StarShield, the secure version of Starlink. Well there's been much ado about it in Russia's war against Ukraine, specifically about its criticality, or perhaps depending on your point of view its undue influence. Whatever way you slice it, in case there was ever a case study needed in how so much of modern warfare relies on space and secure satellite connectivity, emphasis on secure. The Ukraine war is it. Today is December 9th, 2024. I'm Maria Varmausus and this is T-minus. The US expands StarShield access in Ukraine, SES space and defense to support US-European command, Nova space selected for Stennis and Mishu support, and our guest today is Ariel De Herera from New Space Nexus. New Space Nexus is holding a show space summit in Albuquerque, New Mexico tomorrow, December 10th, so stay tuned to find out more about it. Welcome back from the weekend everybody. Here is your Monday Intel Briefing. The Pentagon awarded SpaceX a contract to enhance Ukraine's secure communications by expanding access to StarShield, a militarized version of its Starlink satellite network. The agreement upgrades 2,500 existing terminals and adds to 500 previously connected under an earlier contract, providing secure encrypted and jam-resistant capabilities. This encrypted capability strengthens Ukraine's communication infrastructure during the ongoing conflict, and StarShield has been critical for maintaining Ukraine's operational resilience since the war began in 2022. The contract was awarded under the Space Force's proliferated low-earth orbit program and extends service through 2025. Although specific financial details were not disclosed, the earlier 500 terminal contract was valued at $40 million. The US Department of Defense has selected SES space and defense to deliver multi-orbit, multi-band satellite capabilities in support of the United States European command. SES's wholly owned subsidiary, SES Space and Defense, has been awarded a five-year blanket purchase agreement through Space Systems Command with the help of the United States Space Force's Commercial Satellite Communications Office with a ceiling value of $117 million. NOVA Space Solutions has received a NASA contract worth approximately $822.7 million to provide operations, services, maintenance, and infrastructure support services for the agency's Stennis Space Center in Mississippi and the Mishu Assembly Facility in New Orleans. The performance period begins July 1, 2025 and extends eight years and three months, with a 15-month base period followed by a one-year option period and three two-year option periods. AST Space Mobile and the Vodafone Group have entered into a definitive long-term commercial agreement through 2034. The agreement establishes the framework for Vodafone to offer space-based cellular broadband connectivity on its home markets as well as to other operators via its partner markets program. Vodafone has placed an order for its first Block 1 Bluebird Gateway, marking a milestone in the deployment of AST Space Mobile's global network infrastructure. Users outside traditional cellular coverage will be able to connect their everyday smartphones directly to AST Space Mobile's satellites in low-earth orbit, which in turn will route the data to the gateway. These gateways will then connect to Vodafone's existing network infrastructure to route the broadband data to users' devices as well as to access third-party apps and the Internet. UAE-based and AI-powered SpaceTech company Space42 and Earth Observation company ICE-I have announced the creation of a joint venture to manufacture SAR satellites in the UAE. The new venture builds on their previous partnership, which includes the recent launch of the UAE's first SAR satellite called the Foresight One back in August 2024. The new partnership aims to advance the UAE's Earth Observation program, which was created to build national satellite remote sensing and EO capabilities. US-India-based hyperspectral satellite company Pixel has announced the closing of $24 million in additional funding as part of its Series B round. This new investment brings the total Series B funding to $60 million. Pixel has raised a total of $95 million across all funding rounds to date, which it plans to use to develop the world's highest-resolution hyperspectral satellite constellation. Pixel's entire constellation of 18 commercial hyperspectral satellites are planned for development and launch in the near future. Israeli satellite communications company SatexFi has released its consolidated financial results as of and for the nine-month period, ending September 30, 2024. The company reported $8.5 million in total revenues for the period, a decrease of 4%, compared to $8.9 million in the same period in 2023. That said, the company expects a significantly increased level of service revenues in the fourth quarter. As such, SatexFi anticipates full-year 2024 revenues of between $17 million and $19 million with a gross margin of between 70 and 75%. Satellogic has entered into a share purchase agreement with a single institutional investor, raising approximately $10 million. They expect to use the funding for general corporate purposes. And Satellogic has also announced an expansion of its contract with US satellite data analytics firm CynMax. CynMax will leverage Satellogic's high-frequency, high-resolution imagery to enhance its Hyperion platform, delivering oil and natural gas production monitoring for hedge funds and financial analysts. NI Space, along with the UK Space Agency and the UK Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs, has launched the first phase of a small business research initiative, where three companies have been awarded £360,000 collectively to develop satellite technology and data that could be used to improve the detection and monitoring of blue-green algae. Each of the three selected suppliers will be expected to develop their proofs of concepts by March 2025, and if successful, a second phase may include further development of these concepts. And that concludes our briefing for today. Head to the selected reading section of our show notes to find links to further reading on all the stories we've mentioned for you today. Hi, T-Minus Crew! If you would like daily updates from us directly in your LinkedIn feed, be sure to follow the N2K T-Minus page over on LinkedIn. And yep, we are also over on Blue Sky. Follow us at t-minus.bsky.social for more there. And if you're more interested in the lighter side of what we do, we are also @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 there. Our guest today is New Space Nexus Vice President of Programs, Ariel DeHarrera. Ariel is managing the Show Space Summit, which kicks off tomorrow, by the way. She started our chat by sharing how she started at the New Mexico-based organization. Five years ago, when New Space Nexus got their 501(c)(3) status, I was their first employee. I came in as a marketing intern right out of college. Actually, while I was working on my master's, it's kind of exciting to talk about this event because my first job was to help with events. But now I am VP of Programs and I help run all of our programs, including our New Space Igniter, our Path of the Stars, and our New Space Launchpad, which are all being showcased in the Show Space Summit. Oh my goodness. Well, small but mighty because you all are doing a lot of cool stuff. Ariel, thank you so much for joining me and telling me about your journey and also all the amazing work that you and your team are working on. Because, I mean, New Space Nexus, we've spoken with you all a whole bunch of times. You're doing incredible work. December 10th is the New Space Show Space Summit at the New Space Launchpad. It's a couple of... It's a tongue twister. Can you walk me through that? Of course, the New Space Show Space Summit, at New Space Nexus, we like to say we unite and ignite. So what we mean by that is, we unite, we bring people together, we put them in situations that allow them to connect them to resources. It can be resources such as workforce. It can be resources such as partnerships, funding, equipment, facilities. That is what we want to work on. So these show spaces is what we call them instead of showcases. So it's a pun on the word showcase. We want to show off all of our great companies. So the purpose of the New Space Show Space Summit, it's annually, it's hosted later in the year. It's an event to highlight the stellar space companies from the New Space Igniter Program, as well as the companies that are part of our innovation pipeline, all that are moving towards from that concept of product to sales side. We're also using this time to showcase the space ecosystem for the companies to make valuable connections to investors, government, and industry. So when I talk about industry here, I'm talking about those bigger companies, those primes, as well as pathways to the stars, so connection to workforce. For this summit, we do have an investor focus, but we love the connection to all customers. So it's just putting those small and medium sized companies in the same room as potential customers and government leaders and many people like that. Oh, that's a great, wow. What a great opportunity to have them in one place and also with investors looking to find somebody that they want to invest in. I'm so curious what kind of companies you all are going to be seeing in attendance. Oh, of course. So I'm actually going to go over a little bit of our agenda to give an idea, to paint a picture of who to expect to be there. So we want to start the day with some keynotes. Those are the leaders. We have investor keynotes. We have government and industry. We also have a couple of panels. We also partner with a number of people throughout the region. So we have them kind of coming to showcase the region, showcase New Mexico, showcase. We have some people come from Utah. So just really focusing on what they're calling the space valley. So those companies will be there and those representatives will be there. On the small and medium size, we have those companies pitching. So it is our part, our Newspaces Igniter companies. The Newspaces Igniter is our incubator like program where we work with companies going from concept to product to sales. It's a very generalized program in the sense where they just have to have some type of space concept. So it can be we have a couple of AI companies. We have some launch companies. We have other companies that are working in debris removal and ISAM, different things like that. So it's the companies coming in can be any of those. I know we have all of them giving a pitch. We have about 13 companies pitching and then after they give their pitch, we are going to do a very quick one-on-one time with the experts. So all the speakers, experts throughout our ecosystem will have the opportunity to sit with them one-on-one in a speed like dating. I get what you mean. Like that sort of like one-on-one Shark Tank is there sort of thinking of it? So after they pitch and present to the whole crowd, then they're going to have that chance to go and sit in front of each expert, whether that expert falls in those categories of investor, of government, of industry. We also have others in economic development and business support. So we can have one-on-one time with the marketing person. You can have one-on-one