A record-breaking spacewalk.
Polaris Dawn conducts the 1st privately funded spacewalk. AST launches their first commercial satellites. China’s LandSpace holds a VTVL jump test....
Honda conducts a test launch of its reusable rocket. Vi and AST SpaceMobile to partner in India. China conducted a zero-altitude escape flight test. And more.
Summary
Honda has successfully conducted a launch and landing test of an experimental reusable rocket. Vi and AST SpaceMobile plan to expand mobile connectivity across India’s unconnected regions. China conducted a zero-altitude escape flight test at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday, and more.
Remember to leave us a 5-star rating and review in your favorite podcast app.
Be sure to follow T-Minus on LinkedIn and Instagram.
Honda Conducts Successful Launch and Landing Test of Experimental Reusable Rocket
Viasat hacked by China-backed Salt Typhoon in 2024 US telecom attacks
Vi and AST SpaceMobile Announce Partnership for Satellite Connectivity
China's new crewed spaceship for moon missions completes abort test - CGTN
NASA, German Aerospace Center to Expand Artemis Campaign Cooperation
Maxar Partners With Array Labs to Fuel Its 3D Operational Terrain
Exobiosphere and Space Cargo Unlimited Unite for High-Throughput Biotech in Space
Orion Space Solutions Prepares for Historical VLEO DARPA Ouija Program Mission Launch
Complete our annual audience survey before August 31.
You too can reach the most influential leaders and operators in the industry. Here’s our media kit. Contact us at space@n2k.com to request more info.
Please send your pitch to space-editor@n2k.com and include your name, affiliation, and topic proposal.
T-Minus is a production of N2K Networks, your source for strategic workforce intelligence. © N2K Networks, Inc.
Today is June 18th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] >> T-minus. >> 20 seconds to LOS, T-dred. >> Open aboard. >> Right side. [MUSIC] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Five. >> Array Labs has signed an agreement to provide Maxar with dedicated capacity from Array Labs's 3D radar imaging constellation. NASA and the German Space Agency have signed an agreement to continue partnership in space medicine research. China conducted a zero-altitude escape flight test at the Juchuan Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday. We and AST Space Mobile plan to expand mobile connectivity across India's unconnected regions. NASA has successfully conducted a launch and landing test of an experimental reusable rocket. [MUSIC] And today, June 18th marks 42 years since Sally Ride became the first American woman to get to space. Stay with us for our tribute to trailblazing female astronauts later in the show. [MUSIC] >> Happy Wednesday, everybody. Thanks for joining me. Lights dive into today's headlines, shall we? And we're kicking off with news out of Japan. Honda, yes, as in the car manufacturing company, has successfully conducted a launch and landing test of an experimental reusable rocket. A research and development subsidiary of Honda Motor developed the reusable rocket, which reached an apogee of around 300 meters or around 100,000 feet. This test marked the first launch and landing test conducted by Honda with an aimed and demonstrate key technologies that are essential for rocket reusability, such as flight stability during ascent and descent, as well as landing capability. Honda says it achieved intended rocket behaviors for the launch and landing while obtaining data during the ascent and descent. Honda also says that it started rocket research based on the belief that it has the potential to contribute more to people's daily lives by launching satellites with its own rockets, which could lead to various services that are also compatible with other Honda businesses. Although Honda rocket research is still in the fundamental research phase and no decisions have been made regarding commercialization of these rocket technologies, Honda says it will continue making progress in the fundamental research with a technology development goal of realizing technological capability to enable a suborbital launch by 2029. Yoshido Mibe, global CEO of Honda, added to the press release that "We believe that rocket research is a meaningful endeavor that leverages Honda's technological strengths." Honda will continue to take on new challenges, not only to offer our customers various services and value through our products, while addressing environmental and safety issues, but also to continue creating new value, which will make people's time and place more enjoyable. And before we get to our next story, we're going to get a quick update now from Dave Bittner, who is host of our sister podcast, The Cyber Wire. Viacet has confirmed it was breached by Salt Typhoon, the Chinese state-sponsored espionage group, in a cyber attack linked to intrusions into U.S. telecom infrastructure ahead of the 2024 presidential election. The group had previously targeted firms like Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile, and reportedly accessed