[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is September 17, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 22nd to LOS T-dris. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] Fire. Andaril and Impulse Space are partnering to conduct a rendezvous and proximity operations mission in Geo. Four. Black Sky has won another national geospatial intelligence agency, LUNO, a delivery order for automated general change detection. Three. The Space Data Association has selected GMV to develop its next generation safety of flight system. Two. PLD Space has been selected by the European Space Research and Technology Center for its first guidance, navigation, and control contract. One. Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft delays its docking with the International Space Station. [MUSIC PLAYING] Torsten Kreening and Yvette Gonzalez from SpaceWatch.global bring us the latest from World Space Business Week in Paris today. There have been multiple tracks covered at the event today, so definitely stick around to find out what is happening on the ground later in the show today. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Wednesday, everybody. It is hump day. You've made it through half the week. Let's keep going. We were expecting to start today's episode with an update on Northrop Grumman's Cygnus XL spacecraft docking with the International Space Station. Alas, we are still unsure when exactly that is going to happen. As yesterday, the cargo vehicle's main engine stopped earlier than planned during two burns designed to raise the orbit of the capsule for rendezvous with the space station. So far, NASA has only said that they are delaying the arrival of the Cygnus XL to the ISS as flight controllers evaluate an alternative burn plan for the resupply spacecraft. The US Space Agency did add in the blog announcement that, quote, "all other Cygnus XL systems are performing normally." A new arrival date and time are currently under review, and we will bring you an update when we have one. Spain's PLD space has been selected by the European Space Research and Technology Center, which is part of the European Space Agency, for its first guidance, navigation, and control contract. Under this contract, the company will develop a new hybrid navigation software for reusable launch vehicles known as HALCON. Embrace yourself for this long acronym HALCON stands for Hybridization, Algorithms, and Low Cost Components for Optimized Navigation. And it is a key ESA initiative to enhance European competitiveness in positioning, navigation, and timing technologies. The contract has a total budget of 995,705 euros, but who's counting? And will be co-funded equally by ESA and PLD space, which will retain ownership of the final development. And HALCON's development will be carried out in-house by PLD Space's engineering team with ESA's technical support and will be integrated into the company's technology roadmap, aligned with its reusability and operational autonomy plans through 2030. The Space Data Association has selected GMV to develop its next generation safety of flight system. The system, called the Space Safety Portal, or SSP, will support today's mission critical space operations. And the Space Data Association and GMV will partner with satellite operators, SSA data providers, and other SSA agencies to improve collaboration and strengthen its commitment to act as an integration hub for the enhancement of global space traffic coordination services. Enhanced services through the SSP, and again, that would be the Space Safety Portal, are scheduled to become operational in early 2026. Earth Observation Company Black Sky has one another National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, LUNO-A delivery order for automated general change detection. Under this order, Black Sky will use its imagery plus other commercial sources of data to identify areas of the Earth that have experienced change caused by human activity. Black Sky's automated detection algorithms will monitor anomalies in real time and report changes in natural resources, climate, infrastructure development, and economic and military activity. Black Sky says that it monitors over more than 30 million square kilometers of the Earth's surface for the NGA, and in October, the NGA selected Black Sky for the five-year, up to $290 million LUNO-A, multi-award, indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity contract to monitor global economic and environmental activity and military capability using high cadence, rapid revisit satellite imagery, and AI-driven change detection analytics. Enderill and Impulse Space are partnering to conduct a rendezvous and proximity operations mission in geosynchronous Earth orbit. Together, Enderill and Impulse are deepening their collaboration through the combination of core technologies to advance critical space-based capabilities for the United States and its allies. This internally funded mission will combine Impulse's highly maneuverable spacecraft called MIRA with Enderill's software-defined payloads, which they say will demonstrate how the partners can unlock faster, more cost-effective, and more accessible RPO missions in geo. The mission is targeted for launch in 2026. And that wraps up today's Wednesday intel briefing for you, my friends. And as always, there's so much more going on in the space industry. And to tell us more about that, joining me now is N2K's senior producer Alice Carruth with more on the other stories that you should keep an eye on. Maria, my inbox was filled this morning with announcements. Reuters is reporting that Russia is developing a Starlink rival at a rapid pace. AASHTO Digital has signed a