All hail the Mechazilla.

It is not an overstep to say that history was made in the space industry over the weekend. I don't think there was a single space nerd on the planet who was watching Starship Flight Test #5 whose jaw didn't drop when Mechazilla caught the returning booster in a movement that would have made Mr. Miyagi proud. "Man who could fly with chopstick, accomplish anything." And it's not even just the next generation of spacecraft that has us so excited. The Europa Clipper is heading to Jupiter's icy moon right now, and it could bring us closer to answering the eternal question, "Are we alone in the universe?" What a time to be alive. Today is October 15, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis, and this is T-minus. SpaceX says success with Starship's fifth flight test. The FAA approves Falcon 9's return to flight. Crew 8's return from the ISS is delayed until Friday. And our guest today is Wanjiku Kanjumba, who will be chatting to me about her ambition to establish a spaceport in Kenya. Stick around for the second part of the show for more on that. Well, just a few things happened over the long weekend, didn't they? Let's get into it. SpaceX had its fifth Starship flight test on Sunday morning from Boca Chica, Texas at 7.25 a.m. Central Time, and as always with these flight tests, they had several objectives. But really, one big one for this time around. Have the Super Heavy booster return to the launch pad, and instead of landing on retractable legs as we often see with the Falcon 9 booster, instead have the Super Heavy booster be caught by the landing tower's arm, commonly called the chopsticks. And cue the Mr. Miyagi memes, the tower was go for catch. And the chopsticks catch of the booster was a success on SpaceX's first try of this incredible maneuver. I bet good money many of you listening have already seen this video of the nearly 23-story tall booster returning to Earth and maneuvering its way back to the tower. And then about six minutes after launch, the booster comes roaring back. If you somehow haven't seen the video of this incredible feat of engineering, we will have a link in the show notes for you. The long-term goal of having Super Heavy boosters return via tower catch is for fast reuse. Landing gear can get damaged, and that adds time in between missions. But the vision is for Super Heavy to be caught. No landing gear needed. A new ship just stacked on top. The whole thing refueled. And then back to launch quickly. No need to schlep the booster to and from a landing site or from a drone ship, as it's already where it needs to be. So the successful catch here is a big step towards both getting bigger payloads to orbit, thanks to the Super Heavy booster and Starship, of course, as well as launching those big payloads with incredibly high frequency. It's not hard to see how that is incredibly transformative for the space industry, so flight test number five, all the superlatives, definitely a launch to remember. And that's not all, if you can believe it. A little over an hour after launch, Starship also made its complete orbit to its target water landing site in the Indian Ocean. It did basically explode after landing, and SpaceX did note that it was not expecting to recover Starship, but the company says it was a success as far as they were concerned, given that Starship returned from orbit and landed in its target zone. And so then came the next big mission for SpaceX, the Falcon Heavy's launch of NASA's Europa Clipper. The spacecraft lifted off on Monday from Launchpad 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever built for a mission headed to another planet. It's also the first NASA mission dedicated to studying an ocean world beyond Earth. The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles on a trajectory that will leverage the power of gravity assists first to Mars in four months and then back to Earth for another gravity assist flyby in 2026. After it begins orbiting Jupiter in April 2030, the spacecraft will fly past Europa 49 times. Mission controllers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California have confirmed that the two solar arrays flanking the main body of the Europa Clipper spacecraft have fully unfolded. This means that the spacecraft now has a reliable source of power for the rest of its journey to Jupiter and a tour of the Jovian system, Godspeed Europa Clipper. Late Friday we received notice from the Federal Aviation Administration that SpaceX's Falcon 9 was authorized to return to regular flight operations. The FAA reviewed and accepted the SpaceX-led investigation findings and corrective actions for the mishap that occurred with the Crew 9 mission on September 28. Also on October 11, the FAA closed the SpaceX-led investigations for the Falcon 9 mishaps that occurred with the missions Starlink 9-3 on July 11 and Starlink 8-6 on August 28. So that means it's back to business as usual for now. After all the incredible news and all the superlatives from such a busy weekend, we should say that the busy weekend was not all that we had hoped for, not to be mean about it, but still. Following delays due to weather conditions near the splashdown zones off the Florida coast, NASA's SpaceX Crew 8 mission from the