Today is July 18th, 2025. I'm Alice Carruth and this is T-minus. L3 Harris Technologies plans to construct an extensive large solid rocket motor production campus at the company's site in Camden, Arkansas. Astroscale US will test rendezvous proximity operations and docking capabilities of its refueller spacecraft at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center. ViASAT has selected SSTL and MDA space to partner with on developing designs and proposals for a lunar orbiting communications satellite system. York Space Systems parent company plans to acquire Atlas Space Operations. The United States Space Force has rolled out its new principles for space access resourcing decisions. Every Friday our partners at nasaspaceflight.com bring you the latest space traffic news rounding up the launch stories from the last seven days and taking a look at what's scheduled in the coming week. So stick around after the headlines to hear more on that. We're kicking off with an update from the US military on access to space. The United States Space Force has rolled out its new principles for space access resourcing decisions, which they say are an essential part of their commercial space strategy. The new document outlines how the Space Force will consider and prioritize commercial space sector requests for government resources as well as government investment decisions. It covers nine principles rooted in law that will guide the assured access to space enterprises decision making on a variety of resourcing decisions. The deputy chief of space operations for strategy plans, programs and requirements, Lieutenant General Sean Bratton said in the press release that quote, "These principles reflect our understanding that a strong commercial space industry is a force multiplier for the US Space Force. We are committed to working alongside our industry and allied partners to ensure safe, reliable and resilient access to space for decades to come." The document outlines how the space access landscape has evolved from the government being the anchor customer to missions with commercial payloads accounting for majority of the launch manifest activities. It says that the Space Force's finite monetary property and infrastructure resources are not only critical to assuring space access for national security, but also benefit broader space access needs in ways that ultimately support national security and government objectives. In other words, the main space ports in this country are still federally owned and operated. Therefore, the Space Force should consider the effect on the US commercial space sector when making its investment and resource utilization decisions regarding space access, including but not limited to acquisition strategies, funds allocation and property agreements. Ultimately, in making resource decisions, the US Space Force will prioritize meeting national security requirements, and it says it is committed to continuing to foster and integrate the Space Launch Industrial Basis innovation and capacity to strengthen national security and increase the nation's competitive advantage. You can find the full document linked in our show notes. Mergers and acquisitions are hot in space right now. Yesterday we led with the completion of SES's acquisition of IntelSat. Today we have the news that York Space Systems' parent company plans to acquire Atlas Space Operations. Atlas provides ground software as a service for satellite communications, and the acquisition will provide York with a software-led ground architecture that they say will deliver secure mission-ready space systems at unmatched speed and value. The press release also stated that Atlas will play a key role in York's Golden Dome architecture. The acquisition of Atlas is pending FCC approval and other customary closing conditions. Once approved, they say that Atlas will continue to operate independently under its existing brand, serving its portfolio of customers across the space industry. Heading over to my home nation now, the UK, ViASat has selected SSTL and MDA space to partner with on developing designs and proposals for a lunar orbiting communications satellite system. The collaboration will begin working on the European Space Agency's Lunar Communications Program Moonlight. It's hoped that the system will greatly enhance combined navigation and communication services for European and international missions, both on the surface of the Moon and in lunar orbit. ViASat is working with the Moonlight Program Lead, Telespazio, and is responsible for the design and development of the communication network, the definition of end-to-end communication service, the communication space infrastructure, earth-ground infrastructure, and the communication lunar surface user terminals. They're also working with the UK Space Agency, and now SSTL and MDA Space UK will help develop designs and proposals for a range of advanced technologies, infrastructure and network requirements needed to establish the future Moonlight satellite system that meets