[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is September 18, 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] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Five. Ursa Major has been awarded a $34.9 million contract from an undisclosed US Aerospace and Defense Company. Four. The Hubble network has raised $70 million in series B funding. Three. NTT, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, has successfully demonstrated the world's most efficient optical wireless power transmission under atmospheric interference. Two. Axiom Space and Space Built have formed a multi-organization collaboration to bring optically interconnected orbital data center infrastructure to the ISS in 2027. One. NASA's Northrop Grumman CRS-23 mission to the International Space Station has now docked with the orbiting lab. [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Our guest today is Mary Glashkova, CEO at Mission Space. We're going to be discussing their new partnerships and the latest in space weather monitoring. We'll also have updates from World Space Business Week from our partners at SpaceWatch Global. So stick around for more on that later in our show. [MUSIC PLAYING] Thank you for joining me on this lovely Thursday. Let's get started. We're kicking off today's show with a collective sigh of relief. After issues with propulsion timings delaying the arrival of NASA's Northrop Grumman CRS-23 mission to the International Space Station, it has now docked with the orbiting lab. The spacecraft arrived at the ISS this morning, Thursday, September 18th at 7 24 a.m. Eastern Time. The mission was launched four days ago from Florida carrying more than 11,000 pounds of scientific investigations and cargo to support research on the orbiting laboratory. NASA astronauts Johnny Kim and Zina Cardman captured the Cygnus XL spacecraft using the International Space Station's Canadarm-2 robotic arm. We're sure everyone involved is glad that they were able to remedy the issues so quickly and get the spacecraft to the station safely. And speaking of the ISS, Axiom Space and Space Built have formed a multi-organization collaboration to bring optically interconnected orbital data center infrastructure to the orbiting lab in 2027. The Axiom Orbital Data Center, or ODC-Node, on the International Space Station will be known as AX ODC-Node ISS, and it is being developed under a collaboration agreement with Space Built and supported with an optical communication terminal by Skyloom and hardware by FISN Electronics and Microchip Technology. Axiom says it will establish an optically interconnected high-performance ODC-Node aboard the station, enabling satellites, other spacecraft in low Earth orbit, and astronauts and researchers to store and process data and run artificial intelligence and machine learning workloads and other cloud computing applications. The companies say that this cooperation represents the future of ODC infrastructure and orbital cloud services in Leo. Terrestrial cloud infrastructure is interconnected and accessible anywhere in the world and supported by an ecosystem of cloud service providers, data center builders, computing hardware vendors, and fiber cable network providers. Orbital cloud infrastructure will continue to evolve as an ecosystem of space platform providers, Leo-hardened computing hardware vendors, and optical communications relays. Axiom Space believes that there is tremendous opportunity for companies around the world to collaborate and unlock the future of space-based cloud and AI, and this new project builds upon Axiom's achievement of launching the Axiom Data Center Unit 1 to the space station just last month and is in alignment with the announcement in April by Axiom Space to launch AxoDC Nodes 1 and 2, net late 2025. And if that isn't enough of an initiative to keep Axiom busy -- we're still on Axiom, by the way -- they have also announced the launch of the Axiom Space University Alliance. The Alliance is a global initiative designed to elevate scientific opportunities in microgravity research, technology development, R&D, and commercial innovation in Leo. They have already lined up 15 partners across the United States, Europe, and Australia, and are inviting others to join this movement. And if you are interested, more details can be found by following the link in our show notes. Let's head on over for non-Axium-related news next, and let's go to Japan now. And NTT, in collaboration with Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Group, has successfully demonstrated the world's most efficient optical wireless power transmission under atmospheric interference. The demonstration received 152 watts of electric power over 1 km for an efficiency rate of 15%. The result advances the company's development of technologies to accurately deliver power over long distances where cables cannot be installed or used, such as disaster-stricken areas or, most importantly for you, dear listeners, for space-based power systems. Yes, this is just one step in a bigger plan by the companies to build on their research and development to further improve power supply efficiency with improved material compatibility and the use of laser light sources with higher power. Yes, indeed, power beaming is no longer sci-fi, and we are all here for it. The Hubble network has raised $70 million in series B funding, and no, just a reminder, we are not talking about the incredible space telescope that is forever my favorite in my heart. We are talking about the satellite IoT company that shares the name. The new capital brings the company's total funding to $100 million since its founding in 2021. The Hubble network says that their long-term vision is to build a global satellite network that enables affordable low-power, ubiquitous connectivity for billions of devices, unlocking a new era of IoT at planetary scale. The Hubble network says it will use the new funding to expand their satellite constellation and power enterprise deployments across logistics, infrastructure, defense, and consumer IoT. Ursa Major has been awarded a $34.9 million contract from an undisclosed U.S. Aerospace and Defense Company. Through this new contract, Ursa Major will deliver Draper engines and associated services. The engine manufacturing company says the effort will accelerate development, production, and deployment of Draper for critical national security applications in space and ultimately validate the engine's performance and flexibility under operational conditions. This award follows a $28.6 million contract from the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory to demonstrate the Draper engine in flight by the end of this calendar year. [Music] And that wraps up today's Top 5 Stories for You, but eagerly awaiting in the wings as always is my friend and producer, N2K's senior producer Alice Carruth, with the other stories making the headlines today. Alice, what do you have? Just three additional stories worth mentioning today, Maria. Scout Space has been awarded an AFWORK Sibba Phase II contract. Hawkeye 360's cluster 12 have achieved full operational capabilities. And we've included a link to a South China Post article on the tit-for-tat going on between the U.S. and Chinese satellites spying on each other. Greg Yillinger