power purchase agreement with Star Capture. Maxar has partnered with Eco-Pia AI to launch a new dynamic vector map. And IONQ has not only completed its acquisition of Oxford IONQ, it's also announced its intent to buy vector atomic to expand into quantum sensing. OK, that is a lot to keep up with today. Where can we find out more about all of that? I'm so glad you asked, Maria. We always include links to the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout the episode in our show notes. Those show notes can also be found on the episode page on our website, space.intuk.com. I T-minus crew, if you find our podcast useful, please do us a favor and share a five-star rating and short review in your favorite podcast app. That will help other space professionals like you to find our show and join the T-minus crew. Thank you so much, everybody. We really appreciate it. We will be right back. Welcome back. I will hand you over now to Torsten Kreening and Yvette Twenzales from spacewatch.global for the latest from World Space Business Week in Paris. Hello from Paris. This is Space Watch Global and we are reporting live from SPIN, the Space Innovation Summit 2025, a powerful day of pitches, policy, and purpose at the heart of the World Space Business Week. This afternoon in Paris launched with a striking pitch competition with six startups. One was from Christian Federspiel, co-founder of IC, who's tackling a massive blind spot in orbital awareness. This space-based, faced-arri-radar constellation aims to prevent the next operational surprise. Two missions flown, governments listening, a wake-up call in low-earth orbit. Then a solar-powered revolution from Martin Soltar of Space Solar, his vision beaming clean energy from space 24 by 7. The Akassiopyr satellites assembled by robots in orbit promise gigawatt scale weatherproof power at just 10 pound per megawatt hour if launches cost fall. This isn't science fiction. It's energy economics in orbit. In a raw and honest fireside chat, Dr. Luca Rossatini, CEO of Deorbit, opened up with me about the hardest moments. When he couldn't pay salaries, they had to let people go. That hurt more than any investor meetings, but his team continued to build the prototype of their own satellites with their own money and time. A very emotional story. His message to space founders, "Fail fast but not fatally and never forget the mission." And a powerful voice this morning from the global South. Dr. Tidjana Otara, head of the new African Space Agency declared, "Africa is not catching up. Africa is leaping ahead on its own terms." With governance in place over 10,000 young trained people and the new African Space Market Forum, the continent's message is clear, built with us, not just for us. From clean energy to orbit security from hard truce to sovereign dreams, Spin 2025 is more than a summit. The pitch competition winner will announce later, but we will catch their elevator pitches. But this time in a real elevator. That's from my end. Over to you, Givette. - Thank you, Torsten. Today was the final day of the Space Defense and Security Summit focused on several critical points around integrating space-based capabilities into military platforms and how cybersecurity drives the success of military operations. Really interesting takeaways included that in order to have resilience and operability, we need to achieve diversity in three ways. Deliberate investment, deliberate cooperation, and deliberate policies. And driving that home, another point was we need digitalization of the kill chain with automation, especially at the hot end for terminal guidance. It was a consideration that for the ability to overwhelm an enemy, you can only do this through machines. There's no longer the ability to do that only with people. Another point was, and I appreciated this conversation around a threat to ground-based assets as targets. Miguel Garcia Primor, the CEO of HISTASAT, reminded us that while the risk of an enemy to intrude on information security is cyber warfare, we cannot forget that kinetic threats mean that our infrastructure can be compromised. There's still protection on the ground to be thought. So multi-domain operations are key. We now depend on cyber and space, and most military put those two domains their priority. During the promise of next-gen SATCOM systems for military forces, they drove home that customers want data diversity, security, and traceability. And it's the power of private capital that will build the next generation of systems at scale and with speed. They left us focused on the fact that spectrum is vital. Without spectrum, there's no service. Without service, there's no space. The agreement amongst the attendees was really that it all seems to be that everyone is on the same page. All things need to happen today for today. And they were operating at, quote, "the speed of now." It was a lot for today. It was incredibly interesting. And I will leave you with this quote. It was from the Navy captain Paul Mervilleux-Dévignon, head of the Operations Division for French Cyber Defense Command. "The history of failure can almost always come down to two words-- two late." Thank you so much. And back to you. And that is T-minus, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. What do you think about T-minus space daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. And thank you for helping us continue to improve our show. We are 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 Trey Hester, with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpe is our publisher. And I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. We will see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC]
