Today is February 7th, 2025. Happy E-Day! I'm Maria Varmasus and this is T-minus. T-minus. Twenty seconds to L-O-I. Open aboard. Live! Malaysian satellite operator MiyaSat has signed an MOU with the Chinese company Shanghai Space Sale Technologies. Satellogic and Telespazio Brazil have entered into a multi-year agreement with the Brazilian Air Force to provide satellite imagery for defence and security operations. Telesolinias Space has signed a contract with India's Nebay Space to supply high-resolution optical satellites. Marshall Space Station company VAST has pushed back the launch of its Haven 1 to 2026. One. Inspire Global has been awarded 72 million Canadian dollars to design and develop a dedicated satellite constellation to monitor all active wildfires in Canada from space. [Music] And it is Friday, which can only mean one thing on T-minus. It's time for the Weekly Space Traffic Report from our friends at nasaspaceflight.com. They will be wrapping up the launch news from the last seven days and giving us a taste of what's on the schedule for the next seven days around the world. Stay with us for that later in the show. [Music] Hey everyone, this is N2K Senior Producer Alice Caruth. Before Maria dives into today's headlines, I want to correct our top story from yesterday. The Federal Aviation Administration did not issue a re-entry licence to Atmos. The FAA conducted a payload review and granted regulatory approval for its launch on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. To clarify, all payloads for FAA licence launches go through a payload review process and as the capsule is not planning on re-entering over the US, they do not need an FAA entry licence. I have reached out to Atmos to ask for what approvals they do have in place for re-entry and I'm still waiting on that response. Thank you to our friends at the FAA for listening to the show and keeping us on the straight and narrow. And now on to Friday's Intel Briefing. Spire Global's subsidiary, Spire Global Canada, has been awarded a 72 million Canadian dollar contract by the Government of Canada. Spire has been tasked with designing and developing a dedicated satellite constellation to monitor all active wildfires in Canada from space as part of Canada's Wildfire Sat mission. Anyone who has dealt with wildfires will tell you that timely detection is vital for emergency response. Spire will partner with Aurora Tech, a space-based thermal intelligence company, to develop the payloads for the satellite constellation as well as build the data handling and processing system. These payloads have already provided data during Canadian wildfire emergencies with Aurora Tech providing detection and management services to its wildfire authority, SAPF. To deliver on this contract, Spire intends to expand its existing Canadian office in Cambridge, Ontario to add satellite manufacturing and test equipment, enabling wildfire sat and future missions to be manufactured domestically in Canada. Commercial Space Station company VAST has pushed back the launch of its Haven 1 space station until 2026. The company started the primary structure qualification testing for its first commercial Leo destination after completing manufacturing of their primary structure last month. On January 31st, VAST began the test campaign for Haven 1's primary structure qualification article after completing all on-test stand integration tasks, procedure checks, and rehearsals. This marks the first of many full-scale vehicle test campaigns for VAST. They initiated the test with a decay leak check, which passed successfully, and next they performed a proof test pressurizing the vehicle, and VAST says no visual changes were observed. The total test duration was five hours, with the leak rate remaining within specification for ten minutes, and all strain gauges stayed within acceptable ranges. The company says they will remain on track to complete Haven 1 by July of this year and perform integration and testing during the second half of the year. Telus Alenia Space, the joint venture between Telus and Leonardo, has signed a contract with India's NEBAY Space to supply high-resolution optical satellites. It says this is the first step in the company's Earth Observation Constellation project. This initial contract aims to establish the first operational Earth Observation capabilities for NEBAY in India by 2025. Black Sky also signed a service agreement for subscription-based imagery and analytics to deliver space-based monitoring services supporting NEBAY's Indian customers. Satelogic and Telespacio Brazil have entered into a multi-year agreement with the Brazilian Air Force to provide satellite imagery for defense and security operations within the Brazilian territory. The contract has an initial one-year term and one-year extension option. Brazil's Air Force will be able to task Satelogic's NEWSAT Constellation, enabling prompt delivery of sub-meter imagery to support a range of defense applications. And this includes near real-time monitoring, change detection, and increased situational awareness for mission-critical decision-making. And Malaysian satellite operator Miasat has signed an MOU with the Chinese company Shanghai SpaceSale Technologies. SpaceSale operates the SpaceSale Low Earth Orbit Constellation, which could see Miasat use the Constellation to complement its geostationary orbit fleet. The agreement opens the door to joint R&D and covers potential collaboration in a number of areas, including Leo Broadband Services, Direct-to-Device Communications, Satellite IoT, and Earth Observation Services in Miasat's markets. [Music] And now we're heading back to NTK Senior Producer Alice Garuth