Today is June 27, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 20 seconds to LOS T-dris. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Five. China's Shenzhou-20 crew completes second spacewalk on Tiangong Station. [INAUDIBLE] SpaceX Starship Debris recovery efforts face Mexican legal scrutiny. Cytus Space Pics Atomic-6 for solar arrays in the $120 million CIS Lunar Data Mission with Lone Star. [INAUDIBLE] US NSF and Amazon's Project Kuiper establish coordination agreement to prevent satellite interference. [INAUDIBLE] Rocket Lab successfully launches its 67th electron mission schedule as its next launch in less than 48 hours. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lift off. [MUSIC PLAYING] And as we have for you every Friday, our friends at nasaspaceflight.com bring us the weekly space traffic report. The week that was, the week that will be, launch-wise that is, second half of the show. [MUSIC PLAYING] It is Friday. Thanks for joining me. For our first story, let's head to Mahia, New Zealand, where Rocket Lab has just marked another milestone with the successful launch of its 67th electron mission. And the launch was in the great tradition of Rocket Lab amazing mission names. Get the hawk out of here. It deployed four satellites for radio frequency analytics firm Hawkeye 360. And their mission included their cluster 12 trio and the experimental Kestrel 0A. And it launched them into a 520 kilometer orbit. It is the second of three dedicated launches for Hawkeye 360 as they expand their geolocation satellite constellation. In what could become Rocket Lab's fastest turnaround yet, the next mission they are launching, called Symphony and the Stars, is already scheduled for lift off less than 48 hours later. This upcoming launch will be the 68th for the electron and the 10th this year from their launch complex one in New Zealand and is set to carry a single satellite for a confidential commercial customer to a 650 kilometer orbit. Amazon project Kuiper is teaming up with the US National Science Foundation, or NSF, in a new agreement designed to limit the impact of its low earth orbit satellite broadband constellation on astronomical research. The agreement covers both optical and radio astronomy. On the optical side, project Kuiper is committing to international best practices, including satellite dimming, orbital limitations, and providing precise orbital data to astronomers. The announcement of this agreement says that there is also an analysis underway on the effects of astronomical lasers on the Kuiper satellites. And as for radio astronomy, the collaboration focuses on preventing signal interference with NSF's National Radio Astronomy Observatory. And while it's not required by its FCC license, project Kuiper is also testing prototype satellites and dynamic beam shaping techniques in order to minimize disruption in protected radio frequency bands. And this agreement builds on previous work that project Kuiper has done with NSF's Noir Lab and the International Astronomical Union and reflects a growing and very welcome trend towards public-private cooperation in preserving the dark and quiet skies that are needed for cutting-edge space science. CIDA space has chosen Atomic Six's Lightwing Solar arrays to power its LizzySat spacecraft. And this deal is part of a $120 million agreement with Lone Star data holdings to support future lunar data centers. The Atomic Six solar arrays are noted for their high-power to mass ratio, and CIDA says that they were selected after a technical and commercial evaluation to meet CISLUNAR mission demands. And the LizzySats are designed to support Lone Star's planned network for secure off-Earth data storage. CIDA says the move highlights LizzySat's adaptability for operations beyond low Earth orbit, including in the harsher CISLUNAR environment. And this news says CIDAS is the next step in a phased deployment strategy that aims to deliver data infrastructure less vulnerable to natural or geopolitical disruptions. SpaceX is facing pushback from Mexico following the latest Starship explosion, which scattered debris across the border. The company says recovery efforts have been hampered by unauthorized access to private land in Tamaulipas, and it's now requesting cooperation from both local and federal authorities in Mexico. Mexican President Claudia Scheinbaum has confirmed that her administration is conducting a security and environmental review of the incident and is assessing potential international legal violations. In her words, there is indeed contamination, and she added that legal action could follow based on their findings. SpaceX, for its part, maintains that all debris remains on its property and has offered assistance in the cleanup. This is the latest in a string of Starship anomalies, as you might remember, including earlier incidents in January and March that also scattered debris across international boundaries. China's Shenzhou-20 mission crew, and that would be Commander Chen Dong and Astronaut Chen Zhonggrui, conducted a six and a half hour space walk on June 26th, supported by the Tiangong Station's robotic arm and Earth-based teams. And on their mission, they installed debris shielding and they upgraded extravehicular equipment, including foot restraint and interface adapters, which are expected to reduce future EVA durations by about 40 minutes. The crew also performed maintenance and equipment inspections outside the Wentean module. [Music] And that is it for this Friday's Intel Briefing. As always, you can get more reading on all the stories that I've mentioned for you in our show notes. Just check out the show notes in your podcast app, or head on over to space.ntuk.com. For the 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 our partners at the Aerospace Corporation, hosting their second Space Nexus chat, where they'll be talking about how experts are turning data into decisions in the space industry. Check it out while you're heading out on vacation or coming back from vacation, doing your weekend chores, wandering around the house, or just cleaning out the chicken coop. You don't want to miss it. [Music] Now it's time for our weekly Space Traffic report from our friends at nasaspaceflight.com. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and this is your weekly Space Traffic report for T-minus Space. We're starting off with a spaceflight event that happened last week. On June 19th, NASA's Parker Solar Probe screamed past the Sun on its 24th so-called perihelion, or closest approach to the Sun. At that point, it was only 6.2 million kilometers from the Solar surface, closer than any other spacecraft has ever been, and it moved at a blazing 687,000 kilometers per hour while doing so. At its close distance to our star, it had to endure temperatures up to 930 degrees Celsius, but it did so with ease, and on June 22nd, Parker Solar Probe phoned home reporting that all systems were healthy. The spacecraft used its four instruments to study the solar corona while traveling through it. This was Parker's third perihelion at this distance, and the final of its primary mission. What's next for the spacecraft will be decided next year, but of course, I won't wait for that, and it'll continue its orbit around the Sun with a close approach like this once every 88 days. Next up, we had a launch from China on June 20th, where a Chongjiang 3B took off from the Shichang Satellite Launch Center at 1237 UTC. The payload on this mission was ChinaSat-9C, also known as Zhangsheng-9C, which is a communication satellite that will operate from geostationary orbit. It'll replace the ChinaSat-9 satellite, which was launched in 2008. Over in Florida, we had a Starlink mission on June 23rd. Falcon 9 lifted off from Space Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral at 558 Universal Time, carrying 27 Starlink V2 mini-satellites into low Earth orbit. The booster for this mission was B1069, which successfully completed its 25th flight by touching down on the deck of droneship a shortfall of Gravitas. Just under five hours later, another batch of internet satellites was launched from neighboring Space Launch Complex 41. But this time, it was the second batch of satellites for Amazon's Kuiper constellation. This launch was originally set to lift off a week earlier, but it was delayed so that teams could check out a possible issue with a nitrogen purge line. After rolling back to the pad, Atlas V took off in its most powerful configuration with five solid rocket motors, nicknamed the Bruiser. It delivered the 27 Kuiper satellites into low Earth orbit. On the other side of the country, SpaceX launched its Transporter 14 rideshare mission from California. On June 23rd, at 2125 UTC, Falcon 9 lifted off with 70 payloads in its faring. Among those satellites were two reentry capsules. The first was VARDA's Winnebago 4 spacecraft, which is the company's fourth mission, but the first to use VARDA's in-house-developed satellite bus. The capsule has yet to reenter, and we don't yet know when it will. The second capsule was for the exploration company's mission possible. Unfortunately, that one was not completely successful. The capsule re-entered and even made it through the Blackout period, but lost communication a few minutes before splashdown. The company still considers it a partial success and plans to use the learnings from this mission for its NICS capsule. The Transporter 14 mission was flown by Booster 1071, which flew for the 26th time. It landed successfully on a drone ship, of course, I still love you. Back in Florida, we had a crewed mission to the International Space Station. On June 25 at 6.31 universal time, the long-awaited AXIUM-4 mission lifted off from historic Launch Complex 39A. The passengers riding to space on Falcon 9 were former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson, who is now director of Human Space Flight at AXIUM Space, and serves as commander on the mission. The pilot on the mission is Shubhanshu Shukla, who is an astronaut for the Indian Space Research Organization. The mission specialists are ESA project astronaut Swavoj Uznayanski-Wiszniewski from Poland and Hungarian astronaut Tibor Kapu. This is Whitson's fifth space flight, and the three others are all first-time flyers, all representing their respective nation's return to space in more than 40 years. They were joined by their zero-G indicator, a plush baby swan named Joy. The four arrived at the station the next day, docking at the space-facing, or zenith, port of the Harmony Module. They're expected to stay at the station for 14 days, where they will work on nearly 60 experiments and studies. SpaceX used booster B1094 for the AXIUM-4 mission, which launched for a second time and landed successfully at landing zone one. The crew flew onboard capsule C213, which also flew for the very first time. This is the final dragon that SpaceX will ever produce, and the fifth crew dragon in the company's fleet. As is tradition, the first crew to fly on the capsule gets to name the spacecraft, so the AXIUM-4 crew chose the name "Grace." We had another Starlink mission later that day, lifting off from Florida at 1954 UTC on June 25. It added another 27 V-2 mini satellites to the constellation. Booster 1080 flew this mission as its 20th flight and touched down successfully on the deck of Just Read the Instructions. With the two Starlink launches of the week, SpaceX has now launched a total of 9,079 Starlink satellites, of which 