International Space Station got postponed again. Current forecasts indicate unfavorable conditions over the next several days. If weather conditions improve, NASA and SpaceX will target no earlier than 3.05 am on Friday, October 18, for undocking from the space station. The U.S. Space Development Agency has awarded the General Dynamics Mission Systems and Iridium Communications Team a $491.6 million contract modification in support of its ground management and integration program for the proliferated warfighter space architecture. Iridium says its share has a value of $239 million over five years. This award follows an initial Operations and Integration Contract Award in 2022 to build ground entry points and operations centers and manage network operations and system integration services. And while all those big stories have been dropping in the United States, space industry leaders from around the world have been traveling to the International Astronautical Congress being held in Milan, Italy this week. We've got a few stories that have already been announced at the event, starting with Italy's Deorbit, who have signed a €119.6 million contract with the European Space Agency for ESA's Space Safety Program. As part of the contract, Deorbit will develop, launch, and demonstrate the capabilities of a vehicle designed to rendezvous with, dock with, and take over the attitude and orbit control functions of another spacecraft for purposes including life extension, relocation, repair, disposal, and more. The project is supported by the Italian government through the Italian Space Agency, along with critical contributions of several other space agencies and governments, including the UK Space Agency, the German Aerospace Center, the Swiss Space Office, and the Spanish Space Agency, AEE. The European Space Agency also used the IAC in Milan to kick off its Moonlight Program with a contract signing ceremony, and the Moonlight Lunar Communications and Navigation Services Program is a partnership project between ESA and an industry consortium led by Space Systems developer Telespazio, with support from the UK and Italian Space Agencies. The program aims to establish Europe's first-ever dedicated satellite constellation for telecommunication and navigation services for the Moon. Moonlight will be a constellation of five lunar satellites launched into space and carried by Space Tug from Earth's orbit to the Moon's. The constellation will connect to Earth via three dedicated ground stations, creating a data network spanning up to 400,000 km. The first step in the program is the Lunar Pathfinder, a communications relay satellite manufactured by Suri Satellite Technology, which is all set to begin operations in 2026. And also at the IAC, the Polish Space Agency signed an MOU with Axiom Space, building on Poland's role in the upcoming Axiom 4 mission. Axiom says this extension of the partnership pays the way for long-term collaboration and tech development, microgravity research, and public engagement. United States Commercial Space Station company VAST have used the IAC to unveil their plans for the follow-on to their Haven 1 station, the aptly-named Haven 2. The Haven 2 is the company's proposed successor to the International Space Station and the next step in VAST's vision to pioneer a path to long-term living and thriving in space. French startup Constellation Technologies and Operations has secured 9.3 million euros in new funding. Constellation is developing satellites to empower telecom operators to deliver high-speed, low-latency internet access from space. The company says the funding will enable them to conduct their first end-to-end connectivity tests on the ground and in orbit, and complete detailed engineering studies for the first two satellites of its constellation. Grants and Germany have signed on to the multinational force operation Olympic Defender. The US-led operation represents a growing commitment among the closest allies in space to jointly strengthen defenses and deter aggression, ensuring space remains a domain that benefits all of humanity. Originally established in 2013 under US Strategic Command, Operation Olympic Defender has expanded to a multinational effort that focuses to optimize space operations, improve mission assurance, enhance resilience of space-based systems, synchronize efforts to strengthen deterrence against hostile actors, and reduce the spread of debris orbiting the Earth. In spring 2024, the commander of US Space Comm extended invitations to France, Germany, and New Zealand, with all three now on board. And if all of those headlines were not enough for you to wet your appetite for today, then we actually have additional stories linked for you in our show notes, both our regulatory approval studies for cytopspace and inversion. Read all about them and all of the stories that we've mentioned, including the video on the catch in the selected reading section of our show notes. Hey, Team Minus Crew, if you are just joining us, be sure to follow Team Minus Space Daily in your favorite podcast app. Also, if you 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. That's because a growing audience is the most important thing for us, and we would love your help as part of the Team Minus