[MUSIC] Today is May 23rd, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] The Texas Space Commission Board of Directors has voted to approve grant applications that total $20.7 million. >> Four. >> ICEYE is partnering with Japan's IHI Corporation on the development of a SAR constellation of up to 24 satellites. >> Three. >> Impulse Space and SCS have signed a multi-launch agreement. >> Two. >> The Federal Aviation Authority has authorized Starship to return to flight. >> One. >> The FCC is looking to significantly expand satellite spectrum assets across multiple bands for current and next generation space-based broadband connectivity. [MUSIC] Later in the program, Ryan from NASASpaceflight.com will be bringing us the weekly space traffic report. He'll be wrapping up the launch news from across the globe over the last week and previewing what's scheduled for the next seven days. So stick around for more on that after today's intelligence briefing. [MUSIC] And we are kicking off our Intel briefing for this Friday with some big updates from the United States government. The Federal Communications Commission has voted to start proceedings that could significantly expand satellite spectrum assets across multiple bands for current and next generation space-based broadband connectivity. And when we say significant, we mean it. They're looking to unlock more than 20,000 megahertz of spectrum for high-speed internet delivered from space. That amount is more than the sum total of all spectrum available for satellite broadband right now. In a notice of proposed rulemaking, the commission is seeking comment on expanding satellite connectivity across four spectrum bands. These underused bands, located in spectrum neighborhoods that are ideal for satellite broadband, are prime candidates for modernization. The commission intends to make good on its years-long efforts to unleash these bands for next generation services. The 12.7 and 42 gigahertz bands, which the commission previously considered for terrestrial use, are adjacent to a workhorse satellite frequencies in the KU and V bands. Meanwhile, there has been growing and intense support to open up the 52 gigahertz band domestically after international decisions at WRC-19. And by seeking comment on the W-band, the commission continues recent initiatives to push the limits of high-band spectrum and provide a first-mover advantage for U.S. licensed operators. And speaking of government decisions, the Federal Aviation Authority has completed the comprehensive safety review of the SpaceX Starship Flight 8 mishap. They've determined that the company has satisfactorily addressed the causes of the mishap, and therefore, you've guessed it, the Starship vehicle can return to flight. SpaceX is required to update its flight safety analysis to account for all outcomes of previously flown flights, including mishap events and to calculate and establish hazards areas. The FAA is expanding the size of hazard areas both in the United States and other countries based on the updated flight safety analysis, and because SpaceX intends to reuse a previously launched Super Heavy Booster rocket for the first time. That is impressive. The aircraft hazard area for Flight 9 covers approximately 1,600 nautical miles and extends eastward from Starbase. That's up from the approximately 885 nautical miles that were set for Flight 8. So, the question that you're all asking, I'm asking it too, when do we expect to see the Starship back in action? And it seems that SpaceX was prepared for the safety review outcome and has already tentatively scheduled to launch Test Flight No. 9 on Tuesday, May 27th at 6.30 p.m. Central Time from Starbase, the newly anointed city in Texas. Moving on now, Impulse Space and STS have signed a multi-launch agreement. The companies plan to use Impulse's Helios kickstage to shorten the time required for the selected SES satellites to reach their final orbital position. This applies whether they're on geostationary or medium Earth orbit by transporting the satellites from low Earth orbit directly to higher energy orbits in hours. The first mission is currently planned for 2027 and it will feature a dedicated deployment from a medium lift launcher in Leo, followed by Helios transferring the four-ton class payload directly to Geo within eight hours of launch. The agreement provides opportunity for additional missions, which SES says will allow them to rapidly and responsively launch satellites to their selected orbit on demand. ICI is partnering with Japan's IHI Corporation on the development of a SAR constellation of up to 24 satellites. The spacecraft plan to be used to provide Earth observation data for military, civilian, and commercial purposes. The companies have signed an agreement to include establishing a satellite manufacturing facility in Japan with satellites to be operated domestically. The initiative is intended to support Japan's space ambitions of boosting space industries while strengthening national security and resilience. And the Texas Space Commission Board of Directors has voted to approve grant applications that total $20.7 million. The funding will go to five proposed projects, West Central Texas Council of Governments Abilene, will receive up to $175,000. Fluxworks will also be getting up to $347,000. Axiom Space, based out of Houston, has been granted up to five and a half million. Cesium Astro is getting up to $10 million, and the Aldrin Family Foundation of Texas will receive funding up to $4.7 million. The new awards bring the total that the Texas Space Commission has granted since it was established in 2023 to $116 million for 19 projects in all. There is $34 million remaining for more awards from the Space Exploration and Aeronautics Research Fund, also known as CERF. [Music] And you can read more about the Texas Space Commission and all of the other stories I've just mentioned in the show by following the links in the selected reading section of our show notes. N2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth joins us now with more on the stories that we've added in there today for a little extra bonus for you. Alice? Thanks Maria. We have three additional links in there today covering China's EVA to add debris shields to Tiangong, NASA's agreement with Argentina for an Artemis II CubeSat, and an update on Astrobotics Lunar Wireless Charger. That is all good stuff for us to keep an eye on. And for those of us that are not able to see those links on their podcast app, where else could we find them Alice? We also include the full show notes on our website, simply head to space.n2k.com and click on the daily episode title. 