Today is Wednesday, April 9th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. Blue Sky Space has been selected by the Italian Space Agency to design a fleet of satellites that could orbit the Moon and map the early universe. Redwire has signed an MOU with iSpaceUS to jointly pursue commercial lunar exploration and science missions for the NASA Commercial Lunar Payload Services or CLIPS initiative and other customers. VAST has announced that JapanManned Space Systems Corporation, Interstellar Lab, and Exobiosphere are the latest payload partners for its Haven1 Lab. Astroscale US will conduct two refueling operations of a US DoD satellite in geostationary orbit for the USSF. USSF-SSC launches a new initiative to enhance unclassified threat information sharing with commercial space companies. Happy Wednesday everybody! If you are in Colorado Springs for the Space Symposium, then we hope you have a fruitful day three of the conference. And if you're not with us, then we hope you enjoy our social media updates. If you're a listener and you are at Symposium, please come by and say hi. We will be at the AWS booth #1036 on Thursday from 9am. Now then, let's dive into today's Intel Briefing, shall we? The US Space Forces Space Systems Command has launched a new initiative to enhance unclassified threat information sharing with commercial space companies. The Orbital Watch Program is run by the SSC Front Door Office. USSF describes it as a "rapid communication platform" and released an unclassified threat fact sheet authored by Headquarters Space Force Intelligence to over 900 commercial providers in the Front Door's catalog in March. Orbital Watch intends to communicate critical unclassified threat information to ensure that commercial providers can build resilient systems and mitigate threats such as cyber intrusions, electronic warfare, and adversarial on-orbit activities. Orbital Watch is the culmination of partnerships with various organizations within the government intelligence community. USSF says it is taking decisive steps to strengthen collaboration with commercial space providers, improve collective situational awareness, and enhance overall resilience in the space domain. The program will roll out in phases. Its initial operating capability, or "beta" phase, is focused on outbound dissemination on a quarterly basis that provides industry with assessments of evolving risks in the space domain. Now for some updates from the 40th Space Symposium here in Colorado Springs. Astroscale US announced that it will conduct two refueling operations of a US Department of Defense satellite in geostationary orbit for the United States Space Force. The mission aims to demonstrate the ability of commercial servicing, mobility, and logistics providers to deliver on-orbit capabilities supporting the warfighter. The Astroscale US refueler will be the first spacecraft to conduct hydrazine refueling operations above Geo, and will be the first ever on-orbit refueling mission supporting a DoD asset. Astroscale US selected the Southwest Research Institute to build the bus for the mission and orbit fab's refueling interfaces. The spacecraft is scheduled to launch in the summer of 2026. The highlight of the Space Symposium so far for us anyway has been our tour of Vast's Haven 1 Space Station, which by the way they have on display in the North Hall patio. So go check out our social media accounts for pictures and videos, including one of our goofball senior producer Alice almost knocking herself out on their observation window. It's really funny. Anyway, Vast has announced three new payload customers at this conference. Japan Manned Space Systems Corporation, Interstellar Lab, and Exobiosphere are the latest payload partners for its Haven 1 Lab. Vast says that their commercial space station is on track for deployment in May 2026 and is already nearing full capacity. Redwire Technologies has signed an MOU with iSpace US. The company signed the agreement at the Space Symposium to jointly pursue commercial lunar exploration and science missions for the NASA commercial lunar payload services or CLIPS initiative and other customers. Now Redwire is one of 14 prime contractors on the CLIPS IDIQ contract, and together with iSpace US, the team will be pursuing future CLIPS missions, leveraging the proven iSpace lunar lander. Blue Sky's Space has been selected by the Italian Space Agency to design a fleet of satellites that could orbit the moon and map the early universe. The project, named Radio Luna, aims to uncover whether a fleet of small satellites in a lunar orbit could detect faint radio signals from the universe's earliest days. Now these signals are nearly impossible to pick up from Earth due to man-made radio interference. And those radio signals come from a time before the first stars were formed when the universe was mostly hydrogen gas. And by listening from the far side of the moon, free from Earth's radio noise, scientists could use the satellites to uncover a missing piece of the puzzle in our understanding of the cosmic Dark Ages. Blue Sky Space will establish the viability of operating simple and cost-effective CubeSats, equipped with commercial off-the-shelf components orbiting the moon, and will be led by Blue Sky's Space Italia, which is a subsidiary of the UK-based company. Project partner OHB Italia will be responsible for the definition of a viable platform in a moon orbit. [Music] That concludes today's Intel Briefing. Head to the selected reading section of our show notes to find links to further reading on all of the stories that I've mentioned for you today. And we've also included the announcement that Bangladesh has become the 54th nation to sign the Artemis Accords. And more. 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 will help other space professionals like you to find the show and join the T-Minus Crew. Thank you. We really appreciate it. [Music] We will be right back. [Music] Welcome back. Today is Jared Isaacman's nomination hearing for the role of NASA administrator. As a billionaire, a private astronaut, and a friend of Elon Musk, there are understandably a lot of questions about his views on NASA's Artemis program, as well as on opinions that both Musk and President Trump have repeated that perhaps let's skip the moon entirely and make a beeline straight to Mars. Does Isaacman have similar thoughts? Not that we have a crystal ball into his psyche here, but judging by recent comments that he has made since his nomination, signs look like nah. According to a recent Reuters story, in private meetings in the last week, Isaacman has described returning to the moon specifically as a national imperative, especially before China gets there in case that part needs to be said. Everything remains to be seen, of course, and talk is cheap. But for all the work going into developing CISLUNA right now, not just within NASA, but in the US space economy especially, there are some encouraging signs that lunar development worked will still have NASA backing. Not to disparage you at all, Mars. We will get to you, but you might just have to wait your turn. That's it for T-minus for April 9th, 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 are mixed by Elliot Peltzman and Trey 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] Team 1. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
