Rocket Lab pursues every part of the space value chain.

Today is March 12, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. T-minus. Twenty seconds to alloy. T-minus. Open aboard. Five. China has launched 18 satellites aboard the Long March 8 Y-6 carrier rocket from the Hainan Commercial Spaceport. Spaceworks selects eight companies for strategic funding increase agreements worth a combined $440 million. Deorbit and UTELSAT partner for ESSA's in-orbit servicing mission, RISE. NASA launches the Sphere X telescope and PUNCH mission. The lab announces its intention to acquire Mineric. We're kicking off this hump day with news of a move that will put Rocket Lab firmly in contention with its biggest rival, SpaceX. Rocket Lab has entered into a non-binding term sheet to acquire a controlling equity position in Mineric. Rocket Lab says the acquisition, if accomplished, is expected to further strengthen the company's capabilities as a launch provider, spacecraft manufacturer, and supplier of satellite components at scale. According to the details shared with investors, Rocket Lab may fund this and other future acquisition opportunities with proceeds from equity offerings. Rocket Lab founder and CEO, Sir Peter Beck, added to the press release that Rocket Lab is pursuing every part of the space value chain. We launch our own rockets, we build satellites in constellation volumes, and now we're closing in on the final step and most valuable part of the space economy, operating our own constellations to provide data and services from space using our newly announced flat-a-light spacecraft. Additionally, Airbus has selected Rocket Lab to produce solar panels for 101-web Leo satellites for a U-Tel sat group. Rocket Lab will provide 200 solar panels, inclusive of carbon composite panel substrates, solar cells, and photovoltaic assemblies. These panels will be manufactured at Rocket Lab's 150,000 square foot space solar production facility in Albuquerque, New Mexico. NASA's Sphere X and Punch missions finally launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base last night. The spectrophotometer for the history of the universe, epoch of re-ionization and ISIS Explorer, otherwise more concisely known as Sphere X Observatory, launched alongside four small satellites for the "Pillimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere" or Punch mission aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket. Communication has already been established with the Sphere X Observatory. It'll begin its two-year prime mission after a roughly one-month checkout period, during which engineers and scientists will make sure the spacecraft is working properly. The Punch satellites successfully separated about 53 minutes after launch, and ground controllers have established communication with all four. Punch begins a 90-day commissioning period where the four satellites will enter the correct orbital formation, and the instruments will be calibrated as a single virtual instrument before scientists start to analyze images of the solar wind. We're glad the vehicle's finally deployed after a number of delays. U-TelSat will collaborate with Deorbit on RISE, a commercial in-orbit servicing mission that will demonstrate the safe rendezvous and docking to a geostationary client satellite. RISE is funded by the European Space Agency's Space Safety Program. Deorbit is developing, launching, and demonstrating the capabilities of GIA. Now, GIA is a vehicle designed to demonstrate in-orbit servicing capabilities, including rendezvous, docking, taking over the attitude and orbit control functions of another spacecraft in geostationary orbit, all for purposes like life extension, relocation, repair, and disposal. U-TelSat will represent the customer side of the service development, providing insight into the real-world needs of satellite operators. The commercial outreach arm of the US Space Force, also known as Spaceworks, selected eight companies for strategic funding increase agreements or stratfies worth a combined 440 million dollars in government and private funding. Albedo, Beast Code, CZM Astro, Gravidx, Leel Labs, RISE 8, Umbra, and Zona will receive up to 60 million dollars each, with Spaceworks and several defense agencies contributing up to 30 million dollars per project. The program targets projects that have already completed Phase II super contracts within the past two years. More details can be found about the awardees by following the link in our show notes. China has launched 18 satellites aboard the Long March 8 Y-6 carrier rocket from the Hainan Commercial Space Port. The vehicle was the first to lift off from the site's number one launch pad. China says the launch signifies the dual-pad readiness of the nation's first commercial space port. The Long March 8 Y-6 carried the fifth group of spacecraft for China's commercial internet constellation, SpaceSale. The China Aerospace, Science, and Technology Corporation says the satellites have entered the preset orbit successfully. And that is it for our top five for today's Intelligence Briefing. And 2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth has more on the other stories that we've included in our selected reading for today. Alice? Yes, Maria. With satellite going on in DC and SpaceComExpo in London, there have been several announcements over the last 24 hours worth noting. We've included seven additional links today. RIVADA and Amendtum, AI Tech and Intuodex, Radiant Aerospace and General Atomics, Space 42 and Viasat, CIDR Space and Warspace have all announced partnerships. Saudi Arabia and South Korea are also working to strengthen their cooperation, and Leolabs is due to build a space monitoring radar in the Indo-Pacific region. Okay, that is a lot. And where can the crew find those links? Links to further reading can be found on our website, space.intuk.com, or in the show notes on the podcast platform that you listen to us on. Just scroll down to the selected reading section. AAT-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. It'll help other space professionals like you find the show and join the T-minus crew. Thank you, we really appreciate it. [Music] I'll be right back. Welcome back. The long-awaited Crew 10 launch is due to lift off tonight from Kennedy Space Center. The four-person crew will launch in a Dragon capsule at 7.48 p.m. from Launch Complex 39A. NASA astronauts Anne McClain and Nicole Ayers will join JAXA astronaut Takuya Onishi and Roscosmos Kosmonaut Kiril Peskov as part of Expedition 73 on the space station. And while on station, the crew will engage in a wide variety of research sponsored by the ISS National Laboratory, including materials and physical sciences experiments and biomedical research. We've included details of those experiments in our show notes for you. Very convenient. The arrival of the crew will trigger the end of Crew 9's mission on the ISS and the much, much-awaited return of astronauts Sonny Williams and Butch Wilmore, who have been the subject of many headlines over the last eight months. We'll soon find out exactly how abandoned they really were, in any case, wishing them a very safe return back to Terraferma and a rest full-time after heaven knows they've earned it. Also expected later this evening is Hera, which is ESA's first space safety mission, which will come to within 5,000 kilometers of the surface of Mars and 300 kilometers of the Red Planet's more distant and enigmatic moon, Deimos. During this flyby, Hera will be performing observations of both the planet and the city-sized moon. The spacecraft will then swing its high-gain antenna back to Earth to transmit its data home. Tomorrow, the images will be premiered by Hera's science team from ESA's ESOC mission control center in Germany. ESA's then expected to share them during a webcast, so we hope to share them with you in tomorrow's show. There's lots for you to join us for tomorrow, so tune in then. That's it for T-Mine is for March 12, 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. N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Tre Hester, with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpe is our publisher, and I am your host, Marie Varmazis. Thanks for listening. See you tomorrow. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]