Today is July 21st, 2025. I'm Alice Carruth and this is T-minus. Booz Allen Hamilton has announced that it's tripling its venture capital commitment from $100 million to $300 million. A SpaceX Falcon 9 is due to lift off on Tuesday carrying four NASA payloads. The Korea Aerospace Administration has shared its ambitions to establish a lunar base by 2045. U-Met's set has assumed control of the MeteorSat 3rd Generation Sunder-1 spacecraft. The UK Space Agency's annual report says UKSA generated £2.2 billion in investment and revenue in fiscal year 2024-25. Although our host Maria Val-Mars is on vacation this week, she recorded a chat with the Cyberwire Daily's host Dave Bittner about AST Space Mobile's application for new spectrum, which is likely to infringe on availability to ham users. Stay with us after the headlines to find out more about that. Happy Monday everyone! Last week, the UK Space Agency held its annual conference in Manchester. A flurry of updates and reports were released during the event to include the UK Space Agency's annual report and accounts for fiscal year 2024-25. The report states that through £581 million in funding, the UK Space Agency generated £2.2 billion in investment and revenue in FY24-25. The Space Cluster's infrastructure fund alone attracted over £700 million of private investment and secured £30 million in follow-on funding. The 113-page document outlines the priorities for the UK to include launch access, an increase in broadband, position, navigation and timing and Earth observation capabilities, and to further space domain awareness and space sustainability. The UK says it's poised to become a key European launch hub backed by financial discipline and a motivated workforce. In the last year, Saxford Space Port in Shetland became the first vertical orbital launch licence site in Western Europe. It's still hoped that we'll see the first vertical launch from Saxford in the coming 12 months. You can read the full report by following the link in our show notes. Staying in Europe, UMET-SAT has assumed control of the Meteosat 3rd Generation Sounder 1 or MTG S1 spacecraft. The vehicle has completed more than two weeks of complex manoeuvring, precise positioning and meticulous checks since its launch on July 1. The satellite, which carries the infrared sounder and the European Union's Copernicus Sentinel-4 mission, has completed its launch and early operations phase and is now in orbit around 36,000 kilometres above the equator. MTG S1 will now begin months of intensive testing by experts at UMET-SAT with partners from the European Space Agency. Once fully commissioned, the satellite will deliver entirely new streams of atmospheric sounding data, enabling national meteorological services to deliver earlier and more accurate warnings that will hopefully save lives and protect property and infrastructure. The Korea Aerospace Administration known as CASA has shared its ambitions to establish a lunar base by 2045. The plan is part of the nation's new long-term national space exploration roadmap. It lays out exploration areas into Earth orbit, moon, helisphere and deep space and outlines five core missions including low Earth orbit and microgravity exploration, lunar exploration and solar and space science missions. CASA was established last year and aims to develop independent landing and mobility technologies, utilise lunar resources and construct infrastructure for economic activities. By 2040, it plans to develop a next-generation lunar lander for logistics with the goal of building a lunar economic base by 2045. On the launch schedule for tomorrow is a ride-share on SpaceX's Volcanine rocket from Vandenberg Space Force Base. On board that mission will be NASA's Tracer mission and three NASA small satellites. Tracers, which stands for Tandem Reconnection and Cusp Electrodynamic Reconnaissance Satellite spacecraft, will study how the solar wind, the continuous stream of ionised particles escaping the sun and pouring into space, interacts with Earth's magnetosphere. Among the small satellites is NASA's Athena Economic Payload Integration Cost Mission or Athena Epic. The small satellite platform is engineered to share resources among the payloads on board by managing routine functions so the individual payloads don't have to. The Polylingual Experimental Terminal or P-E-X-T Technology Demonstration will showcase new technology that empowers missions to roam between communication networks in space like cell phones roam between providers on Earth. And the relativistic electron atmospheric loss or real cube sat will use space as a lab to understand how high energy particles within the bands of radiation that surround the Earth are naturally scattered into the atmosphere, aiding the development of methods for removing these damaging particles to better protect satellites and the critical ground systems they support. The launch window currently opens at 2.30pm Eastern tomorrow and we'll be bringing you more information about that mission after lift off. Booz Allen Hamilton has announced that it's tripling its venture capital commitment from $100 million to $300 million. According to the press release, Booz Allen Ventures will use the capital to bolster American innovation and build new solutions through investments in early-stage technology companies poised to transform US government missions to include space. The company anticipates making 20 to 25 new investments over the next five years. That wraps up today's Intel Briefing. Our producer Liz Stokes joins us now with more on the stories that didn't make today's top five. Liz, what do you have for us? There are two additional links added today in the selected reading section of our show notes. One is on Iran's reported suborbital test flight and the other is on Lynn's expansion in the US. Thanks Liz, where else can we find those stories? Links to all the original sources of the stories we covered throughout the show can also be found on our website. Just head to space.n2k.com and click on today's episode title. Hi T-minors crew, if you'd like daily updates