Today is July 31st, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] >> T-minus, 22nd to LOS, T-dred. >> Open aboard. >> Right side open. [MUSIC] >> NASA has released a new proposal opportunity for the space industry. >> Four. >> SES reported revenue of 978 million euros in the last six months. >> Three. >> Deloitte has unveiled a new system to detect cyber intrusions and anomalies on satellites. >> Two. >> Intuitive machines have secured a 9.8 million phase two government contract to advance its orbital transfer vehicles through critical design review. >> One. >> NASA's SpaceX Crew 11 launch to the ISS was scrubbed due to weather conditions. [MUSIC] >> And today we have our new monthly space intelligence update with Greg Gillinger from Integrity ISR. And Greg is going to be talking to T-minus producer Alice Carruth about Chinese ISAM missions and what look like Russian doll satellites. Very fascinating stuff. So stick around to find out what all of that means later in the show. [MUSIC] >> Thanks for joining me everybody. Happy Thursday. Let's get into it. NASA's SpaceX Crew 11 mission was due to launch to the International Space Station a little afternoon local time today. Unfortunately the SpaceX Dragon Crew spacecraft with NASA astronauts Zina Cardman and Mike Finke along with JAXA astronaut Kimia Yuwi and Roscosmos Kosmonaut Oleg Platonov was unable to lift off. As the countdown clock reached T-minus one minute the launch was called off due to unfavorable weather conditions. Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy attended the launch attempt and shared these observations on NASA's live coverage. What we learn on these missions is what's going to get us to the moon and then from the moon to Mars which is I think the direction that NASA has to be. We are space exploration. >> What have you learned from Crew 11 and what are you looking forward to learning as you lead NASA? >> Well listen I've learned that they're really well trained. I'm coming from DOT. The safety components that go into making sure these launches happen and happen safely is really, really impressive. The checks, double checks, triple checks. But moving forward, listen I'm looking forward to Artemis. So a lot of people don't know Artemis right? We're going to the moon. We're going back in America's 250th birthday. Artemis 2 is going to launch. We are going to go around the moon and back. We're not going to land in that one. But then Artemis 3 we're going back to the moon. We're going to land. We're going to stay for six days. The longest time before that was three days. And then from there we're going to start deploying all of the assets we need to build our base. And we're going to stay on the moon. We're not putting our flag in leaving. We're going to stay, learn, and then go to Mars. Again, there's critical real estate on the moon. We want to claim that real estate for ourselves and our partners, which is going to be critical to be successful in that mission. >> The Crew 11 launch is expected to try again as early as tomorrow, August 1st. Intuitive Machines has secured a 9.8 million phase two government contract to advance its orbital transfer vehicle through critical design review. It's the final engineering milestone on a previously disclosed contract before manufacturing begins. Intuitive Machines says that their OTV draws heritage from hardware and designs that have been successfully validated in two lunar missions, including trajectory refinement maneuvers, lunar orbit insertion, and main engine firings during descent. With critical design review underway, the company is preparing to begin manufacturing and flight integration as early as next year. Deloitte has unveiled a new system to detect cyber intrusions and anomalies on satellites, and the system aims to alert clients in near real time. And by the way, the system has already spent several months testing in space. It was launched on the Deloitte One satellite back in March 2025. And since then, Deloitte's space team has conducted a series of cyber attack simulations and tests to confirm that the technology is working. Deloitte says the system, which they call "silent shield," can be a critical tool for organizations seeking to understand and manage the risks to their missions, strengthen their cyber resiliency, and protect against evolving cyber threats. SES has released its first financial update since completing its acquisition of Intel SAT. In the satellite communications company reported revenue of 978 million euros in the last six months. SES also reported 690 million euros of new business and contract renewals signed in the first half of 2025, with a total gross contract backlog of 4.2 billion euros. Adel Alsale, CEO of SES, commented that "H1 2025 delivered solid operational and financial performance. The completion of the Intel SAT acquisition on 17 July marked a defining milestone for SES, creating a stronger, truly global multi-orbit operator built for the future. We are now uniquely positioned to compete with end-to-end solutions across high growth segments. And yeah, they are certainly positioned to give another satellite company that we won't name a run for their money." NASA has released a new proposal opportunity for the space industry to tap into agency know-how resources and expertise. The announcement of collaboration opportunity, or ACO, managed by the Space Technology Mission Directorate, enables valuable collaboration without financial exchanges between NASA and industry partners. Instead, companies leverage NASA subject matter experts, facilities, software, and hardware to accelerate their technologies and prepare them for future commercial and government use. NASA issued a standing ACO announcement for partnership proposals, which will be available for five years and will serve as the umbrella opportunity for topic-specific appendix releases. NASA intends to issue appendices every six to twelve months to address evolving space technology needs. And the 2025 ACO appendix is open for proposals until September 24th, so get to it. [Music] And you can find out more about that opportunity by following the link in our show notes. And speaking of those show notes, N2K's senior producer Alice Carruth joins us now with what else is added in there for you today. Alice, what is there? We've added two additional links into