Today is April 11th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. ESA has signed a 61 million-euro contract with Altec for training logistics and operations support services for the ISS and future exploration missions. VAST has signed an agreement with CASIS to support scientific research through the ISS National Laboratory. iSpaceUS and Xenopower have signed an agreement to jointly develop technologies that enable lunar missions to survive the harsh lunar night. Privateer Space has announced a strategic investment from Far Eastern Group. Bellatrix Aerospace is expanding operations to the United States. And today we have the weekly space traffic report from our partners at nasaspaceflight.com. Stay tuned for that in the second half of the show. Happy Friday everybody! I am back home after a whirlwind space symposium. Hope all of you in transit or back home have a restful one today. On with our intel briefing. We're starting off things with news out of India. Bengaluru-based Bellatrix Aerospace has announced expansion of operations to the United States. The company unveiled plans to set up a propulsion systems manufacturing unit in Delaware to cater to the US market. Bellatrix has hired Chris McDonald as its vice president to lead its US operations. Yashas Karanam, COO and co-founder of Bellatrix Aerospace, told India media that expanding into the United States has always been one of our top priorities. And with three consecutive successful propulsion missions, we believe our expertise in propulsion, reliability, and repeatable process excellence is a perfect fit for the rapidly growing US commercial market and our products are a perfect fit for the US satellite constellations. This is the second indicator in the last month that the Indian company is looking overseas for expansion. Back in March, Bellatrix signed an MOU with Astroscale Japan to partner on propulsion solutions there. Privateer Space has announced a strategic investment from Faheastern Group, which is one of Taiwan's largest and most influential conglomerates. Faheastern Group, or FEG's investment, is the latest milestone for Privateer, following its $56.5 million series A fund raise and Orbital Insight Acquisition with a contract award from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. No details were shared about the amount of this investment. Privateer CEO and Chairman Alex Fielding is quoted in the press release as saying that the company "looks forward to working on public and private sector opportunities in the Asia-Pacific as it continues to expand globally." On to some partnership news now from the Space Symposium this past week. IceSpace US and Zenopower have signed an agreement to jointly develop technologies that enabled lunar missions to survive the harsh lunar night. IceSpace US and Zenopower are aiming to be the first to address NASA's challenge of lunar night survival. They are exploring the integration of Zenopower's radioisotope power systems, or RPS, into future lunar missions. Zenopower says, "Unlike solar panels and batteries, their RPS provides continuous, reliable heat and electricity, regardless of solar availability, which makes them ideal for enabling a 'survive the lunar night' capability." The companies are targeting a demonstration mission as early as 2027 to validate this capability on the lunar surface. VAS has signed an agreement with the Center for the Advancement of Science and Space, better known as CASIS, to support scientific research through the International Space Station National Laboratory. VAST says this partnership reinforces the company's commitment to advancing space-based research and strengthens its position as a key player in NASA's private astronaut missions to the ISS. Through the agreement, CASIS will collaborate on initiatives proposed by VAST, designed to accelerate advancements in scientific discovery, commercial applications, and space station technology. The agreement also supports VAST's plans to conduct research proposed by astronauts and agencies collaborating on future NASA private astronaut missions. No surprise here, the Europeans also used the Space Symposium Conference to announce new agreements. The European Space Agency signed an agreement to finalize a five-year, 61 million-euro contract with ALTEC, covering training, logistics, and operations support services for the ISS and future exploration missions from 2025 to 2029. And the UK Space Agency and the Norwegian Space Agency signed an MOU to strengthen the space partnership between the United Kingdom and Norway. That concludes a busy week of Intel Briefings for you. Take around for today's Space Traffic Report from NSF. And if you are interested in learning more about all of the stories mentioned throughout this episode, then head to the selected reading section of our show notes. We've also included links to stories for you about VISACA's acquisition of space vector and news from the Space Force Base in Greenland. 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. And tomorrow we have Leslie Kahn and Kass Cameron from the Space Foundation talking about the Q1 Space Report. Check it out while you're recovering from the week that was. I know I will be. . And now on with our weekly Space Traffic Report, here is Elysia Siegel from nasaspaceflight.com. I'm Elysia Siegel for NSF, and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T-minus Space. Starting off the week, we had the launch of a Falcon 9 from Florida on April 6th at 307 UTC, carrying a batch of 28 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit. The first stage for this mission was flying for a 19th time, and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship Just Read the Instructions. From the other coast, we had another Starlink launch, but this one from Foggy Vandenberg. First off took place on April 7th at 2306 UTC, with a batch of 27 Starlink V2 mini satellites heading into low Earth orbit. While the Foggy occulted the views of the rocket while on the ground, the booster had no soot on this one because it was brand new. This was yet another freshly introduced booster for SpaceX's West Coast booster