[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is August 13, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 22nd to LOS, T-dred. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Five. Momentus has been awarded a contract by NASA to perform a study to fly critical foundational robotics technologies into space. Four. NASA has selected KBR to provide services to the Human Health and Performance Directorate at Johnson Space Center. Three. The Atlantic Space Port Consortium has obtained its license to operate a space port in Santa Maria, Azores. Two. Arian Space's Arian 6 lifts off from ESA's space port in French Guiana, carrying UMETSAT's Metop SGA1 satellite. One. A United Launch Alliance's Vulcan rocket launched from Cape Canaveral, airing the USSF-106 mission for the United States Space Force's Space Systems Command. We are on, girls. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lift off. Lift off. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope you're having a great one. It was an exciting night on the eastern shore of both North and South America last night, and we will get to French Guiana shortly. But let's start with ULA's Vulcan launch from Florida first, shall we? And at 8.56 PM local time yesterday, United Launch Alliance's Vulcan lifted off from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station. The mission marked the first national security space launch aboard the next generation Vulcan rocket. It also marked one of ULA's longest ever launches, lasting more than seven hours and extending more than 22,000 miles above Earth to complete deployment. ULA President and CEO Tori Bruno told media that Vulcan is specifically designed for these exotic orbits that are primarily for the government. Vulcan carried a satellite for the United States Space Force's Space Systems Command. The primary payload for the mission called USSF-106 is the navigation technology satellite 3, which is an Air Force Vanguard program experiment provided by the Air Force Research Laboratory and built by L3 Harris Technologies. NTS3 will demonstrate an agile positioning navigation and timing payload at near-geosynchronous orbit and is part of an effort to achieve a more robust, resilient, and responsive PNT architecture. The US Space Force says it will demonstrate this through flexible reprogrammable signals, an electronically steerable antenna, and advanced timekeeping algorithms. NTS3 is the first US integrated navigation satellite experiment in nearly 50 years, following in the footsteps of NTS1 and NTS2, which paved the way for the current GPS constellation. And the second big launch that we saw last night was the Arian-6 lift-off from ESA's spaceport in French Guiana. The heavy lift launcher carried UMET-SAT's Metop-SGA1 satellite. In a few minutes after separation, UMET-SAT successfully acquired signals from the satellite. The Metop-SGA1 satellite is the first of the next generation of European polar orbiting weather satellites. Now heading into a polar orbit around 800 kilometers above the Earth's surface, Metop-SGA1 will soon begin transmitting high-resolution and high-quality observations from its onboard instruments. Metop-SGA1 hosts a total of six atmospheric sounding and imaging instrument missions that will provide optical infrared and microwave observations that are essential data for weather forecasting, climate monitoring, and a wide range of other services and applications. This spacecraft is also carrying the new Sentinel-5 atmospheric monitoring mission, which is part of the European Commission's Copernicus program. And a little footnote, if you were on the US or Canada East Coast last night and saw something kind of spirally in the sky, indeed that actually was the Arian-6 heading to its polar orbit. Very, very cool, huh? And staying in Europe news, the Atlantic Space Port Consortium known as ASC has obtained its license to operate a spaceport in Santa Maria in the Azores. The spaceport now designated as the Mabusca Launch Center is the first to be licensed by the Portuguese space authority called Anacom. ASC says the Mabusca Launch Center is positioned to contribute to greater European access to space and to add value to the global space economy. With the license now obtained, ASC aims to advance to the next level of activity, continuing to attract launcher operators to the Mabusca Launch Center. The ASC says that they have already signed contracts for the first suborbital flights to occur in the spring of 2026. Don't need to twist my arm to get me to visit the Azores. NASA has selected KBR to provide services to the Human Health and Performance Directorate at the agency's Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas. The Human Health and Performance Contract II is a follow-on single award in definite delivery and definite quantity contract that begins its five-year period of performance on November 1st with two possible option periods that could extend it through 2035. The total estimated value of the base period plus the optional periods is $3.6 billion. The contract will acquire support services for several programs, primarily at NASA Johnson. This includes the Human Research Program, International Space Station Program, Commercial Crew Program, Artemis Campaign, oh, and more. Services include ensuring crew health, safety and performance, providing occupational health services and