for the stories that didn't make it into today's headlines. So what do you have for us, Alice? Thanks, Maria. Honeywell released their fourth quarter and full year 2024 financial results. During their updates, they talked about their intent to separate parts of their business, including the aerospace area, and create three new separate companies. And NASA's Aerospace Safety Regulatory panel also released their annual report, which was largely in support of the US Space Agency's work in 2024. And where can our listeners find those stories? As always, links to further reading can be found in our show notes or on our website, space.ntuk.com, and click on this episode title. Hey, T-Minus Crew, tune in tomorrow for T-Minus Deep Space. It's our show for extended interviews, special editions, and deep dives, with some of the most influential professionals in the space industry. Tomorrow, we have Aaron Miller, Executive Director at Space ISAC, and Ron Burke from the Aerospace Corporation, talking about solving the flight-proven paradox. Check it out while you're out and about this weekend, maybe getting ready for a Super Bowl party, or enjoying or cursing the weather depending on where you are. It's a great chat, so you don't want to miss it. Our friends at NSF have the weekly Space Traffic Report for you now. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T-Minus Space. Since we're now into a new month, let's start off by taking a look at the stats from last month. In January, we had 21 launches worldwide, very much on par with January of last year, which had 22. The most active launch operator was, to no one's surprise, Space X, with 13 launches of its Falcon 9 rocket. China came in at number two on the list with six launches, and India placed third with only one. The launch cadence so far also matches the numbers that we saw in 2024, with the world being on track for 260 launches by the end of the year. Now, it's likely that the reason that there's not an uptick yet in that rhythm is because China paused its launches for a couple of weeks during the Chinese New Year. At the same time, Space X may also have had a maintenance period at its most active launch site, Space Launch Complex 40, which also saw a really rare two-week gap between launches in the middle of January. Without these, it's likely that January could have been a lot more active. But let's now go to the first launch of February with the Space X Falcon 9 rocket. I know your jaw's on the floor, right? Lift-off took place on February 1st at 2302 UTC from Space Launch Complex 4 East in California. The mission was carrying 22 Starlink V2 mini satellites to low Earth orbit. The first stage for this mission, B-1075, was flying for a 17th time, and it successfully landed on Space X's drone ship, of course I still love you. Next we go over to Japan, which had its first launch of the year this week. The mission started on February 2nd at 830 UTC with an H3 rocket lifting off from the Tonogashima Space Center. The rocket was carrying the Michibiki 6 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. Michibiki 6 is the latest satellite of Japan's quasi-Xenith satellite system, a regional navigation satellite system that serves as augmentation of the usual global navigation satellite system. This regional system uses a variety of satellites placed in geostationary orbit and in highly elliptical orbits around Earth that also have orbital periods of about one day. In this arrangement, the satellites in geostationary orbits will be orbiting over East Asia, while those in the highly elliptical but still geosynchronous orbits will have figure-8 ground tracks over the Earth. The satellites in this latter arrangement would be launched such that at least one is always near the top of that figure-8 ground track, which would be located over Japan. Michibiki 6 also carries on board a space domain awareness payload from the US Space Force. This is the first of two launches as a part of a partnership between the US Department of Defense and Japan. Coming back to the US, we had two very foggy launches taking place on the same day from Florida. The first one, Starlink Group 12-3, took off on February 4th at 1015 UTC from Space Launch Complex 40, carrying eight Starlink V-2 Mini and 13 Starlink Direct-to-Sell satellites. Despite the fog, the launch happened without a hitch, and veteran booster B-1069 was able to log another successful flight -- its 21st launch and landing -- after touching down on SpaceX's drone ship just read the instructions. That same day, also from the US but a lot less foggy, was the launch of Blue Origin's New Shepard rocket on the NS-29 mission. Lived off took place at 1700 UTC from Blue Origin's launch site 1 in West Texas. The mission carried 30 payloads from NASA and other organizations on board. Notably for this mission, the New Shepard capsule initiated a spin of 11 revolutions per minute after booster separation to simulate lunar gravity for the payloads flying inside. Most of the payloads carried on New Shepard needed that simulated lunar gravity as they were related to studying conditions in that environment. For example, the Lunar G Combustion Investigation, or LUCI, from NASA's Glenn Research Center, aims to study how materials combust in lunar gravity compared to Earth's gravity. For this mission, Blue Origin decided to use its newest booster, Tail 5, which was flying for a second time on this mission. The capsule used for this flight was the RSS HD Wells, which is Blue Origin's own New Shepard capsule dedicated to cargo flights. This was the 11th flight for this capsule, and while one of its parachutes initially didn't inflate fully, it eventually did, right