phone records of political figures, including Donald Trump and JD Vance. Viacet, which provides secure communications to both commercial and government sectors, stated the breach stemmed from a compromised device but found no customer data was affected. The company worked with federal authorities and believes the threat has been neutralized. Salt Typhoon, active since 2020, is known for its stealth and long-term access strategies, raising concerns that the group may still be embedded in some networks. U.S. officials have linked the group to broader cyber espionage efforts, including a 2024 Treasury Department breach, while China denies all allegations. Thanks for that, Dave. On to our next story then. Indian Telecom Service provider Wee and AST SpaceMobile have announced a strategic partnership to expand mobile connectivity across India's unconnected regions. India has over 1.1 billion mobile subscribers, and while there is widespread 4G and emerging 5G coverage, Wee and AST SpaceMobile say satellite communication will complement terrestrial connectivity to further expand broadband cellular access in some challenging terrains, where deployment of terrestrial mobile infrastructure might be difficult. The partnership will bring together Wee's national network with AST SpaceMobile's space-based cellular technology, which connects directly to everyday smartphones without the need for any specialized software or device support or updates. China conducted a zero-altitude escape flight test at the Jutron Satellite Launch Center on Tuesday. Chinese media, citing the China manned space agency, say that they successfully fired the uncrewed Mengzhou spaceship to demonstrate its ability to propel astronauts to safety in case of an emergency. The Mengzhou spaceship is China's domestically designed next-generation spacecraft for crewed transportation between Earth and space. It is designed to carry up to seven astronauts and is engineered for both space station applications and future manned lunar missions. They say the test validated the design accuracy and compatibility of the emergency escape system, which includes separation and closed-loop control of the escape trajectory. It also provided crucial real-flight parameters for future development. China is also working on other key spacecraft for crewed lunar missions, including the Long March 10 carrier rocket and the lunar lander. You don't have to twist my arm for this one. Let's head over to Paris now. And on the sidelines of the Paris Air Show, NASA and the German space agency DLR signed an agreement to continue a partnership in space medicine research. NASA says this renewed collaboration builds on previous radiation mitigation efforts for human spaceflight. Minimizing exposure to space radiation is one of the key areas that the US space agency is working on to protect crew on long-duration missions. So with this agreement, DLR will leverage its human spaceflight expertise and provide new radiation sensors aboard the Orion spacecraft during NASA's Artemis-2 mission. And as a reminder, Artemis-2 is still scheduled for launch no later than April 2026 and will mark the first test flight with crew under the Artemis program. Array Labs has signed an agreement to provide Maxar with dedicated capacity from Array Labs' own 3D radar imaging constellation. According to the press release from both companies, this partnership will combine 3D terrain that's generated from electro-optical imagery with 3D terrain generated from radar imagery to expand Maxar's ability to rapidly update its global 3D global data in real-time. So the aim of all this is to enable comprehensive real-time geospatial insights and intelligence. Under the agreement, the two companies will extend the current technical validation activities and work closely to integrate Array Labs' data into the Maxar 3D product line. Their first mission is set to launch in late 2026. That wraps up our headlines for today. We already snuck in a little extra story in today's Intel briefing, I'm sure you caught it, but NTK Senior Producer Alice Carruth says there is still a lot more to keep an eye on today. Alice, what have you got for us? There's always a tongue going on in the space industry, Maria. We're monitoring the announcement from Planet Labs about their partnership with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in Zounsey Bar. ExoBiosphere and Space Cargo have signed an MOU to work on biotechnology research. Over to New Zealand and Zenoastronautics, Wellington Uni Ventures and PayHow, Robinson Research Institute are collaborating on superconducting magnetic technologies for space. And Orion Space Solutions have completed a test readiness review for the DARPA-WIGI program. Okay that is a lot, and also Planet's partnership with the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change in Zounsey Bar is an amazing phrase, I've just got to say. Anyway, please remind us where we can find out more about all of those stories. We include links to all the original sources of all the stories we mentioned throughout the episode in the