Ya can’t keep a Falcon 9 down for long.

There isn't terminology just yet for grounding a rocket, like an airplane, but you know what it means when the headline reads "Falcon 9 Grounded." Was it, though? It seems the FAA just wanted to know what happened when the booster crash landed at the beginning of last week. Falcon 9, it's so over? Nah, we are so back. Today is September 3rd, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis and this is T-minus. Falcon 9 resumes operations. Polaris Dawn is back on the launch schedule for Friday. NASA explains the strange noises coming from Starliner. And our guest today is Joanne Oliver, director at SpaceCareers.uk. We'll be hearing about how Joanne's organization helps students find roles in the space industry and is working to help plug the mid-level career void. Happy Tuesday, everybody! Hope you enjoyed your long weekend. If you had one, let's dive into today's Intel Briefing, shall we? And we finished off last week on news that Falcon 9 was pausing operations, while SpaceX investigated the anomaly that caused the B-1062 booster to crash land and fall over on August 28. The Federal Aviation Administration called for a report on the incident, which we all assumed would ground the Falcon 9 for quite some time. Come Saturday, though, just three days after the crash, their workhorse of the space industry was back in the air with back-to-back, coast-to-coast launches, despite the ongoing investigation. The two missions collectively transported another 42 Starlink satellites to LEO, 26 of which are equipped with direct-to-cell capabilities. The FAA made the call late on Friday that, and I quote, "The SpaceX Falcon 9 vehicle may return to flight operations while the overall investigation of the anomaly during the Starlink Group 6-8 mission remains open, provided all other license requirements are met." SpaceX made its return to flight request on August 29, and the FAA gave approval the next day, on August 30. And that decision to allow the Falcon 9 to get back to work has paved the way for the Polaris Dawn mission to return to its own schedule. Polaris Dawn was pushed back due to the pause in Falcon 9 launches and then subjected to some good old-fashioned weather delays. That mission is now expected to launch on Friday, September 6 from Florida. And adding to another busy week in Florida, Blue Origin is rolling out the second stage of the New Glenn rocket to launch Complex 36. Our's Technica reports that a hot-fire test of the upper stage will take place in the coming days. And you know, spooky noises emanating from spacecraft docked to the ISS was not a headline I had on my Labor Day weekend bingo card, but there it was. So did you happen to hear the story of the mysterious pulsating sound coming from the Boeing Starliner capsule on the ISS over the weekend? Yeah. Butch Wilmore called in. Houston, we have a strange noise up here. And here is that strange noise for you to ponder. Hi, how are you? How was the checkered out? Yep, good recording. Thanks, Butch. We will pass it on to the team and let you know what we find. But stand down from the conspiracy theories, please, because thankfully the explanation for the noise was pretty mundane. Or at least that's what they want you to believe. No, okay, seriously. NASA shared that the feedback from the speaker was the result of an audio configuration between the Space Station and Starliner. NASA noted that the Space Station audio system is complex, allowing multiple spacecraft and modules to be interconnected, and they shared that it's common to experience noise and feedback we can relate. The crew is asked to contact mission control when they hear the sounds originating in the comm system. NASA also pointed out that the speaker feedback has no technical impact to the crew, Starliner or station operations, including Starliner's uncrewed undocking from the station, which is expected no earlier than this Friday, September 6th. Moving on, the Spaceport Company and Evolution Space successfully conducted a sea-based launch of a subscale hypersonic test rocket to 55,500 feet from the Gulf of Mexico. The launch conducted by the Spaceport Company from their new offshore launch vessel, named Once in a Lifetime, was performed to test their proprietary motion compensation platform as part of their ongoing services for the U.S. Defense Innovation Unit. And we have a series of acquisition announcements for you up next. Let's start with Redwire. Redwire says they have completed their previously announced acquisition of HERA systems, and this acquisition expands Redwire's spacecraft portfolio to support specialized national security space missions in geostationary orbit. And next up is KBR, which has completed its acquisition of LYNNQuest. KBR will immediately begin integrating LYNNQuest into the company's government solution segment and defense and intel business unit. In the closing date, LYNNQuest's financial results are not expected to be material to KBR's Q3 2024 financial results. And rounding out our acquisition news today, T2S Solutions has acquired radiofrequency engineering company Flexitec Aerospace. And according to the press release, this transaction supports T2S's broader strategy to accelerate growth and innovations in the space technology sector by integrating Flexitec's Aerospace's complementary RF capabilities, spaceflight heritage, and extensive customer relationships with T2S's existing government portfolio and space mission systems expertise. Checking in with Science now, and Chinese scientists have unveiled what they claim to be the world's first professional multimodal large-language model for lunar science, a kind of a lunar digital twin. The scientists say that the model is designed to accelerate the processing speed of massive amounts of lunar data. For example, researchers can input an image of a lunar crater, and the LLM will determine its shape, size, and age. The team behind the LLM say that the accuracy rate is more than 80%. In launch now, Rocket Lab has set the launch window for its 53rd electron launch. The mission will be the second of five dedicated launches for the French company Kineis. The Kineis Killed the Radiot Star mission, I feel like I should have sung that one, is scheduled to launch from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in Mahia, New Zealand during a 14-day launch window that opens on September 17th. And you can read more about that mission and find out details about the NASA coverage of the Starliner Return, along with more information on all the stories that have been mentioned by following the links in our show notes. Also we've added an announcement from CIDA's space on a new board appointment. Hi T-Minus Crew, if you would like daily updates from us directly in your LinkedIn feed, be sure