Cuts at Airbus Defence and Space.

It's been another busy day of announcements as the International Astronautical Congress in Milan continues this week. Lots of new agreements and deals being announced, and I promise we'll get all of those. But we're starting today's show with important but unfortunate news from a big name, Airbus Defense and Space. [Music] Today is October 17th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausis and this is T-minus. [Music] Airbus has announced up to 2,500 job cuts. ESA selects Kepler for the Hydron program. Tell us Alenia to supply six additional ESA satellites. And our guest today is Dan Laubach, Senior Director of Programs at RAFT. And we'll be discussing ideas on how the Space Force can tackle their space data silos to join us for the second part of the show to find out more. [Music] Here is your Intel briefing for today. Airbus Defense and Space, the European Aerospace Giant, today released an announcement that they are cutting up to 2,500 jobs from now through mid-2026. Airbus cited a challenging 2023 and 2024, especially for their space division, as the primary reason for the job cuts. Here is Airbus Defense and Space CEO Mike Schollhorn's further explanation on the news. In recent years, the defense and space sector and thus our division have been impacted by a fast-changing and very challenging business context with disrupted supply chains, rapid changes in warfare, and increasing cost pressure due to budgetary constraints. While transformation efforts initiated in 2023 have started bearing fruit, particularly on operational performance and risk management, we are now taking the next steps, not least to adjust to an increasingly difficult space market. We want to shape the division so it can act as a leading and competitive player in this ever-evolving market. This requires us to become faster, leaner, and more competitive. Airbus has a long track record of acting as a responsible employer in difficult situations, and this time will be no different. It is clear, though, that we must adapt if we want to champion our industry and lead Europe's ecosystem of defense aerospace. The European Space Agency has selected Canadian company Kepler as a prime contractor to lead the development of the Lowers Orbit segment of the high throughput optical network also known as Hydron. The initial phase of the contract led by Kepler totals 36 million euros and will be supported by TSAT Spacecom and by the previously discussed Airbus Space and Defense. Kepler will lead the effort delivering expertise in spacecraft constellation design manufacturing network and operation, building on the technologies within its commercial space segment and existing ground segment. TSAT contributes expertise in space optical and network payload development, while Airbus provides access to optical ground stations, terrestrial networking elements, and operational and system engineering expertise for demonstrations with ESA missions. Telesolinius Space has signed a 107 million euro contract with the European Space Agency for the supply of six additional radar-based satellites dedicated to the Italian Earth Observation Constellation I-Ride. Telesolinius Space will build a total of 13 satellites, 12 small-sized satellites based on synthetic aperture radar technology, and one satellite based on optical technology. The United Kingdom and New Zealand Space agencies have signed an agreement which sets out plans for the removal and servicing of operational satellites that are very close together or making contact with one another. The work between the UK and New Zealand is designed to demonstrate how international corporations working in rendezvous and proximity operations can keep space sustainable for current and future generations. It provides a set of principles for allocating liability between different states involved in the different stages of these missions. It does this within the framework set out in the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, as well as principles around licensing and information sharing. D-Orbit and Orbit FAB have signed a Memorandum of Understanding at the IAC in Milan. The partnership aims to explore opportunities in on-orbit satellite servicing and to foster connections between the UK and European space industries. The MOU outlines areas of potential collaboration aimed at promoting shared objectives for expanding orbital economy capabilities and focuses on different areas of cooperation. Daniel Faber, Orbit FAB's co-founder and CEO, said a partnership between Orbit FAB's Market Leading Orbital Refueling Service and D-Orbit's Market Leading Space Logistics Service will help both companies to grow together. By signing this agreement with one of Europe's foremost in-orbit servicing companies, we are doubling down on our plans for future European missions. And I should note that we will actually be hearing from Daniel Faber on this show next week. And a final story out of the IAC in Milan today. The US Office of Space Commerce and the Australian Space Agency signed a joint statement of intent to cooperate on matters related to space situational awareness. The two agencies plan to collaborate to improve space object reentry monitoring and prediction. And speaking of US and Australian cooperation, VARDA Space Industries has received authorization from the Australian Space Agency for multiple W-series vehicle reentries into the Kuniba test range. This