1,204 have re-entered, and 6,957 are now in their operational orbit. Wrapping up the week, we had a spacewalk at China's Tianjiang Space Station. Chen Dong and Chen Zhengwei stepped outside the station for their second extravehicular activity during their current mission. After six and a half hours of installing debris shields and performing maintenance and inspections, the two headed back inside at 1329 UTC on June 26. There was also an electron launch this week, but not the one that we expected. We thought that Rocket Lab would launch the Symphony in the stars mission for a confidential customer, but that one got delayed. First by weather, and then quote, "to allow time for additional checkouts." But on June 26, Electron took to the skies above Rocket Lab's own launch complex in New Zealand to launch four satellites for geospatial analytics provider Hawkeye 360 on a mission named "Get the Hawke out of here." Three of the satellites will expand the company's constellation, and the fourth is a demonstration satellite to test Hawkeye's new spacecraft design. Going into next week, one of the first missions that we might see is the one that Rocket Lab didn't launch last week. The company's now scheduled the Symphony in the Stars for June 28, which would mark a turnaround record for the launch site at less than 48 hours. As always, Falcon 9's expected to fly a few Starlink missions. SpaceX is also set to launch the Mediosat third-generation sounder satellite for U-MetSat, which will monitor Europe's weather and also carry the Sentinel-4 instrument. Last week, Blue Origin was supposed to launch another crewed mission on its new Shepard rocket, but that one was scrubbed after the weather didn't cooperate. We might see NS-33 launch this week instead. Over in Japan, the final H-2A rocket is set to launch from Tanegashima, carrying a satellite that will monitor greenhouse gases. In Australia, Gilmore Space is gearing up for the maiden flight of its AERUS rocket again. You might remember that it deployed its fairing on the pad in early May, but it's now outfitted with a new one, which is currently being tested. Gilmore has a narrow launch window opening on July 1st, so we hope the weather cooperates. Finally, the next Progress cargo resupply mission is set to launch to the ISS this week, lifting off from Kazakhstan on July 3rd. I'm Alicia Segal for NSF, and that's your weekly space traffic report. Now back to T-Minus Space. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] We will be right back. Welcome back. Now I want you to imagine stuffing nearly 1,000 biological specimens from algae to soil microbes to plant stems into a satellite, and then hurling it up into space just to see what survives. And that's exactly what the biotech startup, Genesis SFL, did with their MayaSat-1. And MayaSat-1 hitched a ride on the exploration company's mission possible capsule and carried a whopping 980 samples to polar orbit, making three polar orbits, in fact, making this one of the most biologically packed space flights to date. And I really mean that. It was packed with not only algae and soil microbes and roots and stems. It even included human DNA. And this mission was like a floating arc of biology of seren orbit. And let's dive into some of those samples-- roots, fungi, microbes. And yep, this one is the one that caught all the headlines, even cannabis. Yes, the team included cannabis and the payload to see how its genes respond to intense radiation and microgravity. If it mutated or shows resilience, that could reveal wild insights into plant stress responses and maybe even pave the way for cultivating versatile crops beyond Earth. And OK, beyond the giggles about it being cannabis. Yes, OK, get them out of your system now. Keep in mind that researchers wanted to see how life reacts to the wild extremes of space-- the radiation, the microgravity, the temperature swings. And cannabis is known as weed for a reason. The stuff is notoriously resilient. As it grows in a whole host of different conditions all over the world, making it actually a really fascinating candidate for a cosmic stress test. Yes, really. The twist with this mission is, sadly, we don't know yet if we will recover any findings from it. Now, while the exploration company's mission possible did complete its orbits after its launch from the transport of 14 rideshare, and they even reestablished comms with the capsule after reentry, they unfortunately lost contact shortly before splashdown off the coast of Hawaii. So so far, we do not know the capsule's fate. Parachute issues may unfortunately be to blame. So with that, Myosat once fate is still uncertain. It would be something if this space Noah's Ark ended up washing ashore on a tropical paradise, though, especially with certain seeds in there. Hopefully, the locals have plenty of snacks handy. [MUSIC PLAYING] And that's it for T-Minus for June 27th, 2025, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of our 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 in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey in the show notes or send an email to space@n2k.com. We're proud 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 helps space and cybersecurity professionals grow, learn, and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, technology, and ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn more at N2K.com. N2K's senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are 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'm your host, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. I hope you have a great weekend. [MUSIC PLAYING] T minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] (whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]
