in California, and there are two on the East Coast. Many and everybody knows about Cape Canaveral down in Florida, and then there's Mars, us. That's it. Elon Musk, SpaceX owns their own private launch pad down in Boca Chica, Texas, but that's only designed to launch that large starship. They don't launch any other rockets off of that particular platform. So the nation has four to guarantee assured access to space. Now, what's been happening at Mars? In the last three years, we have grown exponentially. I'm in the construction business as well as the space launch business. We are building assembly and integration and test facilities. We're building launch pads. We're building landing sites. By the end of this year, we'll effectively have four launch pads now. By the end of this year, we will have four separate customers. And for the first time for any spaceport in the United States, we will be launching two separate companies with two separate kinds of rockets off of the same launch pad. That'll be a first. And we're going to do that right here at Mars. So we have just approved, got approval last week from our board of directors. All I can tell you is that they have approved another acquisition for us. I can't go into detail on that yet, but we're about to acquire another facility that will help us to expand, will help us to grow, that will help us to better support the customers that we have coming to the Eastern Shore. I would love to see it in person. It's been on my list for ages. And I would invite any of your listeners. Come visit us. We do public tours. We love taking you and showing you the spaceport. And I will tell you the thing that strikes most people is the magnitude, the size of what it takes to operate a spaceport and launch rockets and to better draw a correlation between what a spaceport is in a lot of ways. We're like an airport. And the airplanes can't leave and take off without having some place to do it. We cannot launch rockets in the United States without having some place to do it, some safe place to do it. And that's where spaceports come in. And when you talk about the criticality of assured access to space for this country, you must have a spaceport because that's where it all begins. I mentioned to you earlier that I work building the most exquisite satellites this nation makes. But on the ground, those satellites are nothing more than hunks of metal. You don't release that capability until it gets to orbit. And the only way you get it to orbit is with a spaceport from which to launch it. I want to ask about just sort of the five to 10-year vision. What will Mars look like five to 10 years from now? We are already now a fully operational spaceport. We are going to be an extremely busy one. I mentioned to you by the end of this year, we will have four different customers that want to actually fly five different types of rockets out of Mars. And we are going to move ourselves in the future into becoming what I consider to be a complete backup for the Cape Canaver down in Florida, in that technology has advanced so much today that what we call mid-size or mid-class rockets, because the technology today is so new and unique, it will allow now a mid-sized rocket to be able to lift a heavy-class payload. This was never possible in the past, but it's going to move us into the heavy-class domain when we talk about the weight that we can put into low-earth orbit. For example, Rocket Lab is designing a brand new rocket, never before seen where it's going to be a completely reusable rocket. It's a mid-class rocket, so we will be launching them out of Mars. But that rocket will be capable of lifting in excess of 29,000 pounds on a single rocket, 29,000. That moves us into the heavy-class and then the ability then to become a full backup to Cape Canaver. That's where I see us in the future. And I see us operating at an operations tempo that years ago people would not have believed would be possible out of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Space Board, but I predict that in the future we will. Let me add one other thing, and that is the impact that all of this growth has on the Eastern Shore and the Commonwealth of Virginia. It means exponential economic development. It means exponential growth in jobs and job opportunities. It means opening up not only the high-end technical support, but also the ability to get into manufacturing, where we can take young people fresh out of high school, give them good-paying solid jobs on the Eastern Shore, where they don't have to leave the Eastern Shore to find good jobs and good employment. That's what this growth does for the Eastern Shore and the Commonwealth of Virginia. We'll be right back. Welcome back. Space weather has been a lot of fun lately. We're in that nearing solar maximum period where CMEs or coronal mass ejections are providing some amazing displays in the night sky that we really don't often get this far south. Folks living in the northern states of the US and in Canada were offered an amazing opportunity to see the northern lights on Sunday and again even last night with the perseid meteor shower as the backdrop. Lucky! So what's causing all of this? Well, it's all to do with the solar cycle and we're somewhere in the peak or near the peak of the solar maximum when the sun's activity is at its highest. We never know when the actual maximum is until after it peaks. We are currently in solar cycle number 25 and it has likely reached the highest sunspot number yet, a value of at least 299, which is the highest in 20 years by the way. NOAA's space weather predictions have shared that a G2, which is a moderate geomagnetic storm, is likely again tonight as CME passage and influences, which all began on the August 11th, continue. So if you like me live in a northern state or are a neighbor to the north in Canada, from New York to Idaho, make a point to go outside tonight and see if you can catch a glimpse of the auroras or the northern lights. And poor Alice is suffering with FOMO as those northern lines will not be reaching us south as New Mexico again anytime soon. So if you are a photographer, please share your pictures with us so we can enjoy the gorgeous views. That's it for T-minus for August 13th, 2024, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. We are 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 Carruth. 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 Kilpie is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