conducting research into mitigating risks to the health, safety and performance of future spaceflight crews. In KBR is not the only lucky recipient of a contract by the US Space Agency, Momentus has been awarded a contract by NASA to perform a study to fly critical foundational robotics technologies into space. And the contract was awarded under NASA's Flight Opportunities Program and it tasks Momentus with conducting a terrestrial study that explores options to fly advanced robotic systems in space aboard one of its upcoming Orbital Service Vehicle flights. Momentus has subsequently completed work under this initial contract and expects to submit a proposal to NASA to fly a follow-on mission that would demonstrate this technology in space. NASA expects to award a contract in September and Momentus is one of two companies under evaluation for this larger contract for the follow-on mission. Best of luck to them. And that concludes today's Intel briefing for you, but stay with us for more on the meteorite that punctured through a residence in the state of Georgia earlier this summer. But before that, N2K senior producer Alice Carruth joins us now. Alice, what additional stories are you following today? - I'm sorry to say that we're starting with the sad news that Saxford Space Sports CEO Frank Strang has passed away. We at N2K send our condolences to his wife Debbie, his family, friends and colleagues. There's also two other stories in today's selected reading section of our show notes. One covers new details on the Golden Dome system and the other is on Ukraine's direct to self demonstration with Starlink. - That is sad news indeed about Frank. He was a gracious guest and I am sure he will be missed by many. And more details about all the stories that we mentioned throughout the show can be found by following the links in our show notes, which are also included on our website, space.n2k.com. Hey T-minus crew, if you find our podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a five star reading and short review in your favorite podcast app. If you do that, it'll help other space professionals like you find the show and join us here on T-minus. Thank you so much for your support everybody. We really appreciate it. (upbeat music) We will be right back. Welcome back. We've covered quite a few times on this show that space debris poses quite a conundrum, geopolitically and practically right now when it comes crashing down through people's homes or into their farm yards, it is still a lot harder than it should be to track down who's responsible for paying for the damage and then have them actually pay up. But today we had a related question during our daily editorial meeting and it's this, when a space rock comes crashing through your home, narrowly missing you thankfully, but leaving quite a trail of damage, what is a homeowner to do? Does standard homeowners insurance cover that sort of like hail damage but on steroids? Or is it a force majeure situation? In other words, is a space rock an act of God? Wild question, right? And we were asking it because of a new story in the New York Times about an incident this past June 26th that happened to a resident who lives in McDonough, which is just south of Atlanta, Georgia. He was narrowly missed by a meteorite ripping through his home, a mere 14 feet between him and a terrible fate. The resident said it created a sound in his home similar to a close range gunshot on impact. And that meteorite ripped through his roof, ductwork and ceiling and left a fist-sized dent in his laminate flooring. Unless you imagine that this was some decent sized rock hurtling through, no indeed. 50 grams of space rock in total was recovered and the largest bit that was studied is the size of a cherry tomato. Yeah, high speed cherry tomato, big damage. And a planetary geologist at the University of Georgia named Scott Harris has studied that space rock cherry tomato, now named the McDonough meteorite. And it ends up that in addition to its splashy entrance here on Earth, it has an interesting backstory. Apparently the meteorite is 4.56 billion years old, about 20 million years older than the Earth itself. And this is what Harris also added. It belongs to a group of asteroids in the main asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter that we now think we can tie to a breakup of a much larger asteroid around 470 million years ago. But in that breakup, some pieces get into Earth crossing orbits and if given long enough, their orbit around the Sun and Earth's orbit around the Sun end up being at the same place at the same moment in time. Now studying these tiny bits that make it through our atmosphere do help us better understand their bigger cousins that could potentially pose a planetary threat, just ask the dinosaurs. In the meantime, here is hoping that when meteorites crash land, we all continue to avoid bodily harm and that everyone's homeowner's insurance decides to be generous. (upbeat music) And that is T-minus brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of our 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, 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 Kilpie is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thanks for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) - T minus. (upbeat music) (roaring) (whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]