today's selected reading section. One is a Washington Post article raising concerns about NASA's workforce cuts affecting safety for space missions. And the other is a strong indicator that Space Command is making the move to Huntsville. Oh goodness, that story again. Well, where can we find out more about all of that? Links to all the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout the episode can be found in the show notes on your podcast app. Or on our website, space.n2k.com, just click on today's episode title. Hey, Team Minus Crew, if your business is looking to grow your voice in the industry, expand the reach of your thought leadership or recruit talent, Team Minus can help. We would love to hear from you. Just send us an email at space@n2k.com or send us a note through our website so we can connect about building a program. Meet your goals. [Music] Team Minus Producer, Alice Carruth caught up with Greg Gillinger from Integrity ISR to find out what's going on on orbit. [Music] Greg, it's been a month since we caught up with you. I've noticed in your newsletter you had a couple of things that came from China. Why don't we start with them? So a little bit of the background is a satellite called Xi Jian-21, which China launched in late 2021. In January of 2022, actually did an RPO with a defunct compass satellite or beta satellite in geostationary orbit. The China announced that Xi Jian-21, the intent is to do some orbital debris mitigation experiments. And they did. So they went up there a couple of months after launch, grabbed a piece of space debris and hauled it out to super synchronous orbit. And then afterwards, SJ-21 returned back to the geosynchronous orbit. And it kind of was dormant for a couple of years. Fast forward to January of 2025, and China launches the Xi Jian-25. And on that launch, they announced, hey, this is, we're going to be doing some orbital refueling testing. And the interesting thing about the launch that killed a lot of us off right away was it went to a very unusual orbit. And it was in fact, plane matched with Xi Jian-21. From June timeframe, we started seeing, for the first time in two years, SJ-21 made a large maneuver and started drifting rapidly, like four degrees per day, to the west. And then we started seeing SJ-25 make some minor maneuvers as well. Because they were already plane matched, these maneuvers, well, major, really weren't all that fuel-intensive. So over the next couple of weeks, we see SJ-21 and 25 come together. Some sort of docking maneuver may have happened then. Certainly an RPO happened. We don't know if docking happened. They were only seen as one object for about 90 minutes or so, and then separated again. So I think what it looks like is that was probably a test run, right? Then about a week later, they're kind of drifting apart up to 200 kilometers, into 50 kilometers. And then we see some maneuvers again and again. They come close together. But this time, they stayed as a single observable entity for about six hours. And then again, we see them break apart. Not break apart, probably wrong term, but they move apart. So they become distinguishable from the ground. And then on July 2nd, they again got close enough where we couldn't tell one from the other. And they have remained in that condition since that time. So we're working on, what is that, three weeks now where they apparently have docked. China has not said anything about this publicly, other than on the launch saying a SJ25 is there to conduct refueling operations. So how do we know if it's successful? Right? What sorts of behaviors will we see? Refueling in geostationary orbit with these kinds of satellites could enable some maneuvers that we typically, I don't know if we've ever seen. So if, say, SJ25- This will be the first geodocking, correct? Refueling in geode, I believe? Yes, this will be the first refueling. Because I know the US is planning it. So the US did this a couple decades ago in low earth orbit. But this is the first refueling attempt in geode. It's not just China you're keeping an eye on at the moment. I understand you're watching a few Russian emissions as well. Just to kind of tell the story a little bit, with some historical context, in 2017, Russia launched a satellite called Cosmos 2519. And we've since come to call this of the Nivellir family, right? So Nivellir is an inspector satellite that Russia's been designing for the last eight to 10 years. Cosmos 2519 went into low earth orbit and hatched another satellite, which was Cosmos 2521. And those two satellites kind of RPO with one another, right? And then where it got interesting, they separated a little bit and then 2521 hatched a third satellite, which was Cosmos 2523. And the interesting thing about that is that third satellite left that second satellite at a high velocity, right? So you can imagine some sort of kill mechanism, right? For an anti-satellite weapon. Then a couple years later, Russia launched another, we believe, new Nivellir satellite. This one was Cosmos 2542. It hatched 2543 and 2543 actually had a third satellite come off of it, or a third object come off of it, also at a high rate of speed. The more interesting thing about 2542 is Russia launched, all of these are launched out of Placetsk, which is northeast of Moscow. And the timing of that launch put that satellite into a coplanar condition, so matching inclination and right ascension of the ascending node or RAM with a very high value US reconnaissance satellite, USA 245. So that's kind of a message, right? You don't launch into a plane by accident. So that was certainly intentional. The separation distance between USA 245 and this Russian system was significant, right? So it was never really a direct threat to the USA 245 satellite. But it was a, hey, we've got a inspector satellite here that has the ability to release a projectile at high velocity and we can put it coplanar with something you really care about from Russian perspective. Why am I talking about this? USA 25, they've since launched three Nivellar satellites that are currently in orbit. All three are coplanar with a high value US reconnaissance satellite, the first of which was Cosmos 2558, which was coplanar with USA 326. It looks like that satellite may have run across an anomaly or have had some sort of, maybe it's run out of fuel. It's got up