authorization makes VARDA the first company to be able to reenter spacecraft on land in two countries, the United States and now Australia. VARDA says this authorization ushers in a global economy where reentry is as common as launch. Firefly Aerospace and True Anomaly have announced a multi-launch agreement for three responsive launch missions. The first mission will see Firefly's Alpha Rocket deploy the True Anomaly Jackal Autonomous Orbital Vehicle for the US Space Force Space Systems Command's Victus Hayes Tactically Responsive Space Mission targeted for 2025. The two additional missions are available for execution between 2025 and 2027. And still, there's more! Rocket Lab has added a last-minute electron launch to its manifest for a commercial mission that's scheduled to lift off in just three days' time. The mission, called Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes, and we do really love their mission names, will launch to space from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 during a launch window that opens October 19th for an unnamed commercial customer. Rocket Lab says the exodighted mission will be the company's fastest turnaround to date from signed contract to launch date in less than two months. NASA is making its move to transition to using commercially owned and operated satellite communications services to provide future near-Earth space missions with increased surface coverage, availability, and accelerated science and data delivery. As of Friday, November 8th, the agency's legacy and legendary, may I add, tracking and data relay satellite system better known as TDRS, as part of the Near Space Network, will support only existing missions, while new missions will be supported by future commercial services. And last but not least, the US Space Agency is also launching the NASA Acquisition Innovation Launchpad known as NALE. Get your nails done. NALE is a framework to drive innovation and modernize acquisition processes across the agency. NASA spends approximately $21 billion, or 85% of its budget, on acquiring goods and services. This is currently managed by NASA's Office of Procurement. NALE was established to identify ways to manage risk-taking and encourage innovation through the submission review and approval of ideas from anyone who engages in the acquisition process. So, to collaborate or share innovative ideas with NASA, reach out to the NALE procurement team through the link in our show notes. And that is it for this longer than usual Intel Briefing. You'll find two additional stories in the Selective Reading section, one's announcing that Blue Abyss and Nexture plan to join Starlab and Ohio State at the George Washington Carver Science Park, and there's another announcement from Spider Oak on their new open source project to advance cyber protections for space. Yes, it's a topic that I'll be covering in today's chat with Dan Lawback from RAFT coming up. 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 like to hear from you. Send us an email at space@ntuk.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 Dan Lawback, Senior Director of Programs at RAFT. Dan manages a diverse portfolio of projects spanning the Air Force, Space Force and other DoD agencies, driving mission critical solutions to the tactical edge. And I started by asking him, what is the most pressing problem for the US Space Force right now? Space Force has tons of data. Tons of data flowing from all different kinds of sensors and capabilities. And they don't have the ability to use all that data and use it to their advantage to make great decisions. So we see that as one of the main challenges. And so we're here to do that. We have several different programs offering a platform, different API tools. So we can take some of that data, that massive amounts of data and get it to those that need it, and get it to those that need it in a relative time or a speed that's relative to the decisions they need to make. We believe that is one of the major challenges that face the Space Force today. I can absolutely see that. I mean, given all the sources that they're pulling data from, and I can only begin to imagine just the sheer volumes that they're dealing with. Is digitalization part of this sort of challenge that they've got? Imagine maybe much of this data is still maybe analog. This is me coming in as very, very ignorant here. I completely own up to that. So what does that look like? What does that look like? So there's a number of different things there. So one thing digital versandolog is bringing it over to the digital side. Some of it is getting it in formats that are digestible. So there's lots of sensors that provide data that may only be usable to one decision maker. And what we want to be able to do is take that data, transform it into something that's usable, and then get it to platforms that other decision makers can use, rather than letting that data just sit in one area. So that's one piece of it. To further that challenge, there's a lot of license locking contracts out there that data is stuck in one specific stovepipe because the license that the government purchases only allows that. So it's less of a technology problem and it becomes a contracts problem. So one of the things that we're pushing for is let's get out of that license locked software mentality and let's get into more of an open source, open architecture mentality. So, you know, it's a crazy fact. And this is