[MUSIC] >> Today is January 8th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmasus, and this is T-minus. >> T-minus, 20 seconds to L-O-N, we're open aboard. [MUSIC] >> Galat satellite networks has successfully closed the acquisition of stellar blue solutions. >> Four. >> Rocket lab selected to join the Kratos-led team for the multi-service advanced capability hypersonic test bed. >> Three. >> Deorbit has signed a launch service contract with Pale Blue. >> Two. >> JAXA's first wooden satellite in space has been deployed from the International Space Station. >> One. >> Dr. V. Narayanan has been appointed as the new ISRO chairman. [MUSIC] >> And our guest today is Tony Brown, founder and president of the FCS Space Coast Chapter. They've just signed a strategic agreement with Spacecom, Expedite Procurement Acquisition Lead Times. The first joint initiative will be an inaugural two-part acquisition panel series at Spacecom Space Congress 2025, which is being held later this month by the way. So stay with us to find out more about it. [MUSIC] >> We're kicking off this midweek Intel briefing for you with a slurry of news out of India starting with the appointment of Dr. V. Narayanan as the new chairman of the Indian Space Research Organization, also known as ISRO. Narayanan will take charge from Asomonoth on January 14th when the latter's tenure at the helm ends. He'll also assume the position of secretary at India's Department of Space. India's government appointed Narayanan to serve for a period of two years. He currently serves as the director of the Liquid Propulsion System Center. This news comes as the United States and Indian National Security Advisers met in Washington, D.C. this week to forge a strategic technology partnership to include space. The nations are working to reduce barriers to collaboration around commercial space technology, following the U.S. government's recent conclusion of updates to missile technology control regime export policy. India and the United States are also working towards the launch of a new bilateral space accelerator to promote commercial space cooperation, including around lunar exploration, human space flight, geospatial data and services, and the co-development of technology. And also staying in India after launching on December 30th, the nation's space docking experiment, also known as SPATX, has been delayed again. ISRO has further postponed the docking attempt for SPATX after detecting excess drift between the two mission satellites. The Indian Space Agency stated that the issue arose during a maneuver to reduce the distance between the satellites to 225 meters, with the drift exceeding expectations after a non-visibility period. A revised timeline for the docking attempt will be announced soon. Moving over to Japan now, and JAXA's first wooden satellite in space has been deployed from the International Space Station. The LignoSAT arrived at the space station in December, and the CubeSAT is designed to see how wood performs in the harsh environment of space as a potential sustainable alternative to conventional satellite materials. The LignoSAT is designed using 10-centimeter-long Honoki Magnolia wood panels, assembled with a Japanese wood joinery method. Researchers will use sensors to evaluate the strain on the wood and measure its responses to temperature and radiation in space. Moving over to Italy now, and DeOrbit has signed a launch service contract with Pale Blue. Pale Blue is a Japanese space propulsion company specializing in water-based propulsion systems that are suited for a wide variety of missions for spacecraft, ranging from 3U CubeSats to 700kg satellites. Under the agreement, DeOrbit will conduct an in-orbit validation mission of Pale Blue's water-ion thrusters, using its Orbital Transfer Vehicle, or OTV, ION satellite carrier. The contract covers the integration of two propulsion systems on DeOrbit's OTV, and includes the operations period. The missions are scheduled for launch in June and October of this year. It's an international show today. Now we're heading over to New Zealand, and Rocket Lab has been selected to be a member of the team, led by Kratos Defense and Security Solutions, that has been awarded a five-year contract for the multi-service advanced capability hypersonic test bed 2.0, under Task Area 1. The total potential value of the Mach-TB 2.0 contract award over a five-year period is $1.45 billion. The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Test Resource Management Center established Mach-TB to support its national hypersonic initiative 2.0 by creating an affordable flight test bed to rapidly increase hypersonic flight test capacity. Mach-TB 2.0 will provide an affordable bridge between hypersonic ground tests and system-level flight tests. Rocket Lab will join the Kratos-led team of subcontractors that will provide systems engineering, assembly, integration, and test, mission planning and execution, and launch services. Israeli company Gelot Satellite Networks has successfully closed the acquisition of Cellar Blue Solutions, which is a U.S.