Today is April 8th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. T-minus. Twenty seconds to alloy. Open aboard. Live. Greattheon has awarded contracts to NAMO and Northrop Grumman for initial phase work on MK72 solid rocket motor development. Axiom Space has announced plans to launch two orbital data center nodes to low-Earth orbit by the end of this year. Millennium Space Systems has completed the critical design review for the Foo Fighter, a Soyuz 27 spacecraft carrying a three-member crew arrived at the International Space Station. Firefly Aerospace to perform a responsive on-orbit mission with its Elytra spacecraft in support of the U.S. DoD's Defense Innovation Unit Cinequone project. Let's go. And today we're sharing the very first AWS in orbit recorded at the 40th Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The episode covers modernizing satellite management and it's a great chat with three great guests, if I may say so myself. So check it out when it drops in your podcast feed. Happy Tuesday everybody, directly from Space Symposium in Colorado Springs. The exhibit opened last night and we got to attend the UK Space Southwest event also. It's a buzzing event here at the Broadmoor and we're excited to share some more of our chats with you over the next few weeks. And now on to today's Intel Briefing. Firefly Aerospace has been awarded a contract to perform a responsive on-orbit mission with its Elytra spacecraft in support of the U.S. DoD's Defense Innovation Unit Cinequone project, which, yes, is a play on Cinequone, a phrase that means something that's an absolute necessity for those of you whose Latin is rusty like mine. During the mission, Elytra will serve as a space maneuver vehicle to perform a series of responsive on-orbit tasks, including space domain-awareness operations in low-Earth orbit. Elytra will host a suite of government payloads, including optical visible and infrared cameras, a responsive navigation unit, and a universal electrical bus with a payload interface module. Firefly's Elytra Dawn configuration will use common components from the company's launch vehicle and lunar landers, including the avionics, composite structures, and propulsion systems. Elytra's main engine, called Spectre, was recently flight-proven on Firefly's Blue Ghost lunar lander as the Reaction Control System thrusters that successfully performed Firefly's final descent on the moon back in March. The DIU mission is set to launch as early as 2027. A Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft carrying a three-member crew arrived at the International Space Station earlier today. NASA astronaut Johnny Kim joined Roscosmos-Cosmonauts Sergey Ryzikov and Alexei Zuritsky on the vehicle, bringing the current occupancy of the ISS to 10 for the next two weeks. Expedition 73 will begin on Saturday, April 19, following the departure of Don Pettit and Roscosmos-Cosmonauts Ivan Wagner and Alexei Ovchenin. Millennium Space Systems has completed the critical design review for the Fire Control on-orbit support to the warfighter, aka the Foo Fighter. Millennium completed the review just 10 months after authorization to proceed. Foo Fighter aims to demonstrate advanced missile defense capability by incorporating fire control quality sensors into a prototype constellation. The completion of the review marks the transition to the production phase of the program, which includes delivering a constellation of eight satellites with a ground system in 2026. Axiom Space has announced plans to launch two orbital data center nodes to lower Earth orbit by the end of this year. Axiom says these nodes will lay the foundation for space-based cloud computing, and the centers plan to provide secure, scalable and cloud-enabled data storage and processing, and artificial intelligence and machine learning solutions directly to satellites, constellations, and other spacecraft in Earth's orbit. It will have the capability to operate independently of terrestrial infrastructure. Axiom says this will enhance resiliency and security of emerging mesh networks in orbit, and also enhance real-time operations of space assets by providing lower latency and higher availability cloud capabilities. Raytheon has awarded contracts to NAMO and Northrop Grumman for initial phase work on MK72 solid rocket motor development. Under the contracts, the companies will verify design requirements and specifications, and will complete a systems requirement review to further refine and validate design concepts. The goal of this initial phase is to demonstrate that these suppliers can successfully execute the requirements and production ramp-up needed before moving forward with further development and qualification. [Music] And that is it for our intelligence briefing for you on this Tuesday. There are plenty of additional links added to the selected reading section for you to indulge in today. E&I Space has secured 2.3 million euros in funding from the Spanish Space Agency to lead their latest R&D project. Germany is funding U-TailSat Internet in Ukraine, and Voyager Technologies has been onboarded for U.S. Air Force acquisition. Hey T-Minus Crew, if you are just joining us, be sure to follow T-Minus Space Daily in your favorite podcast app. Also, if you could do us a favor, share the intel with your friends and coworkers. Here's a little challenge for you. By Friday, please show three friends or coworkers this podcast. A growing audience is the most important thing for us, and we would love your help as part of the T-Minus Crew. So if you find T-Minus useful, and we certainly hope that you do, please share so other professionals like you can find it. Thanks! It means a lot to me and all of us here at T-Minus. [Music] We'll be right back. [Music] Welcome back. As someone who is roughly the same age as him, I just wanted to give an end of the show shout out to NASA astronaut and meme legend, Johnny Kim. Now, Johnny Kim is a doctorate of medicine at Harvard Medical School, a dual designated naval aviator and flight surgeon, and former Navy SEAL with more than 100 combat operations under his belt. And yep, he's also a NASA astronaut who is now officially, safely aboard the International Space Station. What a flex, seriously. All of us who grew up with Tiger parents are officially just wondering if Mr. Kim is seriously trying to make the rest of us look bad or what. For all of you bracing yourself for the inevitable disappointed phone call from your mom about why he could do all this by 40 and you couldn't. My entire sympathies, I'm with you. In all seriousness, Johnny, very glad you're living your dream, and apparently everyone else's at the same time. [Music] That's it for T-minus for April 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're 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. 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, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening, we'll see you tomorrow. [Music] T-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