time with someone who can help you move to New Mexico. So it's just a number of opportunities for these companies, but not just the companies of opportunities for government leaders to see them, opportunities for those bigger companies to see these smaller companies and what their technology is and what they're working on. I keep saying it, but that is a really great opportunity. And kudos to, I think, just so many organizations in New Mexico that are like yours that are working to make these kinds of events happen because to get in front of all those people and get that one-on-one time, that's a really fantastic opportunity. And you got to have a thick skin to run a business at that, especially when you're starting out, but to get that advice, that can really be what propels a business forward. So that's quite amazing. Is this the first time this event has been held? Is this the inaugural or is this the several years of this event occurred? So this is actually the second. The second, okay. We hosted it last year. And another great thing that we do with this event is we also do tours. So last year, we did a tour for Air Force Research Lab and Spiceport America. This year, we're doing industry tours. So we're touring Blue Halo and Rocket Lab. We try to make this, them coming out here, they're just a number of different opportunities. So it's worth it for them to spend that money to travel to Albuquerque and to also see what New Mexico has to offer. Yeah. And we've covered in the show a number of times. And again, it's not just because Alice is based in New Mexico. There's a lot going on. And I was just thinking Rocket Lab specifically, just getting so much more investment from the federal government to help sort of expand what they're doing. I think it's just like, the signs are all there. And then they've been there for a long time that really for a lot of companies, New Mexico makes a ton of sense. And I'm nowhere near the area. I'm in New England. I'm biased. I'm like, "Wait, wait, wait. It is like the country." That's just... Now, New Mexico has tons to offer. We say it's the place for space and it truly is. I believe it. I've had a lot of these kinds of conversations and it's just amazing. There aren't a lot of other places like that where the states are really rolling out the red carpet for space companies like this. So I think you all are doing really smart things here. Ariel, thank you so much for walking me through this incredible event that's going to be happening for the second time. Thank you for telling me about this. Is there anything else you want to leave the audience with before we close out? This event is not just open to customers and to companies, but anyone interested in learning more about the space ecosystem. You come into this event and you're able to see, I guess, what there is to offer in space. We say the sky's the limit, but in this case, it's so much more. Our companies are amazing and we work with them quite a bit and very closely. Anytime we have the chance to showcase them is just a chance worth taking. We definitely are excited to see what our companies have to say and to hopefully help them connect to the resources they need and in return will help us succeed with what we're trying to do with growing the space industry from New Mexico for the nation. We'll be right back. Welcome back. And oh yeah, we are quickly reaching that time of year where we start to reflect on the last 12 months before embarking on the new year ahead. The US Space Agency, NASA is among the many organizations providing their year-on-review updates that kind of read like a best of 2024. So NASA is celebrating its many accomplishments this year, including for the first time landing new science and technology on the moon with an American company, pushing the boundaries of exploration by launching a new mission to study Jupiter's icy moon Europa, maintaining 24 years of continuous human exploration off the Earth aboard the International Space Station and unveiling the first look at its supersonic quiet aircraft for the benefit of humanity. The year wrap-up includes a short video with Bill Nelson, the outgoing administrator, providing a proud update on what he calls the world's greatest workforce. With the help of our commercial partners, we launched into a new era. New things are possible. More things are possible. Our satellites studied the air we breathe, the oceans we share, the land we live on, to help protect our fragile Earth, the only home that we will ever know. It's always good to be reminded ourselves about how far we've come, especially as the world tends to focus on delays. T-minus will be bringing you our look back on 2024 and the look ahead of course to 2025 on December 31. What better day than that? So what do you think has been the greatest space achievement of the year? And what do you predict will be the big event for the next one? Honestly, there's so much to choose from that I'm going to be spending the next two weeks debating with myself about it. But if you've got some thoughts, I'd love to hear them. Help me out a little bit. Space@N2K.com. I want to hear from you. And that's it for T-minus for December 9th, 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 and sugars we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. And if you like the show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space@N2K.com. We are privileged that N2K 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 Bittrella is our president. Peter Kilpie is our publisher. And I am your host, Maria Varmasus. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] Team. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