-based provider of NextGenerations.com terminal solutions. The acquisition's consideration at closing was $98 million in cash. The consideration payment in connection with the acquisition may increase by up to an additional $147 million in cash, with the condition that the acquired business achieves operational and strategic business milestones during the first two years that follow the signing of this agreement. Gelot expects its annual revenues from Cellar Blue to range between $120 million and $150 million in 2025, based on Cellar Blue's robust backlog. And before we close out our intel briefing today, a quick note about the ongoing wildfires raging in Southern California. Many facilities are understandably closed today because of the danger, including NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. But much more important than facilities are the people who work and live in the area where all thinking of you, please take care and stay safe. That concludes our intel briefing for today. You'll find three additional stories in the selected reading section of our show notes, along with further reading on all the stories mentioned. They cover cyber attacks on JAXA, linked to Chinese hacker Mirrorface, Ravada's expansion to their Asia Pacific team, and a story from Reuters on SpaceX's plans for expansion in Italy. Hey, T-Minus Crew, if you find this podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a five-star rating and short review in your favorite podcast app. That'll help other space professionals like you to find the show and join the T-Minus Crew. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] We here at T-Minus Space are excited to be heading to Space Week in Florida from January 27th through the 30th. I'll be hosting our podcast from the Convention Center floor from Tuesday through Thursday that week and doing interviews around the show floor. So please come by and say hello if you'll be in Florida later this month. I'm looking forward to seeing you all there. And speaking of Space Week, today's guest is Tony Brown, founder and president of the FCS Space Coast Chapter. Now, FCS International is a nonprofit membership association serving the military, government, industry, and academia. It advances professional knowledge and relationships in the fields of communications, IT, intelligence, and global security. FCS Space Coast Chapter has just signed a strategic agreement with Spacecom to expedite procurement acquisition lead times. The first joint initiative will be an inaugural two-part acquisition panel series at Spacecom, which is part of Space Week. I consider AFSEA an organization of collaboration, basically, with the federal, government, state and local agencies, and the community. And just putting partnerships together and a collaborative ecosystem where we have kind of communication. So when I talk to base commanders or I talk to folks in the government, I say, what could you use from an organization like us to maybe help collaborate industry and workforce development and other different scenarios? One of our leaders, Colonel Mike Black, says he likes to think of us as almost like a thought leader. And so it's just a very interesting platform. Different chapters do different things, different ways. But we're just so excited to be doing whatever we can to support folks in the Cape Canaveral region. There was this ecosystem that seems to be very robust with industry and the DOD, where they actually have these sessions. And I think they're approximately eight to nine times out of the year, maybe more. But basically where the government lets industry know what they're looking at in the future as far as acquisitions are concerned. And it gives industry a chance to respond appropriately. And so, like I say, this has been a very robust ecosystem. And in my what if mode, I said, what if this kind of model we could do in space and the Canaveral region. And that was a thought process that I kind of thought about a year ago. I know a lot of other people had been thinking about it. I started to kind of run this up the ladder. Everybody that I spoke to thought it would be a great idea. And then the next thing was, how are you going to do this? And I did the regular thing. I said, I don't know, but we'll figure it out. And that's where we got there. It's talk to some retired DoD folks that I won't mention their name right now. It'll come up later. And I said, what if? And they said, oh, yeah, you can do it. And we can do it. And all of a sudden I called over to Spacecom, made some emails. And next thing you know, it has legs now. Reached out to stakeholders within DoD and NASA. They were like, OK. And here we go. Now it's lights cameras. It's lights cameras action now. Yeah, I was going to say. So at Spacecom, that's coming up just in a few weeks. My