to follow the official N2K T-minus page over on LinkedIn. And if you're more interested in the lighter side of what we do here, we are @T-MinusDaily on Instagram. That's where we post videos and pictures from events, excursions, and even some behind-the-scenes treats. Links are in the show notes for you. Hope you'll join us on social media. Today I'm speaking with Joanne Oliver, who is the Director at SpaceCareers.uk. And I started by asking Joanne to tell us about how she got into her career in the space industry. I'm one of the directors at SpaceCareers.uk. Have potentially an unusual career journey into the space sector, but I think that's most people as well at the moment. I didn't originally start in the space sector. I actually did a business degree, switched to do psychology, and since I'm a university, I did a lot of market research. And then it was through friends that I found the space industry. Definitely believed the myths about not being able to get into the industry if you don't have a STEM degree or if you aren't really, really smart. But yeah, debunked those myths, found my way into space careers and started volunteering. And that's kind of how I ended up here. It's quite a long story of how I got into space careers and where we are today, but I can explain that if you'd like. Yes. I think these stories are really fascinating because a lot of us, I think, still do think of the just straight to STEM degree and then off you go, aerospace career. And I love hearing people who have a different journey. So yeah, SpaceCareers was actually born out of a charity, UKSEDS. So it's the Student Space Society. I started volunteering there when I heard about a business analyst role. And so that was to analyze the commercialization of space careers. And yeah, I got the position at the time I was doing rocket research that really helped. I've got some experience previously with my psychology background. I'm also really into business. So I love the idea of that. Were you into space already also? Was that an interest of yours for a long time or was space like a new thing to you? Space was a fairly new thing. I think when I was younger, I was used to love going camping, looking at the stars. But it was never a job. I didn't I had no idea of the birth or careers that you could actually do in the industry. I didn't know that you could do every single job in this industry, just like every other industry as well. So it was never an option for career until I started to explore that and lots of resources as well. Well, that's really cool. So SpaceCareers.uk, the name is on the tin. So we kind of guess what it's about. But let's let's I would love to hear from you sort of the description of what it does because I mean, there are, you know, it's it fills a certain niche that is needed. So I'd love to hear more about sort of its mission and what it does. Yeah. So SpaceCareers.uk is currently a non for profit organization which supports with recruitment outreach and the skills gap in the UK space sector. This includes candidates for anybody from students until late professionals or mid career professionals. And then also on the employer side. So when you think about HR professionals, recruiters, how can they get the right talent and upskill their workforce? Then the last part of it is outreach. So collaborating with partners to go into schools or careers fairs and inspire people in the next generation with STEM and SpaceCareers as well. So what are you seeing in terms of maybe what what organizations are looking for and what they're finding or maybe flip side, what prospective job seekers are looking for and what they're encountering in the space industry? What's the gap there? I guess SpaceCareers was started because there was no place for students especially to look for jobs in the industry. We grew in the last few years and spun out as a business because we realized how much of a demand for careers there were. And there wasn't really a site that had that, especially mid career level. So typically employers right now, there's a big gap with that mid career level. It could be somebody that's in the sector already, they've had six or seven years onwards and they're really needing that senior skill set and experience with the industry or other industries as well. And that could be technical and non-technical as well. So SpaceCareers Alliance is one of our organizations that we partner with. They have done the Space Skills Survey previously in 2023 and that reveals a lot of gaps and future workforce needs from employers. So to give an example, probably unsurprisingly, there's a big gap in software and data skills and that's something that is continuing to be in demand in the next few years and people can forecast that that's what they're going to need. And so it's these computer science degrees and software skills that are really in high demand at the moment from the employer side of things. Hmm, I didn't know that. That's interesting. Okay, we'll never guess that. From the candidate side, I think it's kind of clarifying what careers are out there. When you speak to people at events, whether that's they're coming from another sector and they want to transition into space or they're a brand new student, it's often them coming with the skills that they don't know what job they can do. So it's debunking those myths of, yes, you can have a career in the space sector. You can use your transferable skills or you can use these skillsets to get into this career and just clearing that out because a lot of people don't understand the different careers that we need in the sector. Absolutely. So you mentioned the event that's coming up in September. So tell me a bit about that. So it's called the Space Skills Summit. So Space Careers have teamed up with Space Skills Alliance and Space Skills Alliance is essentially a think tank which helps employers with advice and tools for recruitment and the skills gap in the sector. It also supports policy as well. So similar sort of things to what Space Careers does on the employer side of things. We teamed up and this has been in the pipeline for a while in our thoughts to have an event for HR professionals, skills organisations to come together and talk about exactly that. People workforce. We're no strangers to going to so many different space events and seeing the same people talking about technology that it's about time that we've got everyone together to talk about people and how those people really drive the technology that we obsess with. So the event itself in September is generously hosted by ViASAT in their London venue and it's really all about getting people together, sharing best practices, giving and taking knowledge whether that's from different employers or organisations but also other sectors. So