We dedicate today's show to the final launch of a European legend, the Vega rocket. Pouring out for this one, Vega was an expendable small lift launch vehicle operated by Arian Space produced by Avio and jointly developed by the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency. Development began in 1998 and the first launch took place from the Guiana Space Center on February 13, 2012. Its final launch took place on September 4, 2024 from the same location. Rest in orbit, dear friend. Or maybe burn back up so you don't add to the many pieces of space junk up there. Today is September 5, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis and this is T-minus. Vega launches the Sentinel-2C to orbit. Senegal signs on to China's International Lunar Research Station. General Dynamics Mission Systems awarded a $491 million SDA contract. And our guest today is New Mexico State Representative and aerospace lawyer, Diane Huckman V. Heel. She'll be telling us about how she got into aerospace law and how it's helping her home state of New Mexico grow a strong space ecosystem. Happy Thursday everybody. Let's get into today's intelligence briefing. In the last Vega rocket lifted off from the European Space Agency's spaceport in French Guiana at 10.50 p.m. local time last night, the vehicle transported the third Copernicus Sentinel-2 satellite to orbit. And the Sentinel-2C will provide high-resolution data as part of the Copernicus constellation, the European Commission's Earth Observation Program. Copernicus aims to provide continuous, independent, and reliable data and services to public authorities, companies, and citizens around the globe. The program is co-funded by the European Union and ESA. A few minutes after separation, ESA received the first signal from Sentinel-2C. The spacecraft, like the vehicle that transported it, was one big international collaboration. It was built by a consortium of around 60 companies led by Airbus Defense and Space. The Vega rocket will now retire from use following this final launch to be succeeded by the Vega-C. Sentinel-2C was the fifth Sentinel satellite to be launched by Arian Space. The European Commission has awarded Arian Space and Vega-C five other launches in this program. And from Europe and over to China now. And the country has announced multiple international agreements during a two-day space forum held in East China's Anhui Province. The country's space agency and its counterpart in Senegal signed an agreement on the Chinese-led International Lunar Research Station, or ILRS. In addition, China's Deep Space Exploration Lab has also inked memoranda of understanding with 10 organizations from countries including Serbia, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates, Indonesia, Pakistan, Panama, and South Africa. China now has 17 countries and over 40 institutions signed up for the ILRS, which includes plans for a lunar research facility, including a lunar surface base, orbital stations, and Earth-based components. General Dynamics mission systems has been awarded a $491.6 million contract by the Space Development Agency. The contract calls for General Dynamics to perform design, analysis, engineering studies, and technical augmentation for the Ground Management and Integration, or GMI, programs integrated ground system. Under this contract, General Dynamics will work with SDA and key stakeholders to develop and deliver a tranche agnostic ground system for the proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, or PWSA. General Dynamics and Partner Iridium will test all services required for the Evolution Expansion Integration Testing and Maintenance of the ground entry points, operations centers, enterprise test, and checkout capabilities, and infrastructure management, including all development, systems engineering, integration testing, maintenance, and site support. ViASAT has received a five-year, up to $153 million contract from the Defense Information Services Agency to provide network services and support for the U.S. Army Project Manager Mission Command Blue Force Tracker Program. The period of performance for this contract includes a base year with four one-year option periods. The Blue Force Tracker Network provides critical situational awareness, integrated with tens of thousands of platforms across the Army and joint services. This effort continues the Network Modernization Initiative that enables U.S. military and allied forces to share near real-time situational awareness and GPS data on friendly force and enemy, as well as operational maps and graphics, and command and control messages. SpaceX is moving employees from Brazil and is warning others not to travel to the region. The move comes on the heels of a dispute between Brazilian authorities and SpaceX founder Elon Musk's social media company X. SpaceX's Starlink has also been pulled into the dispute, having its finances in the country frozen and preventing it from conducting any further financial transactions. Starlink has a strong presence in the country, we reported on that just yesterday, and posted on X that it was doing everything it could to keep Brazilian customers connected. Starlink has initiated legal proceedings before the Brazilian Supreme Court, calling the order against it illegal. Blue Origin's drone ship for the New Glenn rocket arrived in Florida yesterday, and the ship is called Jacqueline. Name it shares with Blue Origin founder Jeff Bezos' mother. Mother ship, get it? The landing platform vessel, complete with buildings on the front and back, was pulled into port Canaveral by another Blue Origin ship called Harvey Stone. Blue Origin's New Glenn is scheduled to launch no earlier than October 13. And Redwire has joined the US UAE Business Council. Council works to ensure that the US and the United Arab Emirates remain attractive destinations for foreign direct investment by conducting effective policy advocacy, undertaking various trade promotion initiatives, providing ongoing updates on the business climate in both countries, and helping develop strategic relationships between the US and UAE business and government officials. It looks like Redwire is aiming to develop its relationship with the Emirates. And that concludes our Intel briefing for today. Head to the selected reading section of our show notes for further information on all of the stories that we mentioned throughout the