just federal government as a whole. Sorry, I'm going to go off on a little tangent here. The federal government spends over $100 billion a year, $100 billion a year for software licenses, and it continues to grow every year. So you think about that and we're looking at the deficit. You know, licenses was a great idea for a while, but the industry has realized how great it is and they've started, you know, really exploding those costs. And now the government, I don't think can afford it. So going back to the space force problem, they're spending tons of money on these license fees. And I don't think they're going to be able to afford to do it. And on top of that, it makes everything stovepiped. So what we want to do and what we see as a challenge is how do we break those walls down from a licensed perspective and make it open source. So then way that way, the data can proliferate across the organization rather than stuck with one unit or one group of people. Yeah, I and I could see an additional benefit there of, especially as the commercial sector and space continues to really mushroom. It just also opens up what can talk to each other, what you can bring in, what the space force could bring in. Because the capabilities coming off of the commercial sector are, I mean, breakneck speed, just incredible things happening. And they've said, they want to work with more commercial partners. Yeah. Yep. And that's, you know, right now is the time to start building modular flexibility into the designs. And so that's that is one challenge that they've they've focused on this license piece and license has done a lot of modularity. So let's let's capitalize on that commercial, those commercial capabilities by building in modularity. So when something new comes out, they can easily implement it to the DOD sector. So that's, you know, that's exactly what we're talking about. That makes sense. And I would imagine also, you know, there's no lack of competition and also sort of awareness of what's going on globally and like the geopolitical context and speed is everything and speed. And in that fidelity of data, I can only begin to imagine the pressures on that right now. Yeah. You know, we know with some of our near peers that concern us across Pacific Ocean, there's a lot of challenges there. And how do we keep the edge? And at the end of the day, from our perspective, the space force has done a lot of great things to push for a wider and broader industrial base that includes small business. And I'm only going to say they need to do that more. And to do that is a big challenge. But I think it's definitely feasible to continue pushing. And so these special programs like stratify, tactify, Sibbers, and then allowing different small businesses to get in. That is, I think, how we're going to keep the competitive edge because we have an industrial base here in the United States that's unlike anywhere else. So we need to keep that edge. And to do that, we have to make sure that things are modular, that they're open source, or that they have an open architecture that allows the acceptance of a new and other technologies. So absolutely. And to do that, we got to continue to push for that. Yeah, it sounds like a strong call to action, not just from within the space force, but really for the industry for, I can imagine, words that might want to lock people in, lock organizations in by saying, you know, listen, we've got you on this proprietary data set, and only we can read that. So sorry. But that's not that. As you mentioned, that doesn't really seem like a smart or sustainable way to move forward. Yep, correct. Right there with you. It is not, not sustainable. I think it was the model for a while and it works great. But we've just seen that now create more stovepipes. And it really, I almost looked at it again to what we saw in the 90s as the whole D.O.D. industrial base started consolidating into several large companies. And we almost see that again with some of these data functions. And so, you know, how do we break that up and continue to break that up? And it's really how do we foster that innovation sector to keep pushing new ideas in? Are there, I don't know if there's an answer to this and it's, we can just drop this question if it doesn't make sense. But are there areas within the space industry that the space force is working with that are sort of doing better on this front than others? That's a great question. From our perspective, we've seen space RCO has really made a push to bring in small business and allowing small business to have access. So we're a member of an IDIQ right now through space RCO that allows for that. And in one of the challenges for small businesses is being able to have the access to the information, just being able to be sponsored for the different clearances required and the different readings required. So space RCO we've seen has really pushed the last year and given access. So I'm going to give, you know, a big, big shout out to them. We've seen other, you know, the front door program out of SSE has seen some great success. They're fostering a lot of companies to come up through the system. They're giving them access and giving them insights to new opportunities. I'd say that's another area we've seen a lot of, a lot of activities supporting small businesses. I wish it was more, but really give them credit for what they're doing because it makes a big difference, especially to a small