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 Cedar Raghavan and Joy Hain talking about cosmic and preparing the future workforce for ISAM. Check it out while you're enjoying a long holiday weekend both here and in Alice's native UK. It's officially barbecue season in the Northern Hemisphere after all. And speaking of that holiday weekend, a programming note now that we will be taking Monday off from our daily Intel briefing in commemoration of Memorial Day in the United States. But don't fret, we have a special edition releasing that same day on the International Rocket Engineering Competition, otherwise known as the IREC. You don't want to miss it. Our partners at nasaspaceflight.com now have the Weekly Space Traffic Report. I'm Ryan Cating for NSF and this is your Weekly Space Traffic Report for T-minus Space. We started off the week with a UJ-2E launch on May 17th. The methane-powered rocket from Chinese company Yanspace lifted off from Zhou Chen carrying six satellites into sun-synchronous orbit. The payloads were a mix of three Earth observation satellites and three technology demonstration satellites all developed by Space T for various Chinese universities. This was the second launch of the J2's enhanced variant, that's where the E comes from. This version features an upgraded second stage that uses a common dome between its two propellant tanks, saving some mass. That same stage also sports a new engine that's capable of re-lighting in space. But the rocket that flew this week featured some additional upgrades compared to the J2E that launched last November. I guess the name J2E was passed over. One change that is very obvious from the outside, the fairings are larger. What's more, the first stage was outfitted with more powerful engines, adding an additional 12 tonnes of thrust to lift off. The mission's first orbit took the rocket over the western United States where it dumped some fuel. This is a very common procedure to pacify rocket stages, but this time the lighting conditions were just right to create a bright streak clearly visible from the ground. Just a few hours later, an electron took off from Rocket Lab's Mahia spaceport in New Zealand. Gifting off on May 17th at OH-17 UTC, Electron carried a radar imaging satellite for Japanese company like QPS into low Earth orbit. This was Rocket Lab's third mission for the company, which names its satellites after Japanese deities. The satellite on board this mission was named after the sea god Wadatsumi, so Rocket Lab fittingly named Electron's mission the Sea God Seas. Unfortunately, we also had a launch failure this week coming out of India. On May 18th at 29 past midnight universal, is Rose PSLV XL rocket lit its solid first stage at the Satish Devast Space Centre to launch a radar reconnaissance satellite into sun synchronous orbit, but it never made it that far. The first phases of flight went well, but during the third stage burn, the rocket telemetry showed that something had gone seriously wrong. According to the Indian Space Research Organisation, the pressure dropped in the third stage solid motor and the agency is now investigating what exactly went wrong. This is the third failure in the PSLV's history, which has flown a total of 63 missions since 1993 and is considered the workhorse by many of the Indian Space Program. The incident broke a streak of 21 successful launches since the rocket's previous failure in 2017. Back in China, we had the launch of the Arctic Energy Ceres-1S on May 19th. The rocket was loaded with four Internet of Things communications satellites destined for low Earth orbit. The offshore launch was conducted from the Dongfeng-Hung Tian-Geng barge, which was positioned in the LOC just off the coast of the city of Shijiao. Back on dry land, another rocket lifted off from China the following day, a Changjiang 7A at its 6 YF100 engines on May 20th and lifted off from the Wenchang Space Launch Site at 1150 UTC. The payload on this mission was a classified communications satellite destined for geostationary orbit. On May 21st, the Falcon 9 took to the skies in Florida to launch another batch of Starlinks. The mission added 13 Starlink director-cell satellites and 10 V2 mini-satellites to the Internet constellation. The booster for this mission was a rookie on debut, B1095. Though inexperienced, it performed its mission effortlessly, allowing successfully on SpaceX's drone ship just read the instructions. Later that day, yet another mission lifted off from China, this time a Lai Shan-1, also known as Connecticut-1, carried six satellites into Sun synchronous orbit. Among these payloads were some commercial Earth observation satellites. The mission was conducted from Zhou Chen, with T-0 at 0405 Universal on May 21st. China's busy week of traffic continued in orbit, as there was a spacewalk on China's Tianjiang Space Station on the 22nd. The extravehicular activity was performed by Chen Dong, who stepped outside of the station for the fourth time in his career, and Chen Zhong-Rui, who performed his very first EVA. During the activity, the pair installed a space debris shield. They also inspected and disposed of some equipment. The two wrapped up their