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[MUSIC] Today we're talking about Vader and Firefly. And now I'm not getting my sci-fi franchises mixed up, but rather we're talking about a 2022 initiative from NASA to shore up smaller providers in the launch services sector that today is paying off for Firefly Aerospace of Texas. [MUSIC] >> Team, minus. >> 20 seconds to alloy. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Go for the floor. [MUSIC] Today is September 24th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmasas and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] Firefly to launch quick sounder. Planet announces a forest carbon monitoring initiative. NASA authorization passes in the US House. And today's guest is Terry Shahada of Main Space, updating me on the latest in space in the state of Maine and the Main Space Conference and Pitch Competition, which by the way closes soon, so get those ideas in. Details in the second half of the show. [MUSIC] It is Tuesday, let's dive in. NASA picked Firefly Aerospace to launch the NOAA Quick Sounder mission as part of its venture class acquisition of dedicated and ride share launch services or VATER contract. This quick sounder mission will support NOAA's future low Earth orbit satellite architecture and will provide crucial weather and environmental data for the National Weather Service and other global users. Quick Sounder will be the first satellite in NOAA's near Earth orbit network or NEON, which is a program designed to rapidly develop smaller Earth observing satellites for weather forecasting and disaster management. The satellite is set to launch in February, 2026. And back in 2022, by the way, NASA selected 13 companies to be VATER contract contenders, and that would include Firefly. Planet Labs today announced its new forest carbon monitoring product, which offers quarterly measurements of forests worldwide at a three meter resolution. This new data set will allow users to monitor above ground carbon, canopy height and cover, helping with efforts in carbon markets, deforestation prevention, and regulatory compliance. The company says they built their forest carbon monitoring with a mix of planets satellite imagery and LiDAR data, which makes the product a more economical alternative to traditional in forest measurement methods, allowing more precise measurements down to individual trees, as well as over large areas like the entire Amazon rainforest. Planet expects that both governments and companies will use their new data set to track forest health and assess the impact of environmental policies, especially for complying with deforestation regulations. Ultimately, this is all in aid of the global effort to quantify and manage forest carbon, which is a key step in tackling climate change. Now let's take a look at some bits of news from the US government side of things as we have a few items here today. First is an update on NASA's funding. And as of Tuesday morning, the NASA Reauthorization Act has passed in the US House and a 366 to 21 vote. This means it's now off to the Senate for approval if the Senate doesn't try to pass their own separate authorization bill. That is a reminder that the end of the fiscal year 2024 is Monday, September 30th, so the clock is ticking to get funding approved, but there's nothing like a deadline. Meanwhile, in the US Executive Branch of Things, President Biden recently hosted the fourth annual Quad Leader Summit with the Prime Ministers of Australia, Japan and India in attendance. The Quad Leader Summit brings these four countries together to collaborate on national priorities. And as you might imagine, the agenda was long. Climate change, energy, counterterrorism, cybersecurity, and of course, space got mentioned too. The Quad announced this, a space situational awareness initiative saying Quad partners intend to share expertise and experience in space situational awareness, contributing to long term sustainability of the space environment. Cooperation is intended to leverage space situational awareness and space traffic coordination capabilities in the civil domain, including to help avoid collisions in outer space and manage debris. Certainly something to keep an ear out for in the future. And NASA Administrator Bill Nelson and Administrator Jung Bin Yoon of the Republic of Korea's new Korea Aerospace Administration, or CASA, have jointly signed a statement of intent for the two space agencies to cooperate and collaborate. Projects of particular interest for collaboration include ongoing Moon to Mars architecture, space life sciences, lunar surface science, heliophysics, and the ongoing use of Korea's deep space antenna. And a reminder that South Korea became a signatory of the Artemis Accords back in Artemis' early days in May 2021. Expanding on some news from yesterday's show regarding the US Space Force's Space Systems Command, providing funding to Astronis, the Space Systems Command is also awarded similar agreements to three other companies, Accient, L3Harris, and Sierra Space. All four companies, and that would include Astronis, are working on design concepts for augmenting the GPS constellation with proliferated small satellites. The total award amount hasn't been disclosed, but this program is using Quick Start Authority from the most recent National Defense Authorization Act to go from solicitation to contract award in about six months. The goal is for this program to produce up to eight resilient GPS satellites for launch by as soon as 2028. France's Defense Innovation Agency, working with French aerospace firm CHILABS, told BreakingDefense.com that they were able to establish optical satellite comms between a nanosatellite in low-Earth orbit and a commercial optical ground station. Optical comms between satellite and Earth aren't necessarily new on their own, but in this case the ground station was built with commercial off-the-shelf components and was not a fully homebrew ground station. Interestingly, the optical comms terminal on the nanosatellite, which was made by Unseen Labs, was also a commercial off-the-shelf product. So this makes this space-to-Earth communication via COTS a bit of a world first. The easy interoperability of these components, said CHILABS CEO and co-founder Jean Francois Moriseur, was thanks in part to orbital laser communications interoperability standards that were put in place by the U.S. Space Development Agency. It's nice to see standards functioning as intended there. Space startups in Texas have a new potential source of funding thanks to the Texas State Legislature and the Texas Space Commission. The state's governor Greg Abbott announced that $150 million in grants via the Texas Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund, or CIERF, are now open to applications. CIERF. Eligible