Crew. So if you find Team Minus useful, please share the show so other professionals like you can find it. Thank you so much for your support, everybody. It means a lot to all of us here at Team Minus. [MUSIC] Our guest today is Wangiku Kanjumba, CEO and Chairwoman of Vassilian. Wangiku is an aerospace engineer turned entrepreneur, and she's working on the development of the world's first equatorial, commercially operated spaceport in her home country of Kenya. My name is Wangiku Kanjumba. I was born and raised in Kenya, and I had the opportunity to come to the United States a couple of times when I was a bit younger. And I was able, in 2011, to be in the United States to see the final shuttle launch. And when I saw that, I remember talking to my family about it, and something popped into my head, and I was like, "Oh, wait. Why is it a lot of the launches that happen in America, happen in Florida?" And I remember my brother summarizing, well, there are various factors to it and background, but essentially summarizing it to me that I could understand is like, "Oh, it's because it's the closest state to the equator." And then I had a pause in my head, and I was like, "Wait a second. Kenya is on the equator. Why don't we launch any rockets out of our country?" That popped into my head at that time. When I came back to Kenya, I got to learn about Kenya actually did launch rockets during the late '60s to the late '80s. And yeah, I know. I didn't know that. I'm completely fussy. I had no idea. Yeah. So there was a launch pad off the coast of Kenya, but it was operated mainly by the Italian space agency for collaboration with NASA, which also surprised me. And they used like an oil rig. They revamped it into a launch pad, and they were able to do 27 launches and all of them successful. And I was like, "Oh, I did not know that." Were they orbital, suborbital? Do we know what kinds they were? I believe they were suborbital, but I was quite surprised. And this was definitely not something that I got to learn in school. So they stopped launching in 1988, and the oil rig right now is just there. It's not being used. It's just used more of like a historical site, but it's still owned by the Italian government. I believe they have a so-called 99-year lease on the property, but Kenya itself doesn't really have its own spaceport at the moment. So I was like, "Okay, so that happened. That's pretty cool, but wouldn't be great if I could bring that aspect back into my own country." So that started that snowball effect of like, "Okay, I think I would love to do that." I have to do this for my country. I don't really see why the African continent cannot have its own like launch site, especially with the growing commercial space market that was kicking up in the 2010s. But in respect of that, I also obviously had my own passion about space, and I definitely wanted to learn more about it. So thankfully, I had the opportunity to relocate to the United States and pursue my higher education here. So I got my bachelor's and master's in aerospace engineering and a minor in space operations from Embraer-Adol Aeronautical University in Daytona Beach, Florida. And currently right now, actually, I'm pursuing my doctorate in aerospace engineering in the University of Florida in Gainesville. Tell me about your vision. Yeah, so I'm looking into establishing a commercial space port in Kenya, just given the fact that Kenya's location by the equator just seems very advantageous on that factor. And then also, it doesn't coincide in such a way where it seems like somebody could just ask, "Why can't you just do it in America?" Like some of the arguments I've heard from people who try to go to Brazil to do their launches because that's also another country that's by the equator, but it's still close to the United States. Kenya is in such a way where it's located not sharing an ocean with America. So it's not sharing the Pacific, it's not sharing the Atlantic. It's literally by the Indian Ocean. So it's an entirely different ocean with a whole different connectivity to different parts of other continents. And I like the fact that there's a lot of advancement in the commercial space market within that region by the Indian Ocean. So within the Middle East, Asia, Australia, and obviously still being connected through the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea with Europe, it just encapsulates that connectivity a lot more easier. So just that beneficial type of location, it just seems like a no-brainer. And yeah, just the fact with that, with the commercial space market and then also with space tourism, I've had various conversations with investors and people who are running like launch companies. One specific investor that I've had a conversation with, he was like an Ali investor in SpaceX. And he was basically telling me, this whole thing with the space tourism, the Virgin Galactic and Blue Orange and everything, he was like, hey, you could throw out that idea of instead of them taking off from Spaceport America, just going up and then coming back down, why not open the avenue of the launch from Spaceport America, come to the spaceport in Kenya, land there, they're enjoying their time, just coinciding with the rotation of the Earth, and