from us directly in your LinkedIn feed, be sure to follow the official N2K T-minor page over on LinkedIn. And if you're more interested in the lighter side of what we do here, we are @t-minus daily on Instagram. That's where we post videos and pictures from events, excursions and even some behind the scenes treats. Links are in the show notes. Hope you'll join us there. T-minors host Maria Valmasas is joined by the cyberwire daily's Dave Bittner to unpack AST Space Mobile's request to use amateur radio spectrum for satellite communications. Dave, thank you so much for speaking with me today. It's always good to speak with you. Yeah, it's my pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. I got an email in my personal inbox from Ham Radio Prep, which I've been a subscriber to for a while. And it was sort of this red alert that, hey, AST Space Mobile is requesting more access to some spectrum that is frequently used by amateur radio enthusiasts. And my cursory reading of this email is essentially that AST Space Mobile, which is a huge space-based telecoms company, they have, I think, five satellites in orbit right now that share some spectrum that's used by amateur radio enthusiasts around the world. But they want to put like 200 plus more satellites in a constellation that might also use the spectrum, which I imagine might cause a problem for amateur radio folks around the world. So you are the perfect person to help me understand this because I just kind of wanted to get a sense from a person who has amateur radio expertise, like what this would mean in that world. So what's your read on this, Dave? So as I read it, AST Space Mobile are looking to have a low Earth orbit cellular network. Yes. And that's like the hot space right now in space. In space. In Leo satellites, right? That's right. So that's what they're fixing to do here. And like you said, they already have a handful of satellites up there and they want to have a total of around 250 when all is said and done. And reading through their requests from the FCC for this special exemption that they're hoping to get, they're looking to use the 430 through 440 MHz band, which is also referred to as the 70 centimeter band for secondary and emergency communications with the satellites for telemetry, tracking and command. So TT and C is the satellite folks say it. And this has some of the folks in the amateur radio world concerned because the 430 to 440 MHz band is set aside for amateur radio use here in the United States and indeed most of the most other places around the world. But there's some interesting nuance here. Yes. I knew there would be. This is why I really wanted you to walk me through this. So again, AST Space Mobile is only looking to use these frequencies for secondary and emergency use. Now that could mean a lot of different things. Does that mean that if any particular satellite's primary transmitter goes down that it falls back to this frequency and then just uses that for the rest of its service life? Don't know, maybe. In the application, AST is very specifically saying to the FCC that it wants to use these frequencies outside of the United States and they have their relay stations are around the world and are outside of the United States. So this brings up the question of so do the satellites, if they're using this band, do they turn it off when they're flying over the US? Do they mute themselves when they're flying over the US? Radio signals famously do not obey borders. So that's an interesting question. But the other thing that caught my eye is that the use of this band for amateur radio folks, the hams are considered secondary users of these frequencies. Hmm. Yeah. So what does that mean? So the primary users are mostly the government. So they use these for things like radar. And so the secondary users are allowed to use them, but they have to accept interference from other users. Okay. So in other words, first on the line are the government people who are using radar. They have priority. The hams are next in line, but they have to accept any interference that may come from the primary user, the radar user. And that's the pecking user. So what's interesting about this is AST space mobile, because their use would be empowered by an exemption would also be listed as a secondary user. Hmm. And so a secondary user has to accept interference from other users, but also if interference from a secondary user is detected or reported, the secondary user is required to shut down their use of the frequency. So you see where I'm going here, Maria? Yeah. So they're not going to be top of the heap there. They, but you're going to have a lot of people competing in the secondary user space potentially. Right. Yeah. So I'm wondering if the amateur radio perspective is, it's getting too crowded or we're getting pushed out or is there something special about this band specifically for amateur radio users, at least you and I both being in the US for our perspective. Like what is it about this band that's important? Well, let's get to that. But let's put a button on that previous question, which is if these satellites are flying, let's say you have 250 satellites in low earth orbit and they're making use of this band. And as the law is written and I understand it, let's say an amateur radio operator said, hey, these satellites are interfering with my use of the band. Does that mean the FCC can go to AST Space Mobile and say shut them down? I don't think so. Right. Or does amateur radio essentially become a tertiary user, which does not exist, but essentially bump down a little bit, I would imagine. Yeah. And that's the concern. That's the concern is that through this exemption, the FCC will be allowing the use of this spectrum to this space company. And that just from being big and bad and present and ubiquitous that there's the potential for them to stomp all over the amateur radio users and basically increase the noise floor of everything that's going on in the band and just make things harder for the people who want to use the band for amateur radio