show. We've included new appointment announcements from all.space and Satelogic. Hey T-Minus Crew, if your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership or recruit talent, T-Minus can help. We'd love 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 guest today is New Mexico State Representative and Aerospace lawyer, Diane Hockman-Veheel. And I started by asking Day about how her Aerospace Law background has enabled her as a State Representative to grow the space industry in New Mexico. I'm really lucky because it was just one of those things where so many aspects of my life coalesced coming back to New Mexico, starting my practice in that area and then getting elected to the New Mexico House. And then being chosen by Speaker of the House Javier Martinez asked me to be his chairwoman for transportation, public works and capital improvement. So I work all day as a lawyer in aerospace development and then I talk about it a lot as part of my chairmanship and all of the stuff that we're trying to do in New Mexico and improving our infrastructure. And I scream it to the rooftops every chance I get. New Mexico is the place for space. We're doing incredible things in both the public and private sector, commercial space, space development, defense development. It's all happening right here in New Mexico right now and I am just smack dab in the middle of it. And every day I'm really excited because we're doing like next level stuff here and we're just getting started. Given that you are from New Mexico, it feels like it must have been like growing up with space all around you. In essence, there's all sorts of amazing things happening in New Mexico that must have really influenced you as you were growing up to be like, "Yeah, I want to learn more about that." I like learning about people's journeys. Can you tell me a bit about how space came into your whole career plan? It sounds kind of fascinating. Sure. So I come from an aviation family. My grandfather was an aviation. My father was an aviation. And I actually ended up getting interested in aviation and space law. I graduated law school at the height of the recession for New Mexico. New Mexico is typically a few years behind the rest of the country economically. When the country is going gangbusters, New Mexico isn't until like three to five years later and then if we hit on hard times, New Mexico is safe for a little while and then about three to five years later it's when it hits us. So I graduated law school in 2011, which is pretty much the worst year ever as a baby lawyer trying to find a job in a very, very small job market. I wanted to stay in state. I was lucky enough to be able to work for a judge for the while, but that gig ended. And so at first I wanted to go into constitutional rights and I had done a fellowship at the ACLU after college in Denver. But I ended up working at this big civil defense firm and there was an aviation law case that we had and I was charged with finding the expert for that case. And so I found a gentleman who was working in aviation space law and he had connections to the Institute of Air and Space Law at McGillie University in Montreal, Canada. And after we had finished the case, he basically I was taken to the airport and he said, "Hey, would you have any interest in coming to my cargo ground? I can't get women to come." And if we found a fellowship for you, would you go without even thinking about it? I was like, "Yes, yes, I'll go. Montreal, sign up. McGill, cool. Great school." Great school, yeah. Yeah, great school, beautiful city. I had never been to Montreal before and so I went and part of the focus, I had always been very aviation heavy just because of my background and I've been obsessed with air planes ever since I was a little girl. My dad and I used to take me out to the Albuquerque Sunport and we would just kind of like that scene in Wayne's World where they were sitting on top of the trunk of their hood of their car like looking at the airplanes coming in. Like that was me and my dad. And when I went to McGill, they were very space law heavy because space law is just like the newest, coolest, sexiest thing. I always ask people, they've seen the movie The Matrix before because it's like that scene with Morpheus where he's like, "There is no spoon." That's the equivalent of space law in this country and that all we basically have are international treaties that some countries have signed on to and others haven't. And so we're trying to kind of like, I hate the metaphor, but build the plane as we're flying it. And a lot of the regulatory stuff and tour litigation stuff, it's all new and we're all just kind of like figuring it out as we go. And so while aviation law is super interesting, super esoteric, very nuanced and I love it, space is kind of like the where the opportunity is to make it a lasting impression. And all of the stuff that we're going to be doing now is going to be the blueprint and precedent for what we do later as we see more and more commercial space development and whatnot. And so I didn't, the long-winded answer to your question is I didn't start off as interested in space law as I am now, but as I got, and I also had an incredible professor, his name is Ram Jakku at McGill and he's like, you know, one of the original and he got me very interested in space law and just because of all the stuff that we're doing with Spaceport America and New Mexico, it just kind of like I shifted my focus organically to space because that's just kind of like where all the really cool stuff is happening. So in your day-to-day as a legislator in New Mexico, again, to stay with so much going on space wise, what kind of things are you seeing? I mean, what, I guess like to be a fly on the wall in a typical week or month for you, space related, what kind of things are sort of coming across your metaphorical desk or literal desk? So doing a lot of stuff with Spaceport America, just kind of helping them to find their identity and you know, what it is that they are doing and how they can contribute to our economic landscape in New Mexico. Doing a lot with the, with New Space Nexus, funny story, I, you know, was on the ground level with those guys. They kind of got off the ground, metaphor totally intended, unintended with some help from me and what's called a junior appropriation. My very first year as a legislator, I was able to kind of