Today is May 14th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. The ARDES W3 capsule has returned to Earth, landing at the Kunuba Test Range in South Australia. BlackSky has signed Gen 3 Early Access Agreements with multiple international defense sector customers for space-based monitoring capabilities. Gremone Space has been selected by UTELSAT to provide onboard digital communication channelizers for the expansion of its one-web constellation. ISI has signed a 200 million euro agreement to produce three SAR satellites for the Polish armed forces. Spaceforge has raised $29.8 million in a Series A funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund. Happy Wednesday everybody! We're going to be talking about space nukes and electric propulsion later in today's show, but first, we're kicking off today's Intel briefing with investment news from British ISAM company Spaceforge. They have raised 22.6 million pounds, and that is about $29.8 million in a Series A funding round led by the NATO Innovation Fund. We should add that this is the largest Series A secured by a UK space tech company. Spaceforge is working to manufacture materials that are impossible to produce on Earth, and they say their advancements have wide-reaching applications in semiconductors, quantum computing, clean energy, and defense technologies. The new capital will be used to accelerate the development of Spaceforge's ForgeStar 2, which is the company's next-generation, returnable manufacturing satellite, while supporting the company's first in-orbit demonstration mission, ForgeStar 1, which is set to launch this summer. Joshua Western, CEO and co-founder of Spaceforge, said in the press release that "we're accelerating our mission to make space a practical and accessible platform for industrial-scale manufacturing. Our upcoming launches will prove that the future of materials innovation lies beyond Earth, helping us build a more secure, sustainable, and technologically advanced world." And we spoke to Josh at the Space Symposium last month, where he explained to us that the company has already positioned itself to produce semiconductors on Earth. What we've been doing at Spaceforge is we really focused in on the materials manufacturing. So one of the things I'm really pleased to update your listeners on is we now have a pilot-lined semiconductor capability in the UK. So we are already producing semiconductors for customers right here on Earth. What's really important is the people that we're working with today are buying them because they want to work with the ones that we bring back from space. And that's really critical for us. And that then allowed us to also keep the money coming in to start the development of our upcoming missions as well. So we were in the position where, a couple of years ago, we had one mission launching. This year we've got three. Moving on to our next story now, ICE-I has signed a contract to produce three SAR satellites for the Polish Armed Forces. The synthetic aperture radar company signed the agreement with the Ministry of National Defense of the Republic of Poland to deliver an initial batch of three ICE-I SAR satellites with an option to purchase three more satellites and additional ground segment capabilities within the next 12 months. ICE-I will also partner with local industry to provide the Polish Armed Forces with a mobile intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform that provides near real-time tasking, data downloads, and analysis. The total value of the agreement is approximately 200 million euros. Ramon Space has been selected by UTELSAT to provide onboard digital communication channelizers for the expansion of its one-web constellation. Ramon Space will initially supply 70 flight sets of its digital communication channelizer systems over the coming months. These will upgrade UTELSAT one-web's existing analog channelizers, which are expected to be integrated into the satellites and launched starting at the end of 2026. The contract also provides the optionality for additional systems. BlackSky has signed Gen 3 Early Access Agreements with multiple international defense sector customers for space-based monitoring capabilities. BlackSky says the new customers will now be able to integrate very high-resolution 35-centimeter imagery into daily intelligence operations, reducing the speed of analyses and opening a new expansive set of mission solutions. These initial contracts are designed to scale in size and volume as the company increases available Gen 3 capacity over time. Varda Space Industries W3 capsule has returned to Earth, landing at the CUNIWA test range in South Australia. W3 launched just 15 days after the re-entry of the company's second mission, which also landed in Australia on February 27. The capsule carried an advanced navigation system payload called an "Inertial Measurement Unit" developed by the U.S. Air Force and Innovative Scientific Solutions, Inc. The payload was tested at re-entry speeds it was designed to withstand but has never encountered before. The W3 spacecraft was supported by a rocket lab-developed pioneer satellite and has already been recovered by Varda. And speaking of Australia, N2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth has more on other space activities going on down under this week. Alice? Yes Maria, Gilmore Space is due to launch their aerospace craft from Australia this week. It will be the first orbital launch from Australia in nearly 50 years. The launch window opens no earlier than May 15, subject to weather and other conditions the window will be active between 7.30am to 5.30pm local time. IntelSat and Qubic have been conducting satellite connectivity tests that could bring some big implications on future satellite connectivity. You can read all about that along with the original sources on all the other stories mentioned throughout the show by following the links in the selected reading section of our show notes. A reminder, those links can also be found on our website space.n2k.com. Hey T-minus crew, if you find this podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a 5 star rating and short review in your favorite podcast app. It'll help other space professionals like you to find the show and join the T-minus crew. Thank you, we really appreciate it. We'll be right back. Maneuver without regret. Is that the promise of a clumsy surgeon, the motto of a slalom skier carrying a priceless Ming vase? Sorry to potentially disappoint, but the phrase maneuver without regret is actually the goal behind a new nuclear propulsion initiative backed by the US Space Force. The Space Power and Propulsion for Agility Responsiveness and Resilience, or SPAR, Institute is teaming up with Space Nuclear Power Corporation, aka Space Nukes, to develop a second generation fission reactor for spacecraft. Their plan is to pair a compact nuclear reactor with electric propulsion to create a system known as nuclear electric propulsion or NEP. And we've covered this now and then on the show before, but to refresh your memory, this kind of setup is far more efficient than chemical rockets, as estimates say that it is up to 25 times more efficient. So that would make an NEP ideal propulsion both for deep space missions and for dodging threats in orbit without worrying about fuel limits. As for the company itself, Space Nukes, well, they do bring serious cred to the table. They are the only US company to have designed, built, and tested a new reactor concept in the last half century with their Kilo Power demo back in 2018. The new reactor that Space Nukes and the US Space Force are working on with the University of Michigan will quite literally crank up the heat. It's kind of how this thing generally works. Higher reactor and radiator temperatures mean lighter and more compact systems, which translates to more agile spacecraft that are harder to spot and hopefully easier to launch. And oh yeah, it will maneuver without regret, of course, meaning a nuclear-powered space vehicle that can pivot on a dime and maybe even stay one step ahead of any incoming trouble. That's it for T-Minus for May 14th, 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, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