service, schedule and business case requirements. The Moonlight communication system is targeting initial capacity by 2028 and full operations by 2030. Astroscale UK has signed a reimbursable space-act agreement with NASA's Goddard Space Flight Centre to test rendezvous proximity operations and docking capabilities of the Astroscale US Refueller spacecraft. Astroscale US will test its refueller at Goddard in preparation for Astroscale US's two refuelling operations of US Department of Defence Satellites in geostationary orbit for the US Space Force. The space-act agreement enables Astroscale US to validate the refueller spacecraft complex RPO and docking manoeuvres with high fidelity. Testing of the refueller spacecraft at Goddard is expected to conclude next month. L3Harris Technologies has announced plans to construct an extensive large solid rocket motor production campus at the company site in Camden, Arkansas. L3Harris says it's investing nearly half a billion dollars across its major production sites to support solid rocket motor production. The new campus will include more than 20 buildings across 110 acres and will add more than 130,000 square feet of manufacturing and office space to the broader 2,000-acre energetic production site. That site currently employs around 1,300 local team members. The production facilities are expected to provide a six-fold increase in manufacturing capacity. L3Harris expects to begin construction of the new facilities this year and anticipates production beginning in 2027. That wraps up our headlines for today. Stay with us for nasaspaceflight.com's space-traffic report. But before we get into that, N2K's producer Liz Stokes is joining us to tell us about the stories that didn't make today's Top 5. Liz, what do you have for us? We have three additional stories that are worth reading up on. NASA has opened registration for its International Space Apps Challenge. Intuitive Machines is working with San Jacinto College on their curriculum for space-based pharmaceutical work. And students from the UK's University of Surrey are in Oman ahead of their payload launch from the ATLAC's spaceport. All great stories, Liz. Where can we find more information about them? We include links to the original sources of all of the stories we mentioned throughout the show in the selected reading section of our show notes. Those links can also be found on our website, space.n2k.com. Just click on today's episode title. Thanks for that, Liz. Hey, T-miners crew, tune in tomorrow for T-miners Deep Space. Our show for extended interviews, special editions and deep dives with some of the most influential professionals in the space industry. Tomorrow we have retired NASA astronaut Bill MacArthur talking about his career and his new role at Titan Space. Check it out while you're traveling on vacation like our host Maria is, or catching up on chores around the house like I am. You don't want to miss it. [Music] I'll hand you over now to our incredible partners at nasaspaceflight.com. I'm Sawyer Wildensky for NSF, and this is your weekly Space Traffic Report for T-miners Space. Starting off the week on July 13th, we had a Falcon 9 launch from Florida. Its nine-wheeled engines ignited at 504 UTC to lift the Israeli DRAW 1 communication satellite into space. The satellite was built by Israel Aerospace Industries and is also described as a smartphone in space that is expected to provide communication services for military and civilian purposes for 15 years. SpaceX used booster 1083 for this mission, which flew for the 13th time and ended its mission by successfully landing on the drone ship. Just read the instructions. Over in China, a Chang-Jung 7 lifted off from Wenchang, carrying a cargo resupply mission to the Tianjiang Space Station. The ninth Tianzhou spacecraft lifted off on July 14th at 2134 universal time and arrived at Tianjiang about three hours later, bringing 6.5 tons of supplies. Among the delivered cargo are science experiments, two new and improved EVA suits to be used on future spacewalks, and one new exercise machine. Tianzhou also carried 1.5 tons of food, increasing the station's menu to over 190 choices. It seems the Chinese astronauts won't have to complain about the food anytime soon. From Tianjiang, we go to the International Space Station, which saw the departure of the Axiom 4 crew on July 14th. After saying their goodbyes to the station's Expedition 73 crew, the four astronauts boarded crew Dragon Grace ready for their return to Earth. During their two-week stay on the station, they worked on over 60 science experiments and studies. This was the fifth space mission for Commander Peggy Whitson and the first for her three crew members, pilot Shubhantshu Shukla of India, mission specialists Swavosh Uznansky-Vyshniyovsky of Poland and Taibor Kapu of Hungary. The three first-time flyers were the first to fly to space for their respective countries since the 1970s and 80s. Crew Dragon Grace undocked from the zenith or space-facing port of the Harmony Module at 