entities include any business or nonprofit associated with space exploration research or aeronautics that's doing business in Texas and happens to be there is no deadline. So mosey on over to space.texas.gov for more info there if you are interested. Blue Origin's New Glenn successfully completed a second stage hot fire test yesterday at Cape Canaveral. It was a 15 second hot fire and all and an important validation step to make sure that systems between the second stage, the two BE3U engines, and the ground control system were all interoperating correctly. Blue Origin's goal is still to get New Glenn to launch this November. So this test was an encouraging step in that direction. During a speech to the engineers and scientists who worked on the successful Chang'e 6 mission, Chinese President Xi congratulated the team on their hard work and success on the world's first lunar four-side sample return. And with this success, President Xi said now was not a time for China to rest on their laurels, but to not only continue to work hard, but also to push even harder and increase the pace of space missions. She challenged those in attendance to continue to pursue daring projects in space. In his speech, we should note, also coincided with China's 20th year of lunar exploration missions. And some great news from ESA about their Orion spacecraft for Artemis missions. After analyzing the flight data from Artemis 1, a new study from ESA, just published in the journal Nature, validates that Orion can indeed shield its crew from deep space radiation, including cosmic rays. Remember the two mannequins that flew in Artemis 1? Yep, this study is a big part of what they were for. The report from ESA says the most shielded areas of Orion can offer up to four times the amount of radiation protection compared to the capsule's least shielded areas. And that overall, Orion's shielding meant 60% lower cosmic ray doses for its crew. Also a fascinating note is that when Orion performed a 90 degree rotation to perform its trans-lunar injection as it exited the Van Allen Belt, this unexpectedly cut the radiation dose rate inside the capsule by half. Super interesting results there. Definitely take a look at the extract and nature to see more from the study. And that wraps it up for today's Intel Briefing. As always, you can read more about each story that I've mentioned in our show notes or at space.n2k.com. Hey T-minus crew, if you're just joining us, be sure to follow T-minus Space Daily in your favorite podcast app. Also, if you could do us a favor, please share the intel with your friends and co-workers. A little challenge for you, we put it to you every week. If you haven't yet, by Friday, why don't you show three friends or co-workers the podcast? That's because a growing audience is the most important thing for us. We would love your help as part of the T-minus crew. So if you find T-minus useful, 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. Joining me today to update us on all things main space is Terry Shahada, who is the executive director of the Main Space Grant Consortium. And he started off by telling me what's been going on space-wise in the state of Maine since the inaugural Main Space Conference last year. We're getting a lot of interest and of companies both in the United States and in in Europe that want to have a footprint in Maine because of what we're doing. We've been having meetings and discussions and we hope to in the next couple of months have major announcements that we would make. These companies range from Grant Station to launch providers. We receive funding to break ground in building up a facility that will train businesses and students and faculty members in up-screening ground-based products for space applications. This particular facility is being done in conjunction or in partnership with several businesses but primarily Teledine Technologies since Teledine is present here in in in Maine as a result of the space complex. We are planning on setting up a facility for space data visualization that's been asked for based on the interest that Maine has on remote sensing data but in accessing data that requires really high intensive analytics expertise that's not available. We would provide that as a shared resource and we are about to undertake an effort the corporations board that is to work with communities along the coast that that may be interested in having a launch facility in their vicinity and why talk about launch facility. I'm talking about a launch a shared launch facility for multiple users that launch small rockets for the purpose of getting small satellites into space. So that's happened last year as a result of this too. We are working on a collaboration between partners in Hampshire and Massachusetts to establish a regional effort for engaging in the manufacturing and launching of small satellites. Oh that's exciting. I'm in Massachusetts so I'm very excited to hear about that because that makes a lot of sense for a regional partnership. That's absolutely what this regional effort is is really trying to reduce the development cycle of small satellites so from an average of 24 to 48 months down to less than 12 months and that would certainly help both the domestic commercial community as well as the defense community. That's fantastic. In one year all that development and I was really impressed last year by how well the case was made for Maine's competitive differentiators for lack of better phrasing for what it offers. Would you mind sort of giving the elevator pitch for that because I thought it's really fantastic and I think it would behoove the audience to hear a bit about that as well. Maine geographically is situated in the easternmost part of the United States and its ideal based on its latitude is ideal for polar launches which is basically the emphasis of the industry these days of small satellites. So that's number one. Number two we have significant assets in a former military basis. One is the strategic air base in limestone with a long runway but also has buildings that we could use. The second is bronzo-clinic, the former naval air station and also has long runways so those represent real strategic kind of assets that we could utilize for building the geographic distributed space complex. We have a small but growing space supply chain. Much of our industry of our aerospace industry defense industry much of the small businesses are associated with the aerospace and defense but they have a skill set that they can transfer to the space industry and expand their business space not only to serve the aerospace and defense but also the space industry. We have our strong higher education community in Maine but by itself it really can't address all what we need that to do and that's why we