stuff. Now, the 70 centimeter band is not the most popular band in amateur radio. It's pretty much point to point. It is a high quality band that's used for some voice. It's used for amateur satellite communications. People use it to communicate with the International Space Station for low band with TV so they can send images on these frequencies. But it's not the band that I think most hams reflexively go out to use. For example, the local amateur radio club that I'm a member of has repeaters on the two meter band and the 77, the 70 centimeter band, I would say the two meter band repeaters probably get used 10 to 1 over the 70 centimeter band. And that's, you know, no particular reason for that. That's just the way that it falls, the way that some of the radios are configured and just how the chips have fell. So there's also this argument that, okay hams, you know, it's not like you guys are using this band all that much. So share the precious bandwidth because again, as you know, Maria, It's very crowded on the spectrum. Yeah, bandwidth is just more and more, you know, more and more precious and the higher a frequency you can use, the more carrying capacity it has for information. So this is desirable band and this company is saying we'd like to, we'd like the FCC to make an exemption for us to share it. So if I'm understanding correctly, it's a real, there is a lot of nuance this day. If I really appreciate you dug into this because I was thinking, you know, reflexively I saw that email and I went, whoa, well, that's interesting. But it sounds like from the AST space mobile side, again, them being a secondary user, so they're not even at the top of the pecking order there. So this is not going to be their main bit of spectrum that they would be needing. It would be sort of a backup, which of course they would still need, but it wouldn't be the main conduit, so to speak. And even for amateur radio folks, at least for the US, I don't know about other use globally. I'm sure that would be an interesting thing to look into, but at least within the United States, because this is the FCC we're talking about here, amateur radio folks, this is not their favorite place to communicate either. But I'm sure philosophically it's a matter of, well, if we keep, you know, whittling down the spectrum that amateur radio folks can use that further endangers the hobby that's already defensive about people taking their spectrum. Understandably, I'm not against that. I understand why people are. So it is an interesting situation. Yeah, it's also interesting that you mentioned that this particular request is US based, but a lot of the advocacy to protect this spectrum is coming out of the UK. Oh, yeah. That's interesting. What's up with that? Well, I'm kind of connecting dots here. So there's, you know, I can't claim to have an absolutely rock solid answer here, but I suspect that part of that is coming because AST has said that they're specifically not planning on using this spectrum within the United States, but they're not making that promise to the rest of the world. Oh, that is interesting. And so, yeah, so if you're in the UK, you're thinking, here's this company out of Texas who's going to be putting up all of these satellites, this constellation of satellites. And this is going to presumably, or at least has the potential to raise the noise floor on this band. And let's not forget, you know, amateur radio is also about responding to emergencies. We've seen that certainly here in the US. So there's concerns that it could degrade ability to respond in the case of an emergency. So there's that. What is the recourse then outside of the United States? Is it the ITU? I mean, who, I mean, can anything, I'm not saying something has to be done, but if one feels that something should be done, what do you do? Yeah, I think he complained to the ITU here in the US. I believe the comment period is still open for a few days. So if this is something that concerns you, you can write to the FCC and just let them know. And the amateur radio organizations have put together some pre-crafted boilerplate for you to submit if you want to do that. Dave, thank you for this really nuanced take on this whole story because it's just been very fascinating to follow. And yeah, the comment period to the FCC is until July 21st. We'll be right back. Welcome back. We hope you did something special to celebrate International Moon Day. 56 years ago yesterday, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin touched down on the moon with Apollo 11, while Michael Collins orbited patiently above. It was 1969 and over 600 million people watched live as Armstrong descended the ladder and declared those famous words. That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. And yes, we still get goosebumps. But on this day in space history, July 21st also has a lot of space significance before that epic event. Eight years before Apollo 11, astronaut Gus Grissom took flight in Liberty Bell 7, becoming the second American to fly to space. Grissom completed a 15-milliets suborbital hop short and sweet. But when the hatch unexpectedly blew after splashdown, poor Gus had to swim for a while after the capsule sank. Talk about a rough re-entry. So whether you're gazing up at the waning, crescent moon tonight or nerding out over Apollo mission patches, take a moment to toast the trailblazers, Grissom, Armstrong, Aldrin, Collins and everyone who helped us get to the moon, and back again, of course. And also keep an eye out for the annual Perseids meteor shower. The peak isn't until August 11th, but you never know what you might see if you look up for long enough. And that's it for Team Miner's 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. If you like the show, please share a 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 how at N2K.com. N2K's producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpie is our publisher. Maria Varmazis is our host and I'm senior producer Alice Carruth. Thanks for listening. . T-minus. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