EVA after roughly 8 hours at 0849 UTC. Next, a Soyuz 2.1B rocket lifted off from the SpaceX Cosmodrome in Russia on May 23rd, around 0700 Universal. Unfortunately, we don't know much more about this classified mission or its payload. Russian official news have only confirmed that a satellite for the Russian Ministry of Defense was launched on this mission, so that's pretty much all we know about the payload. And from Tianjiang to the International Space Station, the Dragon on the CRS-32 resupply mission undocked from the Harmony Module Zenith or Space Facing port on May 23rd at 0650 Universal. The capsule arrived at the station about a month ago, delivering sites, payloads, and restocking the astronaut supplies with 1262 Torque Tiers and other food supplies. Dragon's departure was delayed by a day, following bad weather in the recovery zone. Splashdown off the coast of California is now expected for May 25th at 0545 UTC. If you're watching around the time of publication, keep an eye out as there is supposed to be a Starlink launch out of Vandenberg, delivering 27 V2 Minis into low Earth orbit. Check out our next Space Flight app and website for the latest on this mission. It's the closest we've got to a crystal ball, at least when it comes to launches, and it's completely free, online, on iOS, and on Android. Next week, Rocket Lab is planning to launch another electron mission from Mahia. The mission is titled 'Fall Stream Ahead' and the payload will be the second of five Black Sky Generation 3 imaging satellites. We're also expecting the Tyen-Win 2 mission to launch from China next week. Tyen-Win 2 is an asteroid sample return mission that will attempt to bring back some material from near Earth asteroid Kamau O'Rever. Once it has done that, the spacecraft is set to move on to a main belt comet called 311P Pan Stars and study it up close. Astronomers famously good at naming. As always, next week's schedule is packed with Starlink missions, with two from the East Coast and two from the West Coast. One of the West Coast launches will be the first of Starlink Group 17, which is interesting because it will be the first Starlink in over two years to fly pretty much directly south. Finally, it looks like we might also get a Starship launch next week. Yes, I know we said that last week, but in our defence, we also said it seemed as if things weren't really ready. At the time, SpaceX had already acquired a launch licence, but they were still waiting for the FAA to either complete the miss-up investigation into Flight 8 or issue a public safety determination. Bellata finally came through this Thursday, May 22nd, so from a regulatory perspective, Starship is good to go. The latest hazard notices show the launch is currently planned for no earlier than May 27th, with the launch window opening at 2330 UTC, that's 1830 local time, so a couple of hours prior to sunset. This week, SpaceX rolled Ship 35 back out to the masses test site once again for further pre-launch testing and after an initial scrub attempt, the company finally performed a spin-prime of the vehicle's engines. The vehicle has since rolled back to Mega Bay 2 for pre-launch preparations. I'm Ryan Cated for NSF and that's your weekly Space Traffic Report. No back to T-minus space. We'll be right back. [Music] Welcome back. For a lot of us in the Northern Hemisphere, we are entering the time of year where we want to spend a lot of time outside enjoying what's hopefully nice weather, although where I am it's just been cold and rainy, but anyway, if your idea of a great time spent outdoors involves model rockets and from the conversations I've had with a number of our listeners, I know it likely does, a team of writers at space.com including Ian Stokes and Alexander Cox have put together a really comprehensive buyer's guide covering all sorts of model rockets. So if you've got an itchy buy now trigger finger, you really want to take a look at this piece and we will link it in the show notes for you. The Space.com team tested each rocket that they've reviewed and recommended on there and they have a number of categories for you to peruse including the ones that are best for kids, the best water powered rockets, the best ones for beginners, the best Saturn Vs, that kind of thing. Zero surprise that a lot of the top rockets on the list are SDs rockets, but it's not a complete sweep. Most of the rockets on this list top out with a maximum projected altitude of around 300 to 500 feet, though some do get closer to about a thousand. So you're not going to need FAA permission for these, just clear skies and a big open space away from power lines. Both of those are sadly hard for me to manage up here in the windy and crowded northeast US, but for a lot of you in the more expansive, wide open country, all of that should be no stress really. And I will emphasize that this list has a number of picks for kids, so if you have a budding space nerd in your life, maybe save a few items on this list for when birthday or holiday season shopping time comes around. And when you do, take a moment to just visualize how nice it'll feel when, oh I don't know, a decade or so from now, that kid is now an adult saying your name with a big smile on their face, thanking you during their aerospace thesis defense for being the one who sparked it all. And that's it for T-Minus for May 23rd, 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 our podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like our show, please share our rating and review in your podcast app. You can also always get in touch with us by sending us an email, thespace@n2k.com. We are 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 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 Kilpie is our publisher, and I am your host, Marie Varmazis. Thank you for listening. Have a wonderful Memorial Day weekend. We will see you back on Tuesday. T-minus. you you [BLANK_AUDIO]