then take off from Kenya back to America. Like why not? Yeah, why not? Yeah. Yeah, he was like, why can't you just open up that door of exploration of space tourism to different countries that way? And I was like, yeah, sure, yeah, no, why not? And for launch companies, even as I was starting to pursue this whole idea of having a commercial equatorial spaceport in Kenya, I definitely had to know if there was a market for it. Because if there's no point of just having a glorified spaceport just sitting there and not doing anything and not service anyone, who actually would come to Kenya to use that spaceport? I mean, it is a very, very good idea. And especially as we look at how the space industry is becoming so global and it looks specifically at the United States, capacity is so limited and feeling the squeeze. Launch providers all over the world, and certainly up and coming launch providers as well, they're looking for places to launch from. It's very difficult to find the shares of what's available. And then additionally, Kenya having a highly educated workforce and also geographically in a perfect location, really. It does make a lot of sense. It really, really does. So even talking to other people who are coming up in their own commercial spaceport, so who have just started up within this decade, they have that vision of coming up where it's just like similar to how we started off with ships. But now we have ship ports all over the world, similar to aircraft, starting off with the Wright brothers. It seemed like a very far-fetched idea that man could fly. And now all over the globe, it has a huge amount of airports. It sounded like an East concept, but now it grew up. Now, if we can travel to wherever technically we want to go on the planet, and that's the way the people that I've spoken to who are interested about coming up with their own commercial spaceports within their own countries, they are also understanding, like, this is just the beginning. Like, this is now where we're starting up, where the need for spaceports is now, like obviously, like you said, it's increasing. There's this huge demand, but not that much supply. I would love to bring back what I've learned back to my continent and open up that door of having a spaceport, because obviously, to me, I'm like, it's really great what Africa has been able to achieve, like with the various space agencies that have opened up in the continent. And they've launched, like, a couple of satellites here and there, and that's great. But in my head, I'm like, they definitely can't catch up to the United States in times of milestones, or even Europe. They just don't have the budget for it, and they have different priorities that they need to focus on, and that's totally understandable. That's totally okay, yep. Yeah, and that's totally okay. But what I think is that having a spaceport would now enable people within America and people within Europe to bring in their equipment to Africa, and that would open up the door for the younger generation to be able to see, okay, so this is the type of technology that's out there. They can get to learn, and that exchange of resources and knowledge will now just build them up, the opportunity to contribute within the space industry a lot more tangible compared to seeing it on a screen. I believe that the best way for them to have the opportunity to contribute within their own homeland is to have a spaceport to open up that world for them. . We'll be right back. Welcome back. While those of us in the Northern Hemisphere have been enjoying the beautiful Aurora Borealis thanks to the more active than usual sun, our friends and listeners in the Southern Hemisphere have also been reaping the benefits of the active space weather patterns by enjoying the Aurora Australis and Steve. Steve is the mysterious companion of only the strongest of Aurora, though it doesn't always appear with the strongest auroras and scientists still don't know why. Steve appears as a bright streak of purple and white light along with the greens and pinks of the Aurora, and it is sometimes also called a proton arc. And no, I'm not making a weird joke, and yes, its official name is actually Steve. People in parts of Australia were enjoying the sights of the Aurora Australis and noticed Steve in the night sky. Australia's ABC News spoke with one Steve spotter in the Neen Valley, South Australia. Her name is Monique McGregor, who said, "Once I realized it was the extremely rare phenomenon Steve, I turned my back on the spectacularly strong Aurora GeoStorm in the Southern Sky and concentrated on Steve." We're doing our part here at T-minus to raise awareness of Steve and help make more Steve spotters. Steve, appreciators? Next time there's an Aurora near you, Borealis or Australis, you can do your part too and spread Steve awareness. That rare white and purple streak in the sky? It is no trick of the light and certainly nothing to be afraid of. It might just be your friendly neighborhood, Steve. That's it for T-minus for October 15th, 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 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 Kilpey is our publisher. And I'm your host, Maria Varmazes. Thanks for listening, we'll see you tomorrow. . [MUSIC]