selected reading section of our show notes. You'll also find those links on our website space.intuk.com. Hey T-Minus Crew, if you find this podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a five-star rating and a 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. And to all of you who have already done this, thank you so much for all of your support. It helps us out a lot. We really appreciate it. A programming note now, tomorrow we will not be publishing the Daily Intel Briefing. We'll be sharing our Juneteenth special edition conversation between the Cyberwires host Dave Bittner, CSO Perspectives podcast Kim Jones, and me. So tune in to your T-Minus or Cyberwire Daily feed tomorrow on your favorite podcast app to hear the full conversation. We'll be right back. Welcome back. This week is marked by some historic milestones by women in space. June 16th is the anniversary of Valentina Tereshkova's first and only spaceflight. She became the first woman in space in 1963, completing 48 orbits around the Earth in just under three days. And today, we mark 42 years since the first American woman went to space. On June 18th, 1983, Sally Ride flew aboard the Space Shuttle Challenger on Mission STS-7. At the time, she was also the youngest American astronaut to travel to space. And we here at T-Minus wanted to celebrate the female astronauts that we've gotten to speak to on this show that have continued in Valentina and Sally's path and have collectively contributed to the history of women in space. It was 1976 when the Air Force first selected women to go to pilot training. And then in 1978, NASA selected the first women to be Space Shuttle astronauts. That's when it became real to me that this is something I can actually do. I was in the first group of women interviewed and found out I was selected in January of 1978. So Kristen was born on a Friday morning and I was back in the office on Monday morning for our pilots meeting. It was a challenge, but in a way, it was nice. I was doing the two things I love most. I think it's because I'm just stubborn and because my parents told me I could do anything. So when people said, well, that's a man's film, like, well, I'm going to be an engineer. And it actually has become a passion of mine to encourage young girls to be whatever they want to be. I mean, if you weren't a photographer before you got to space, you become one because you just want to capture all of that experience. Maybe we just start encouraging the use of our whole brains in the way we teach our kids and the way we solve problems. I realized that a lot of what we were doing is really solving for a lot of the challenges here on earth. And so when I got inspiration for and became a space artist during COVID, you know, I started thinking about how I wanted to represent the future of humanity in space and the type of messaging that would really resonate with my art. I decided to say yes to myself and fill out the forms and everything and submitted it. Two months later, Richard Johnson showed up at my house to say, surprise, you won. You're going to space. And the journey that I decided to choose was to merge space and wellness. So now I'm motivating other mothers that you can acquire your dream. My first memories are me actually like looking around in my environment and like looking up specifically at the night sky. I was just so fascinated by space and the ever expanding field of it. You never really know what to expect and how like that's so beautiful in life and how really anything is possible. It's funny how one person can motivate you and another can ignite that in you. And it just was like, that was it. I was on a goal emission. I was like, I have got to go to space now. I got to find a way to go to space. I got the call from Lorde and just see a seat came available in 2020. That was our tribute to women in space. And you heard the voices of astronauts Colonel Eileen Collins, Jan Davis, Dr. Anna Fisher, Nicole Stott, Nikolina Elrich, Carson Kitchen, Dr. Sian Proctor and Keisha Shahoff. Thank you very much to all of our guests. That's it for T-minus for June 18th, 2025. We're here to talk 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 producers Alice Carruth, our producers Liz Stokes were mixed in by Elliot Peltzman and Tre Hester. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpe is our publisher and I'm Constantine and my mom Maria Varmazis is your host. Thanks for listening. Yay! I got your name right. Finally! T-minus. T-minus. T-minus. T-minus. [BLANK_AUDIO]
Polaris Dawn conducts the 1st privately funded spacewalk. AST launches their first commercial satellites. China’s LandSpace holds a VTVL jump test....
Who is going to have new space authority in the US? Industry supports commitment to not conduct ASAT Tests. ULA closes in on a new owner. And more.
ASAP concerned with risks on the ISS. Command handover conducted on the ISS. China completes the rescue of two satellites after a launch failure. And...
Subscribe below to receive information about new blog posts, podcasts, newsletters, and product information.