look at not only higher education in terms of research and development and education in general not only in Maine but also in New Hampshire as well as Massachusetts so collectively this region really provides the assets that we need because we can't do this ourselves. We have two small launch providers and hopefully we'll have two more later on this year but those are the assets that give us an opportunity to kind of jump it put our feet in the water so to speak so we tested it and I think we're getting a lot of good responses. I always love hearing the really cool things that make Maine such a unique opportunity for space and I feel like that makes a sort of natural segue into the upcoming Maine Space Conference but also the pitch competition that's attached to that right? Can you walk me through that? Sure the the conference is is scheduled this October 23rd 25th in Portland, Holly and Byte Bay. We expect around 300 people just like last year but we have a full agenda and one of the things that we wanted to do last year but the timing wasn't correct is to have a pitch competition. Yes, since what we're trying to do is to encourage our students and our small businesses as well as faculty anybody even if you're not associated with a space industry but you have an idea in which it touches upon the space related activities and you want to get some funding to start doing some research or whatever it might be. That's what we're looking for because we're trying to build a base of entrepreneurship in space related activities in Maine and what better way to do that than to have a pitch competition and we are looking for great ideas not only from Maine but also from the New England States as long as the impact of what they're proposing to do has a significant impact in Maine it's certainly from other states but if you come from Massachusetts or Rhode Island and you want to do something apply for a pitch you got to demonstrate that how it impacts Maine in a positive way. So we're looking at applications we'll select the top three and the top three will make a will make a pitch to a judging panel and they will be the winners will be announced at sometime during the conference the winner gets $10,000 second place gets $5,000 and the third place gets $2,500. It's not bad for a pitch competition that's pretty great and who are you looking for to participate so when you say space related activities how broad is that? It's pretty broad I mean it could be in biological sciences it could be in medical sciences it could be in electronics or in any other area it doesn't have to be about building a rocket it doesn't have to be about building a satellite but if you look at what goes into those areas you know you you can come up with a good idea it might be a remote sensing area it might be well you know I work in buoys maybe I can build a state-of-the-art electronic system that can download data from satellites and buoys that could be placed along the Gulf of Maine where we can track temperature and salinity and things of that nature. It could be about using data where you can monitor from say satellites you know when people it'll be individualized so it's like having a fit bit for yourself but it'll track you and give you real-time data in terms of what the environment looks like but you know it could be across the board Maria I think that this will make that determination but as long as it's space related whether it's using technology from space developing space technology that can be used on earth or in space anything to do with data analysis really it's be as innovative as you can it's open to faculty to small businesses to people who don't have any businesses but are are entrepreneurs in their own right so it's really wide open. So the deadline for this is it's coming up soon or do people still have a bit of time to put this together? I think the deadline is September 30th. Okay so people better get those applications in so it's soon. Okay so before we conclude just some final words on this year's upcoming main space conference what do people have to look forward to any specific themes that we should be thinking about for this year just thoughts on what we're going to see? Well I think the theme is expanding it's about partnerships, collaboration and under that we're really are going to emphasize a lot of stuff that's going on in the research industry as well as in defense Lieutenant Colonel Bratton from the Space Force will be here so Space Force is part of the military branch but it is involved in space and we need to work with them in the context of some of the restrictions that we have in the legislation. And a lot of stuff is going on at K-12 we're seeing a lot of momentum in the K-12 there are teachers that are involved they need to tell their stories. Yeah so I think it's more broad based than we had last year was more hey this is what main has to offer this year it's what okay this is this is what main is actually doing and here are what people are doing and let's get together and collaborate. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back there are all sorts of cultural tells involved in different scenes and subcultures and if you're anywhere that's military adjacent like oh I don't know cybersecurity or space part of the subculture involves things like challenge coins and patches and I cannot emphasize enough how much cybersecurity folks love their challenge coins and how much space folks love love love their patches so shout out to David Rosa of airandspaceforces.com because he just did a really neat photographic roundup of 27 of the fantastic patches that he's seeing from the more than 22,000 in attendance at this year's AFA air space and cyber conference he's gone to pains to research the symbolic histories of what appears he translates Latin mottos and interprets the overall design a special personal shout out to space force 660 second cyber squadrons cyber beavers with the little laser eyes though it's hard to pick a favorite from the ones that are listed honestly and a gentle reminder that if you're interested in how patch designs for space missions get designed and made I actually did an interview with mission patch designer Tim Gagnon about his process on our august 28th 2023 show maybe dive back into the archives for that one and get some inspiration that's it for t-minus for september 24th 2024 brought to you by n2k cyber wire 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 Elliott Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman our executive producer is Jennifer Iben our executive editor is Brandon Karpf Simone Petrella is our president Peter Kilfe is our publisher and I am your host Maria Varmasus thanks for listening we will see you tomorrow [Music] t-minus [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]