how can we learn from rail and aerospace, nuclear, getting that advice and knowledge to bring to the space sector and vice versa. And then there's a lot obviously on recruiting and attracting from outside sector. Hopefully we can do something on career changes and what we refer to so taking other people from different sectors and bringing them their skills into the space sector. Yeah. What advice do you have for corporations on that front because that is such a hot topic, getting those lateral movements. You know, there's not a, I haven't heard a really great solution to that yet. I know it's a hard challenge. But I would love to hear any advice that you frequently give people that you talk to. Yeah. I think on the soft side is open-mindedness. When recruiting it's easy to look at a piece of paper and think, well they don't have the exact skillsets I need. But actually is it attitude and are they ready to learn? Can they transfer their skills across? And sometimes recruitment can be a tick box exercise and if they don't fit the box then that's it. They don't make the cut. So it's open-mindedness and willingness to be able to explore the applicants and candidates ready for that. And then here's one that is quite different is spending a bit more time and money on them. So often people think that they have to spend loads of money on training and therefore they don't want to do it because it's too expensive to get somebody from outside the sector to upskill them. But often you find that the vacancy is open for so long that that's costing them money with not having that person in post, it's costing them money to advertise. And so the longer it goes trying to find the perfect person, they're actually spending more money on trying to hire than they would have done if they've just taken on somebody that's really willing and enthusiastic and being able to upskill them. And there's quite a lot of statistics across other sectors as well where it's cheaper to get somebody that's willing to learn enthusiastic to upskill them than wait for that perfect person who may never come along for your talent. That's a really, that's a great tip. Don't be pennywise pound foolish as they say on that front. Exactly. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I would love to know, so flip side, especially for people who are looking for jobs, maybe either in that mid-career point or maybe even just out of university. I imagine the advice is quite different for both, but I imagine you also speak to a lot of people in those situations. So aside from keep your chin up and keep trying, what's the advice that you give? Yeah, definitely. It's a frequent question from all audiences. Think from career changers perspective, I really enjoy asking them about their background and understanding what they've previously done. And it's quite easy for me now to be able to understand where they may slot in in the space sector, what kind of roles they're looking for, and what drives them to the space sector. Because it can be very childhood fascination, but it also can be, are they really interested in helping earth and the climate change using space? So it's kind of matching them up. And it's easier for me to see that being on both sides. And quite often they will have the right skills that they can fit in. But the hard part is getting into an organization because they don't have a space experience or a space company on their CV. In that situation where they don't have space experience, the best thing is to network. And I'm sure it's quite similar across other sectors where being able to talk to employers and getting a feel for the sector and who's around talking to lots of people and understanding what their interests are and how to get the right role is the best way for it. The space sector in the UK is quite small that you end up talking to lots of people and they're more than happy to recommend new networks, new people to connect with and introduce that mostly it ends up being about who you know, not what you know. So this is for... Very sort of evergreen advice. Yeah, and it also is the same for graduates. They're just starting out. The best thing to do is network. Almost network, like your life depends on it. And you never know who you're going to meet at an event. You never know who you're going to be introduced to from that networking. So it can go any anyway. We'll be right back. Welcome back. It might seem hard to believe at the outset, but farming and space go hand in hand nowadays. Satellites are a key piece of farm equipment. Many farms use Earth observation for soil and crop management, as well as satellite data for weather forecasts to figure out the best time to plant or to harvest. There aren't many tractors in operation now that don't use GPS. So it should come as little surprise that one of the biggest names in agriculture, John Deere, is looking to space-based communications for its next line of vehicles. John Deere is rolling out an early access program for certain customers to test the company's new agriculture connectivity solution with Starlink in the US and Brazil. Some customers have used the solution during harvest for infield data sharing to track the logistics of their fleet and connect their mobile devices to the Starlink solution to make phone calls to help run the operations. In Brazil, the connectivity gives farmers the ability to use remote display access, giving an equipment dealer access into the cab without making a visit to the machine itself, which may be hours away from the nearest dealership. So far, Starlink has proven to be a huge success with the trials, so good in fact that John Deere plans to start production rollout on more vehicles in November. The company worked closely with Starlink to engineer changes to the Starlink terminal for their application, and Starlink will manufacture the product for John Deere. We're just hoping that there's no crossover into Elon Musk's other companies. Nothing runs like a Cybertruck just doesn't have the same ring to it. That's it for T-minus or September 3rd, 2024, brought to you by N2K CyberWire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like the show, please share a rating and review in your favorite podcast app. Also, please fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space@n2k.com. We're privileged that N2K's CyberWire is part of the daily routine 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. N2K makes it easy for companies to optimize your biggest investment, your people. We make you smarter about your teams while making your teams smarter. Learn how at N2K.com. 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'm your host, Maria Varmausus. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] . T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]