Today is July 16, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus, 22nd to L-O-N, T-dress. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] IONQ has completed its acquisition of Capella Space Corporation. Four. BlackSky Technologies has been awarded a multimillion dollar contract with a new international customer. Three. IONQ has approved a project to drive the development of 6G and low-Earth orbit satellite systems by 2030. Two. Space Port Cornwall has been selected to join the UK Ministry of Defense's Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework. One. UKSA has awarded new funding to support satellite communications development and boost the nation's space clusters. [MUSIC PLAYING] It is Wednesday, everybody. Thank you for joining me. Here's today's Intel Briefing. [MUSIC PLAYING] The UK Space Agency's UK Space Conference 2025 kicked off in Manchester earlier today. The event brings together leading players in the United Kingdom's space sector and beyond to discuss future growth plans and renew the sector's focus on generating economic growth and advancing national security goals. We are expecting a flurry of European updates over the next few days, but day one belongs to the Brits. The UK Space Agency has awarded new funding to support satellite communications development and boost the nation's space clusters. Four new projects have been awarded four and a half million pounds to push the boundaries of satellite-based 5G and 6G systems. Among these, MDA Space UK's SkyFi mission aims to deliver 5 and 6G connectivity capabilities directly to devices via low Earth orbit satellites. OrbitFab's radical project is focused on developing in-orbit refueling systems for telecommunication satellites. SSTL's lunar communication system will enable deep space communications capabilities, while ViASat's hybrid Geoleo network is designed to provide global 5G-directed device coverage. And an additional 1.6 million pounds will go to the UK's Space Cluster Network. And UKSA says that the funding will stimulate innovation and economic growth and will enable space clusters to collaborate in areas of shared capability, supporting space companies to forge stronger local partnerships and take advantage of expertise across the whole of the United Kingdom. And staying in the UK for our next story, Spaceport Cornwall has been selected to join the UK Ministry of Defence's Hypersonic Technologies and Capability Development Framework. The seven-year, one billion-pound framework brings together 90 organizations from across industry and academia to rapidly develop advanced hypersonic defense capabilities for the UK. It is designed to accelerate capability development through two technology readiness level 9-- TRL 9, in other words-- enabling rapid progression from early research through to operational deployment. Spaceport Cornwall says that its development in the hypersonic framework reinforces its role as a hub for cutting-edge aerospace and defense innovation. The announcement comes as the European Space Agency shared its plans for hypersonic testing, selecting Frazier Nash to partner on a fully reusable experimental aerospace vehicle named the Invictus. And you can read more about that by following the link in our show notes. Moving on, Taiwan has approved an approximately $830 million project to drive the development of 6G and low-Earth orbit satellite systems by 2030. The six-year initiative spearheaded by the National Science and Technology Council is designed to strengthen Taiwan's position in the next generation of global communications. Premier Chou Rong-Tai underscored the need to invest in future-facing technologies like 6G and satellite broadband to secure a leading role in shaping digital connectivity. The project prioritizes domestic innovation with goals that include launching 6G commercial services, building a competitive local satellite ecosystem, and modernizing legal frameworks to enable faster tech deployment. Now, Taiwan is targeting 80% self-sufficiency in base station hardware and software by 2030. Local R&D will focus on advanced chips, components, and network equipment. The plan also includes the development of a homegrown Leo satellite system, leveraging domestically produced components to reduce reliance on foreign technology and attract at least three global satellite service providers. For our next story, Earth Observation Company Black Sky Technologies has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract with a new international customer that combines immediate Gen 3 and Gen 2 subscription-based imagery and analytics services and follow-on ground segment modernization services. And through this agreement, the unnamed customer will receive immediate subscription-based access to assured services, which Black Sky says guarantees tasking capacity for persistent monitoring over a customer's area of interest or areas of interest. Black Sky will also upgrade the customer's existing ground station and mission operation center with direct downlink and uplink communications capabilities for faster, locally controlled intelligence. And IONQ has completed its acquisition of Capella Space Corporation. With the acquisition now finalized, IONQ says it will begin developing a space-based quantum key distribution, or QKD network, by integrating Capella's satellite infrastructure with its own quantum technology. And once complete, this QKD network will enable secure communications that will prevent encryption keys from being intercepted or copied without detection. The future is now, folks. (upbeat music) And that wraps up today's intelligence briefing. And 2K senior producer Alice Carruth joins me now with some of the other stories that we are keeping an eye on. Alice, what do you got for us? - Happy hump day, Maria. We include links to all the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout our episodes in the selected reading section of our show notes. I've added two additional links in there today that I think you'll enjoy. The first is the results of a new study that suggests the meteor crater impact in Arizona is linked to the Grand Canyon landslides. They're obviously both major landmarks in the Southwest where I am. And it's interesting to hear that there's more to this space story than meets the eye. Then the other link is to ESA's FESAT 2, which is starting to use AI to process and compress Earth observation images. And you can read all about that mission by clicking on those links. - And where else are those links, Alice? - We include the links on our website. Just visit space.intuk.com and click on today's episode title. - Hi, T-Minus Crew, if you find this podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a five star rating and short review in your favorite podcast app. It'll help other space professionals like you to find our show and join the T-Minus Crew. Thank you so much. We really appreciate it. (upbeat music) - We will be right back. Welcome back. It was the best of landings. It was the worst of landings. January 15th, 2025 was the tale of two landers. The Firefly Blue Ghost and the Ice-Based Resilience, two lunar landers launched that day on the same SpaceX Falcon 9 with different timelines to the same destination. And they had two very different outcomes. Firefly's Blue Ghost made a fully successful soft landing on the moon on March 2nd and Ice-Based Resilience did not successfully land during its attempt on June 6th. Nonetheless, these two landers were very much bound by fate and a special bond of mutual respect that comes from being integrated on the same rocket for the same kind of incredibly difficult mission. And recently, the Firefly Team made a visit to their Ice-Based colleagues in Tokyo and gave them a special gift of encouragement, a fragment of Firefly's Alpha Flight One, which was an unsuccessful mission and a heartfelt message that says the following. "Dear Ice-Based Team, we had the pleasure of working side by side with your team at the Cape, the closest that two integrated landers have ever been and followed your resilience mission from our collective launch until ending, cheering you along from the sidelines. Your successes were many, but we know how frustrating the conclusion of the mission must feel. These missions wouldn't be worth attempting if success were assured." Enclosed is a fragment from our company's first mission, Alpha Flight One, which fell short of its ultimate objective and was destroyed prior to stage separation. But that same failure made our team more resilient and led to successes that we could not have imagined at that moment. Resilience was appropriately named and your team has it. We look forward to your next mission and for Firefly and Ice-Based Vehicles to stand together once again, but on the surface of the moon. Per Espera at Astra, your friends at Firefly. And that is T-minus, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. 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 our show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. Please also fill out the survey and 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, the technology, and the ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how 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 Kilpe is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) - T-minus. (upbeat music) (water splashing) [BLANK_AUDIO]