fleet. After its successful landing on SpaceX's drone ship, of course I still love you, it can now continue onto its next launch. With the two Starlink launches this week, SpaceX has now launched a total of 8,254 Starlink satellites into orbit, of which 1,038 have re-entered and 6,496 have moved into their operational orbit. A few hours later, from Kazakhstan, we had the launch of a Soyuz crew to the International Space Station. Lift off of the Soyuz MS-27 mission took place on April 8th at 547 UTC from Site-31-6 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome. On board Soyuz MS-27 were Commander Sergei Rijikov and Flight Engineer Alexei Zubritsky, both Roscosmos cosmonauts, and Flight Engineer and NASA astronaut Johnny Kim. Both Zubritsky and Kim are rookies, with this being their first flight into space, while Rijikov is making his third flight into space on this mission. The trio docked to the ISS about three hours after launch, docking to the Proshal module at 857 UTC. Soyuz MS-27 and its crew will spend approximately eight months on the station and are scheduled to return no earlier than December 8th. This is the first planned flight of Soyuz that slated to spend eight months on the station, as previous missions often stay just five to seven months on average. The reason for this is because Russia now wants to reduce the cadence of its flights to the station as a money-saving measure, going from two flights every year to now three flights every two years. With the Soyuz MS-27 crew on board the ISS, the crew of Soyuz MS-26 can now return home. Roscosmos cosmonauts Alexei Ovchinin and Ivan Wagner, as well as NASA astronaut Don Pettit, will undock from the Rosviet module on April 19th at 2157 UTC. Their landing on the steppes of Kazakhstan should happen a few hours later on April 20th at 117 UTC. This week we also had the launch of a Cheong-Jung 3B rocket from Shicheng on April 10th at 1647 UTC. The rocket was carrying the Tongxian Jisoo Xi'an-17 satellite into a geosynchronous transfer orbit. This is a classified satellite for the Chinese government, claimed to be for testing of multi-band high-speed satellite communication technologies. Going into next week, we'll have quite a few launches, including a couple of Starlink launches from the Cape and a couple of Star Shield launches from Vandenberg. This past week, ULA tried to launch the first operational flight of Amazon's Project Kuiper on its Atlas V rocket, but unfortunately the weather led to a scrub on the last attempt this past Wednesday. The launch has been rescheduled for next week, so hopefully Atlas will have more luck with the weather by then. Next week we'll also have the return of the Minotaur rocket. Yes, the banana-peeled Peacekeeper missile-based rocket with the launch of the NROL-174 mission from Vandenberg. That one jumps off the pad lickety-split, so keep your eyes peeled for that. And also next week in space traffic, we'll have the next launch of New Shepherd, NS-31, carrying an all-female passenger flight. NS-31 will include celebrities Gail King and Katy Perry, and even Jeff Bezos' own fiance Lauren Sanchez. It's definitely going to be quite the showing of girl power. As you probably know, if you want to stay on top of all of these upcoming events, you can use NSF's next spaceflight app and website to stay on track. On our app, we've also recently introduced a flight simulation feature in partnership with Flight Club, so you can check out the rocket's flight path and if it might be visible from your area. The app is free to download, so give it a try and tell us how it goes. We appreciate all of the feedback. I'm Alacia Segal for NSF, and that's your weekly space traffic report. Now back to T-Minus space. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. As we've often noted here on T-Minus, several nations make a big deal of their space programs, sometimes going as far as having a national space day or some other kind of national celebration in honor of their country's space achievements. So on that list of countries that have a designated national space day, the United States, you know, first footprints on the moon, United States, NASA, United States, that one, does it have a national space day? Sure, we have commemorations of big anniversaries that may get noted by those of us who are all already very into space, but nothing really on a broader scale that involves the general American populace, right? Well actually, and I love when I get to say that, well actually we do in fact have a national space day in the United States, kinda. Quick quiz for my fellow Americans though. Do you actually know when that is? No, I didn't either. Yeah, no surprise there. This is where things get a little confusing, but hang on here. National space day has been around since 1997 and I have to admit I also miss that memo. In any case, the first Friday of every May is International Space Day and coincidentally every year the United States legislators say, "Hey, you know that International Space Day? Maybe we'll just use that as our national space day in the United States." So this year, that day falls on May 2nd. And yes, in some years past we have been lucky enough to get an official space day when we can say, "May the fourth be with you and also with you." One day soon though, it might be worth having the conversation at some point about letting International Space Day stand on its own, given how much the global space industry is taking off, if you'll indulge the pun. If we do that, perhaps we have the United States celebrate its own space achievements on its own day instead of trying to do it two for one. We do in the United States have a July 20th as the United States Space Exploration Day, did you know that? But maybe we take a second look at that. Just a thought. . That's it for T-Minus for April 11th, 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. 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 our rating and review on 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 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. Have a fantastic restful weekend. [MUSIC] [BLANK_AUDIO]