because it hasn't maneuvered since April, which is atypical. And as it's been losing its average altitude, we noticed a couple of weeks ago, actually late last month, that it actually has another satellite, Object C. And Object C has since maneuvered a couple of times. So it looks like, you know, as 2558 is failing for whatever reason, it released its inspector satellite, which is now able to maneuver. So 2558 continues to have its orbit decay, but this Object C is maintaining its orbit. And it's keeping, it's not in proximity, constant proximity with the USA 326 satellite, but it is every week or so, it's within about 50 to 60 kilometres of the US satellite. That's pretty close in space terms. I mean, that's significantly close. Should we be worrying about these Russian dolls that seem to be up there? I certainly wouldn't worry about the release of the sub-satellite at high velocity from that range, I think would be a very low chance of success. I think where you need to be concerned is if they actually started conducting RPO. And I should say that, you know, this proximity doesn't maintain. So it's really just orbital mechanics at work. It's been simply, hey, we're going to launch in the same plane. We're going to occasionally be able to observe you, perhaps. But it's not really something that you would want to be, you would be considering a threat. Your question reminds me back with a recall 2541 has 2542 and 2542 eventually got close to another Russian satellite, like really close, like within five kilometres. And there are some pieces of debris observed at that point. Right. So we haven't seen anything that dramatic from, from any of these, what we consider now operational Nivellir satellites. Not to be outdone. Russia then launched a new Nivellir satellite called Kalstos 2588. And they did it in such a way that it was also plane matched with another USA satellite. So reconnaissance satellite USA 338. Again, it's it's coplanar. So apparently this is a new thing that we're just going to have to deal with. It's enough of a flex as the young people say to give us a bit of a concern. Yeah. And things got even more interesting. Right. So in mid June, Russia launched its first, had its first operational launch of its Angara 5M launch vehicle. And it holds something called Cosmos 2589 into a highly eccentric orbit. So it's, it's an orbit that goes out 51,000 kilometres and as at its apogee or furthest point away and its perigee is about 20,000 kilometres away. There's a couple of points where it crosses the geostationary bill. The interesting thing about this launch that was immediately found by some of the Uber nerds out there was that the contractor that was associated with Cosmos 2589 was also associated with all the Nivellir program satellites that we've just been discussing. So there was, there's some thought that 2589 is Russia's first geostationary inspector satellite. Right. They, they have a couple of Luch satellites that they've launched previously that have done some operations near other satellites. I believe that's primarily from a, just a listening standpoint, right? Nothing close to what the Nivellir satellites have done in low-earth orbit. So 2589 goes up into this funky, highly elliptical or highly eccentric orbit and, and that orbit keeps it over the Russian landmass. Russia did get a, give us a hint as to what it might be because in their launch announcement they announced satellites, so plural, but all we saw was one, one particular object, right? Late June, another object, C, appeared near 2589. So it most certainly came off of 2589. So it appears to be very similar to the Nivellir satellite system that I mentioned before. So it's hatched this particular object and that object is subsequently maneuvered. And in the last couple of weeks or so, we've seen these two things get close enough to become unresolvable from the ground, right? So you can only see one particular object. So they're, they're conducting RMPO activities between Cosmos 2589 and, and the sub satellite that it's, it's released. So we'll see what that continues. Russia has launched into this highly eccentric orbit in the past with some of their communication satellites that have eventually rejoined the, the geostationary belt. It's taken about between three to six months for them to do so. We haven't seen those sorts of maneuvers yet, but it's certainly possible that Cosmos 2589 may have more than one, that one subset live on board. We'll be right back. Welcome back. We do cover sometimes more experimental space based technology and ideas and this one definitely is an interesting idea. A California startup called Reflect Orbital wants to literally light up the night by placing a giant mirror in orbit to bounce sunlight back to Earth after sunset. To do that, they are building a satellite that uses a thin sheet of mylar to reflect sunlight over specific spots. And they are starting with just a few minutes of twilight over a five kilometer area, but their longterm vision is much bigger. Of course, it's for a whole constellation of 57 mirrors. Each AI guided and you knew there'd be an AI angle in here, didn't you? Each AI guided to beam light to solar farms, nighttime construction sites and even Arctic villages suck in weeks of darkness. Okay, that is interesting, right? Well, that is one word for it. Well, regardless, the company has raised six and a half million dollars, built their gear in-house and is working towards their first launch in spring 2026. A directed beam of sunlight from space to the ground. And wonders what that might do for light pollution and astronomy and wildlife. Would there be potential dangers perhaps? Maybe beyond a nasty sunburn anyway? Well, fret not, as the team says, they can shut off the beam in under a mere four minutes if needed. So pay no attention to that mysterious directed beam of light screaming down at you from the sky. What could possibly, possibly go wrong? And that is T-Minus brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We would 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 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 Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. We are Kilpie as our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. I'll see you tomorrow. T-minus. [Music] [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