help them, give them a grant to help start their operations. And so working with just this organic kind of ecosphere that's popped up in New Mexico, all of these startup tech companies and the larger, you know, inside the beltway folks that are coming coalescing here in New Mexico and building technology and companies that, you know, they've chosen New Mexico because New Mexico is where they want to be. We have this really great combination of, you know, room to grow. We've got white sands and that we've got restricted airspace, which is super important to people that are doing really experimental stuff that, you know, you want to do that stuff away from people and other things in the air. So we also have, you know, a lot of amazing talents. We've got two major laboratories here in the state. We've got great educational institutions. We've got, you know, one educational institution that's looking at creating what's called a kind of like a center for excellence in aerospace development. So it's all, it's all kind of happening right now all at once. And so every day I'm either talking to these folks about what they're doing in New Mexico, trying to help get them connected with other funding sources or other people in public service to kind of help them realize their dream. Sometimes a lot of it is just introducing people to other people. I worked really hard at starting an aerospace office within the legislature. And that's basically just, you know, getting a bunch of breakfast burritos during the session and having other legislators show up and talk about space and what we're doing in New Mexico and how they can be supportive of that. But it kind of goes hand in hand with economic development really. Aerospace development is one of the nine areas that the New Mexico Economic Development Department identify as like, you know, spaces that they want to focus their efforts in because they feel like we could really diversify our revenue in the aerospace market. And that's kind of sort of what I do. Yes, every day is different. Every day is interesting. When I talk to folks on who work in the industry side, and I talked to them about working with folks in the government, a lot of focus understandably tends to be federal level. But I feel like working at the state level and finding partners like yourself and people who can be, you know, advocates and also make those connections doesn't get maybe as much emphasis or love this as it should. And I'm wondering, I guess if we were to sort of put out like a clarion called folks in the industry who don't know how much, you know, working at the state level can do for them, what would you like them to know? Awesome question. So the feds are great. The feds totally get how important aerospace development is. But what you get at the state level is you get people who are on the ground. You get people who are within New Mexico, who are kind of closer to the ecosphere that we're creating, people that can just pick up the phone and be there in 15 minutes and meet you for coffee. There's a lot of resources that are available on a state level. There are a lot of people don't even realize are there because they're so focused on the the fivers and, you know, the NASA Space Act money and all of that. There's so much more that is way easier to access on the state level. And people just kind of forget that. I mean, people who are here, they understand how important it is and they're not trying to balance a thousand other federal prog that is like they're just here because they're in New Mexico and they love aerospace. And these types of grants are easier to procure. They're easier to report. And it's just kind of like, you know, don't pass this over just because we don't have a stated program that that you can find on a federal website. We're doing a lot here, but it's just, you know, people focus on it really because space tends to be like international in nature, really. But just because it's international in nature doesn't mean that you restrict yourself if you're seeking funding and activities within the state. I'll be right back. Welcome back. We started today's show talking about area and space, so it feels only fitting that we close out with them as well. This time the news though isn't quite so positive. A vacationer exploring the remote islands of Cayos Cochinos off the coast of Honduras in Central America has come across what is believed to be a piece of space junk. Mike Erman and his family took a photo of a large piece of debris laying on the beach that's very clearly labeled Arian. And he took the social media to ask, "What is this?" That Arian label made quick work for the internet sleuths that quickly shared their insights into the possible owners of the beach trash. In fact, the image reached one very knowledgeable person who shared on Reddit and I quote, "Nice find. I actually make these as part of my job. I have no doubt that I even installed the logo. These panels are produced in Switzerland by Beyond Gravity, formerly Ragspace." Well, nobody ever lies on the internet, but still, what incredible insight! The user went on to say that it is part of the payload fairing, or PLF, that PLF is delivered in multiple sections and can be varied in length to suit the mission. Since this is an ECA/ML configuration with dual launch, requiring the longer PLF, this is definitely from the last two years. And you know, I feel like these stories may end up being more every day in the coming years and this sparked a debate with our own team of what exactly we should be qualifying as space junk that washes up on the beach. Does a payload fairing actually count as space junk if it didn't actually make it to space but was instead part of the launch system? Well, in this case, it seems that the piece is from the Arian V fairing that was jettisoned just a few minutes after liftoff, so the question remains. Still, it seems like such a shame that whether it's space junk or not, that this debris ended up on a beach in paradise. We do wonder if Arian's space will now go and collect its trash. That's it for T-Minus for September 5th, 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 Carruth. Our associate producer is Liz Stokes. We're 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 Petrel is our president, Peter Kilpey is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T-Minus. . T-Minus. T-Minus. [BLANK_AUDIO]