1115 UTC. Just over 22 hours later, Grace splashed down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, marking the end of a successful mission. Speaking of California, a Falcon 9 lifted off from Vandenberg on July 16th, encapsulated in the rocket's fairing were 26 Starlink B-2 mini-satellites to be added to the Internet constellation. The booster for this mission was B-1093, which successfully ended its fourth mission after softly touching down on the deck of the drone ship. Of course, I still love you. SpaceX has now launched a total of 9,213 Starlink satellites, of which 1,222 have returned to Earth, and 6,938 are currently in their operational orbit. Just a few hours later, SpaceX launched another batch of Internet satellites from Florida, but this launch wasn't for Starlink. It was SpaceX's first launch for Kuiper, Amazon's Starlink competitor. So why is SpaceX helping out the competition? Well, Amazon didn't originally want to launch on Falcon 9, but its shareholders essentially forced it to buy some launches from the world's most prolific launch provider. Plus, SpaceX has been launching Internet satellites for other companies for years, so it's really nothing new. Lifting off from Space Launch Complex 40 at 630 Universal on July 16th, Falcon 9 carried 24 Kuiper satellites into orbit. This was the first flight for booster 1096, which successfully landed on the drone ship a shortfall of Gravitas. For some reason, Amazon is still secretive about showing the satellites in their deployment, so we didn't get any second stage views. But weirdly, they did release an image of the payload adapter after all the satellites were deployed. The mission brought the total number of Kuiper satellites launched to 80. This includes the two demo satellites launched in 2023, which have since re-entered. Going into next week, it looks like we'll have four Falcon 9 missions. Two from Vandenberg and two from Cape Canaveral. One of the missions from Vandenberg launched NASA's Tandem Reconnection and CUSP Electrodynamics for Conosense satellites, or tracers for short. These two satellites will study the Earth's magnetic field and how it interacts with the solar wind. Ultimately, this should help NASA and scientists better understand how space weather affects our planet. One of the Falcon 9 missions from the Cape will launch a pair of communication satellites to medium Earth orbit for the 03B M-Power constellation. The other two Falcon 9 missions scheduled for the week are Star Lake missions, but you probably guessed that already. Finally, there's a Soyuz launch scheduled for Vostokni. This one will lift the final two satellites into orbit for the Ionosphere M constellation of four. These two missions will study Earth's ionosphere and magnetosphere from Sun's synchronous orbit. And that's everything planned for next week. As always, schedules might change, so keep your eyes on our next Space Flight app and website for all the latest updates. I'm Sory Rosenstein for NSF, and that's your weekly Space Traffic Report. Now, back to Team Mindless Space. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. We end today's show with the sad news of the passing of Felix Bongartner, the Austrian skydiver best known for his record-breaking 2012 jump from the edge of space. While he wasn't a national or an engineer, his contributions to the space conversation were significant. His jump from 128,000 feet was more than a stunt. It was a demonstration of the extreme limits of human endurance and a test bed for high-altitude pressure suit technology. The Red Bull Stratos mission helped to inform safety systems for future space travellers, especially in emergency scenarios involving high-altitude egress. His leap offered valuable insights into how the human body responds to near-space conditions, including supersonic speeds and extreme altitudes. The data collected helped aerospace organisations and even NASA re-evaluate safety designs for high-altitude pressure suits. While his work wasn't commercial or defence-oriented, it echoes through today's innovations in astronaut gear, suborbital tourism and space-based rescue systems. Felix Bongartner died in a motorised paragliding accident in Italy, but his legacy lives on, especially in my adopted home state of New Mexico where he performed that record-breaking jump. May he rest in peace. [Music] And that's it for today's Team Iron, as brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. We have a survey running until August 31st, which is linked in our show notes, and if you like the show, please share a rating and review in your podcast app. We're proud that N2K Cyberwire is part of the daily routine of many 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 how at N2K.com. 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'm N2K senior producer Alice Carruth. Our host Maria Varmazis will be back from vacation later this month. Thanks for sticking with me until then. Have a great weekend and I'll see you next week. T-minus. [Loud thud] [Loud thud] [BLANK_AUDIO]