company like us. I'm always curious about, I'm a big fan of open source personally, having worked with open source folks for a long time. And I remember always hearing the question, what about security? So I'm going to ask that question I hate. What about security? So security is very important. I mean, we have a lot of critical technologies that need to be protected. And so you can do open source in a classified environment. You can do, you know, it might not have access to everybody, but we can do open architectures in a classified environment. And that's really writing requirements that allow for that. And it is, it is harder. And I will say as a former government guy, a former acquisition officer, it is harder to include more companies on classified requirements. It is, it takes more work. But at the end of the day, the product is probably going to be better and the product is going to be more sustainable. You might get that one year victory quick, but you're not going to get a weapon system that is sustainable for a long period of time. Unless you do create a program, create requirements that allow for that open architecture. And like I said, it is harder to do, but it is doable. What has been the reception to this proposal about, you know, making things more open? Have you all been getting the warmer reception to it or have people been a little pushing back on it? 100%. We have gotten tons of feedback on, you know, we're calling it the high cost of licensed locked software. And we are getting tons of feedback. We talked to many of our customers and hopefully future customers about how to strategize and build out requirements that align with that. A lot of folks are, are in a grance with us on the government side. And I know as a former government guy, I was in the same place as well where I couldn't afford some of the licenses that were being pushed on me. So there is a lot of folks that are changing the mindset and they're seeing this as well. We've seen across the board a lot of different government organizations pushing for less licensed locked capabilities, Space Force included. We have been doing an education campaign across the government. We've spent a lot of time, like I said, with different entities. And overall, they just come back with how do we do this and how do we do it faster? We've been able to help with that piece and really be the folks that are pushing the charge to change the model. That's fantastic. So I guess I call to action or maybe advice is maybe the better phrase here for folks in the space industry who want to do, I mean, everybody wants to work with the Space Force. I mean, that's not an exact region. Everybody does. For folks who want to do more business with the Space Force and support their mission, what's your advice to those folks, especially on the data front? Absolutely. So those that want to work with Space Force, get into those avenues that I talked about. Front Door is a great resource. Try to get a silver, try to get some of those different programs under your belt to get in there. Also, look to Partner. So as this model has changed, we are looking for partners continually to come help us go down this journey and partner with some of the bigs. We rely on several of the legacy, you know, DoD industry partners to help us get in the door and help us get the access we need. And overall, they've been more than willing because they see it as well. There's a call for innovation and they have been unable to support that in many areas. So that's where we've seen opportunities to get in the door and, you know, share the ideas that we have from many of the great engineers that we have here at RAFT. [Music] We'll be right back. [Music] Welcome back. People sometimes get frustrated when talking to scientific experts when they don't get a clean, easy answer to a scientific question. The response you often get is couched in a lot of qualifications or the answer starts off with a "it depends". A lot of us, well, we want easy answers, dang it, but it is rarely so simple. So, for example, we know that the sun goes through an 11-year cycle of activity. When we see a lot of sunspots and as a result experience lots of geomagnetic storms here on Earth, you'll often hear from scientific experts that we are approaching a solar maximum. And the inevitable question is, "Okay, so when are we actually going to be at a solar maximum?" And then there's that answer. It depends. The reality is often we don't know when the sun is at solar maximum until it just about happens. So undoubtedly you've all been noticing more headlines around auroras and geomagnetic storms. So it has been feeling a lot like we're approaching that maximum. And now, NASA and NOAA, who do indeed track this sort of thing amongst many others, have been able to make the proclamation that many of us have been waiting for. The sun is doing the most, officially. We are at solar maximum now, the two organizations say, and we will be for the next year or so before our local star starts to quiet down again. And when will that begin? Say it with me now. It depends. We won't know until the decline begins. So, let's live in the moment, shall we, and enjoy the sun to the max. [Music] That's it for T-Minus for October 17th, 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'm your host, Maria Vermazes. Thanks for listening. We will see you tomorrow. [Music] T-Minus [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]