before touchdown on the West Texas desert. Later that day, another Falcon 9 took off from Florida, this time from Launch Complex 39A at 2313 UTC, carrying a pair of worldview-legion satellites from Maxar into low Earth orbit. The satellites were the fifth and sixth worldview-legion satellites to be launched as part of Maxar's constellation of latest-generation commercial intelligence satellites. This final pair features high-resolution, multi-spectral imaging capabilities of the Earth. With six satellites around the Earth, two in sun-synchronous orbit, and four in mid-inclination low Earth orbits, Maxar has the ability to image the same area more often than with a traditional Earth observation satellite constellation based only in sun-synchronous orbit. The two satellites were placed in two different orbits by Falcon 9, which necessitated a long-duration mission extension kit on the Falcon 9's second stage for this mission. The booster for this mission, B-1086, was a young one, flying for only its fourth time on this mission. The stage returned back to the Cape about eight minutes after launch for a landing at SpaceX's landing zone 1. It also featured this year's first launch from Russia with a Soyuz 2.1V rocket taking off from Plisetsk. The mission started on February 5 at 4 o'clock UTC, and it carried a few classified payloads into a polar orbit for the Russian Ministry of Defense. So far, five objects have been tracked in orbit from this launch, which could be four satellites and the Volga upper stage used on this flight. It could also be that both the Soyuz second stage and Volga upper stage were left in orbit, in which case it would be three satellites. And there's also still the possibility that other satellites could pop up on future orbital tracking as well as a result of this launch. State-owned news site RIA Novosti claims that this was the last launch of this Soyuz variant, which uses the NK-33 engine on its first stage. The engine was first developed in the 1970s as an upgrade for the first stage engine of the N-1 rocket, but it never flew as such, and many of them were left unused. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Aerojet decided to purchase some of them, and the rest remained in Russian hands. Since Russia lacked a light-lift launch vehicle of its own, it decided to create one by removing the side boosters of a Soyuz rocket and fitting an NK-33 engine to the central booster, creating the Soyuz 2.1V rocket. Since there were a limited number of these engines available, this configuration of the Soyuz rocket wouldn't last long, and if the report's correct, this may have just been its last flight. Going into next week, we'll also have the first launch of the year from Rocket Lab, if orbital mechanics allows. The Electron mission, called IOT for you and me, was supposed to launch this past week, but it had to be aborted due to conflicts with orbital traffic and space for the dedicated launch time needed for this mission. Rocket Lab has reset for a launch this weekend on February 8th at 2043 UTC. Let's hope that this time, no satellites are in Electron's way. Next week, we'll also have a trio of Starlink launches, starting with Starlink Group 1110 from Vandenberg. The four-hour launch window for this flight is set to open on February 9th at 25 minutes past midnight UTC. In between those Starlink launches, we might have the debut launch of the Cheong-Jung 8A rocket from China. Lift-off could happen on February 11th within a roughly 50-minute window opening at 953 UTC. The other two Starlink launches next week will both be Group 12 launches from Florida. Starlink Group 1218 has a four-hour launch window opening on February 11th at 1700 UTC, and roughly three days later, it'll be Starlink Group 128's turn from the same pad within a four-hour launch window that opens on February 14th at 1726 UTC. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and that's your weekly Space Traffic Report. Now back to T-Minus Space. [Music] I'll be right back. Welcome back. Two little story bites for you as we head off into the weekend. First, NASA put out a really nifty image that just made my nerd heart soar towards y'all, space robots. I do love space robots. Just a few days ago, aboard the International Space Station, an experimental gripper for robotic gripping tentacle arms attached to a free-floating Astro-V robot reached out and grabbed a capture cube Astro-V. Now, just imagine that floating cube that was grabbed was instead a bit of space debris, and well, you've got the right idea. Always very cool to see this tech progressing. And as I mentioned at the top of the show, for those of us following the U.S. method of writing out the date, month, and then day, sorry to everyone else, today is E-Day, as in the irrational mathematical constant E, Euler's number. Kind of a big deal in calculus, especially, and it also shows up in Stelkovsky's rocket equation as well. E is often shortened to 2.71 or 2.7, as in February 7th. So there you go. Happy E-Day. It'll hold you over until Pi Day, I'm sure. And that's it for T-Minus for February 7th, 2025, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. For additional resources from today's report, check out our show notes at space.n2k.com. And we'd love to know what you think of our podcast. Your feedback ensures that we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. 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're 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. N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpey is our publisher. And I'm your host, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. Have a great weekend. [MUSIC PLAYING]