goodness. This is-- and by the time this goes to even less time, it really soon. So this is going to be sort of introducing the space community to this idea, this best practice. Kicking things off, it sounds like. Yeah, exactly. And kind of like the premiere, right? It's like the premiere of a series, hopefully, if we look at it. And I find it great that we're talking about these analogies. So we've gone from space to the ocean. And now we're talking Hollywood. Movie premieres. Right, movie premieres, right? So let's keep it along those lines. But yeah, so this would be like the first one, as far as I can tell. And the thing that I thought would be unique for this venue, if we at least do this yearly, and this format, is that we'll have so many acquisitions and so many stakeholders from all around the country, and actually the world, at this event. So what better way to kind of introduce this model and at least letting it be annual for that one, because you'll have all the stakeholders within one place in one year. And it's in January, which everybody's like coming off the holidays. And what are we looking at as far as planning for the next year? But I'm hearing the same things. And it's always about solving a problem, right? Do, do you say, hey, we have threats. We have things like our adversaries or could be far ahead of them than we are. And they're saying, we want industry to give us solutions. And I'm hearing industry saying, hey, we'd really like to know what DoD wants. And I'm saying, oh, OK, well, here we go. Let's create an ecosystem in order to foster that. And my big word is collaboration. I love that word, because I think when people collaborate, there's nothing that we can't get done or solve. Absolutely. Yeah, that collaboration is so key. And hearing that those forces of those lines-- sorry, I am mixing up my own metaphors. Now, those lines of communication being open, especially at an event as big as SpaceCom, is going to be so crucial. I really look forward to hearing what kicks off from this, because it's going to be-- time out, we're going to hear that this is where it all began. And I think it's going to be really, really cool to hear that. And then beyond SpaceCom, you're still super busy with other things. So I'm just going to drop the phrase "Space Grove," because that's the first I heard of it when I read it in the press release. Because I was like, come on, there's space this, space that. No, we've got Space Grove. So you're shaking your head. But I got to give it to you. I like it. Tell me about Space Grove as a collaboration. What is it? What's happening with it? OK, OK. See, I was hoping you wouldn't do that. But Maria, you caught me. Oh, no. You did it. OK, so-- I did it. So OK, so it's kind of like the pulse, right? Like, there's already something in place there, right? So-- and we're probably not going to call it a pulse. It's going to be called something else, OK? But there is a tech grove in Orlando that's a very robust community involving UCF and DoD and industry. And it's a really wonderful ecosystem of collaboration. And again, not trying to reinvent the wheel. So if we could create this quote unquote, that word that you just brought up-- You're like, I don't want to say it. It's fine. I don't want to say it. You know, I'm afraid. I'm afraid that I'll get a call later on going, how did you use that name or what's going on here? But hey, we put it out there. So I'm going to run with it. I latched right onto it. Right? Sorry. I saw that I was like, I kind of love that. But I get that. So the teaser is looking to hopefully build out this ecosystem that would foster academia, industry, and now in my eyes, I know what I want it to look like. But I won't go there right now. Oh, really? Because I was going to ask you, what do you want it to look like? You don't want to tell me? Oh, all right. So you want the community to make that happen? You always-- it's like a trailer. You just kind of got to throw it out there and see-- you know, throw it up against the wall and see it. But definitely, it's a dream. Would love to make this work. And it's needed. And it's needed. So-- Yeah. And you're right at the start of it, really, truly. So it's a very exciting place to be. I won't say space grove any more than the time I just said it. So I'll stop saying it. I'm so sorry. You're scaring me, Maria. Like tonight, I might have nightmares. I might be like, did I actually say that? So I don't know whether I get the calls later on to say, wow, that's a great idea. Or what the heck are you doing, Tony? So I'm coming back to you one way or the other. All right. I'm in trouble now. The idea behind this collaboration hub, I think, is fantastic. So the collaboration being key-- it's wonderful that it's a sustained effort, not just that an event is a one-off, but long term. So needed. It's going to drive things forward. It's fantastic. Congratulations, Tony, on the launch of all this. And as it moves forward, it's just really exciting to hear about. And I'm thrilled that you took the time to tell me about it. I'm sorry about saying the word phrase. I won't say it again. Thank you for taking the time to walk me through it. I appreciate it. Is there anything else you want to leave the audience with? I won't ask you to say that phrase again. Is there anything else you want to leave the audience with? So one, I want to put this back on. Remember, we talked about collaboration. This is collaboration, right? So what I want to say to you is, one, thank you for the opportunity. I love the Team Ionist platform. It's very interesting. And thank you for what you're doing as far as communication with the community and space and all of that. I'm really honored to be a part of the space programs down here. And a year and a half ago, this wasn't on my whiteboard. None of this was on my whiteboard. None of this was even a thought process. So it's funny how quickly things can move. But and also, I think another thing was when we first talk, you got it right away. It made sense. There wasn't-- It makes so much sense, Tony. It wasn't talking to me being the nutty professor and you digging deep. It makes sense and it makes sense for the community. So we hope that maybe a few months later, you say, hey, how did it go? And I'm like, you would not believe. And then I'm hoping to actually be able to use that word, those two words, space group. It happened. I said-- That happened. That happened. That happened. I know when I check back in with you in a quarter or two, in some time, not too long, there are going to be incredible stories about what came out of this that are just going to blow my hair. It's going to blow my hair back. That's going to be amazing. So I can't wait to hear about it. Thank you, Tony. Thank you so much for your leadership on this and for getting such an incredible initiative started. So I really look forward to hearing how it goes. And hopefully meeting you at SpaceCom as well. Well, thank you. You put a lot of pressure on me by selling me a theater fan. It's going to-- I feel like I'm going into a Super Bowl game. And we're expecting to win. You're in Europe. You're in Europe. And so I've got to do the-- hey, one event at a time, and we'll go from there. That's right. That's right, Tony. All right. Well, thank you. Thank you so much. I really appreciate it. Thanks for taking the time to speak to me today. Thank you. [MUSIC PLAYING] We'll be right back. Welcome back. An interesting story peaked our interest as it came across the T-minus a desk this morning. And it is about future tech, still very much in the theoretical realm, but it's grounded in something that is a personal favorite of mine, light sales, also known as solar sales. Not new tech or even a new idea. Deploy a massive sail in space and let the photons from the sun push it along, acting as solar wind. The idea is that the steady photons stream from the sun, or really any star, would cause continuous acceleration, with theoretically the only speed limit there being the speed of light that could potentially make spacecraft interstellar. It's a cool idea. And sci-fi loves a light sail, Star Trek Deep Space Nine, and for all mankind, both feature it. The obvious problem with it, though, is that as you get further and further away from your star, that light pressure is going to diminish. So why not bring your own light source? How's about lasers for light pressure? That is a fascinating idea that the Breakthrough Initiatives Starshot program is working on tackling. Now, there are a lot, and I do mean a lot, of engineering challenges with light sales alone, let alone all of those before you can say, "Be me up," or "Over," and add some lasers. For one thing, the sails have to be both huge and ultra light, so you can't attach much of a spacecraft to them. Think nanocraft at best. And a laser pointing at something so delicate could quite easily fry a hole in things. But nothing worth trying is easy, and humanity loves a challenge. And the team of scientists and engineers tinkering away on this one say, if they can make it work, our closest neighboring star Alpha Centauri would only be 20 years away. That sounds to me like a worthy moonshot. Centauri shot? [MUSIC PLAYING] That's it for T-minus for January 8th, 2025, 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. You can email us at space@n2k.com or submit the survey in the show notes. Your feedback ensures we deliver the information that keeps you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. N2K's strategic workforce intelligence optimizes the value of your biggest investment, your people. We make you smarter about your team while making your team smarter. 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 Petrella is our president. Peter Kilpey is our publisher. And I'm your host, Maria Varmasus. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [BLANK_AUDIO]