from Integrity ISR, I am sure, will have a lot more on that in his update with us later this month. And please, Alice, remind us where we can learn more about all of these stories. Maria, we include links to all the original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout the show in the selected reading section of our show notes. Those links can also be found on our episode page on our website, space.n2k.com. Hi, T-minus crew. This week, thanks to our partners at SpaceWatch Global, we've been bringing you updates from the World Space Business Week show floor in Paris. And you know, we would love to hear what you think. Want to hear more segments like this? Are there other shows you would like us to cover? Or is there something else entirely? Please send us your feedback with our listener survey. Link is in the show notes for you. We would greatly appreciate it. And I will be talking with Torsten Kreening next week about his takeaways from World Space Business Week. So let me know if there's something you would like me to ask him. Send those questions to space@n2k.com, and you might just hear me ask your question on the show. And thanks. [Music] Our guest today is Mary Glaskova, CEO at Mission Space. They've recently announced a series of new partnerships, including today's announcement with Star Cloud. I started our chat by asking Mary to give us an update on the Space Weather Monitoring Company. [Music] Right, so we're building a constellation of 24 satellites. So you have at least one of them on the polar region. Those are regions that are highly affected by solar flares. And the first payload was launched in March this year. So we have like five, six months of flight heritage. This first payload was focused on radiation. And next generation of instruments were also going to track plasma density, neutral density for satellites to better calculate the drag. And we're also, of course, looking into the Moon Mars missions to track the dust, and radiation, and the such-and-such. And we received an award for this current payload. It's a Global Tech Award in Space Tech, and we're very pleased. Congratulations. That's great. That's really wonderful. I was thinking also of the partnership that you all announced with Star Cloud, because that also sort of comes with a lot of really interesting innovations that you all are working on. Is there anything that you can add about the Star Cloud announcement also? Star Cloud is one of the, let's say, interesting startups. That's my opinion. But this is something that really, you know, gives a lot of people their attention on that topic of building AI orbital data centers. And this is what Star Cloud is doing, and we're very pleased to partner with them. They are one of the first who really sees and understands the problem of radiation, because charged particles, they can damage the nodes, and this is how you lose the information. So what we're going to do, we're going to provide them the high-resolution space weather information and analytics, and this crucial data will enable them to dynamically optimize power and thermal management, ensuring uninterrupted performance, even during solar storms. That sounds like it aligns really well with your company's goals overall in terms of-- Absolutely. You all are doing really incredible, just-- it's really interesting things regarding space weather, and it always impresses me how much we still don't know about what we generally call space weather, and how much it does affect, especially these proliferated Leo satellites and constellations, and just so much we just don't know, and that you all are really figuring a lot of this out is just so fascinating. Yeah, maybe you read-- it was a recent book by Space Capital, and they talk a lot about terrestrial weather, like how it affects every day, every operation of every business. It affects everything GPS-related communications, border flight routes, and of course, of course, low-earth orbit and deep space missions. So I think it's the right time to start talking about it and with all those new rockets and plans to get back on the moon and go further to Mars. It's super important to understand what's going on there. Absolutely. I completely agree, and you all are at a really fascinating place in an intersection of the advancements of technology and also where all of these space missions really need the insights that you'll provide. I'm curious about the long-term vision for your company also. I imagine learning more about what's going on in space weather is obviously sort of the top line, but I'm just curious about your 5-10-year vision. I like to say that we're going to be hyper-nova, because you know, with NOAA's missions, they have maybe 10 missions that are still operational, but some of them pass to you at the age, and a lot of flight decommissioned, and no longer operational missions. And the gap is real, so we believe, first of all, that our approach of building super-small instruments will allow us to deploy the constellation because it's cheap to launch. It's easy to replace if something goes wrong, and the more data points you have, the better picture you have. Absolutely. And yeah, the more information is always better. That's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, and certainly, as I said, it's very, very needed, especially as more missions are going and proliferating in Leo, so it makes a lot of sense. Yeah, but we're not trying to take that piece of cake from NOAA. We are in talk-tube, no? They have a wonderful program. It's called Data Buyouts, and we're also in talk-tube NASA, and they have some missions that they see how we can work together because they are more focused on low-energy instruments, and this is a nice cooperation with our instruments. That makes a lot of sense, honestly, especially when we're talking about scientific understanding. Cooperation really is so crucial. I absolutely completely understand. I wanted to ask also about, I feel like this is an obligatory question that everyone has to ask about AI nowadays. I'm just so curious about how this all fits in with the obligatory AI question. It's a very good question. So the good thing about the space is still like a common ground. So those who collect the data, they own the data, and what about like the AI models? Like there are a lot of companies that work on AI, and the thing is that those models that they are built on historical data, and they fail from 6 to 12 hours, so they can't predict any longer. And those who say that they can, there's just an extrapolation, and it's the probability of the false alarm is very high, and this is what is happening nowadays, is that the chances of false alarms are so high that people tend to just ignore them. This is kind of like dangerous. This is why we think the real data is king. And so talking about that, we signed a lot of intent with Leolabs just like a few weeks ago, and there was an interesting paper from Leolabs from, I think, the beginning of this year, and they said that as of February of 2024, there are several hundreds of unknown objects in the catalog, and that the number of active satellites are distributed to grow from 10,000 to like 60,000 by 2030, and it's becoming increasingly crucial to employ rapid, accurate models and methods of tracking the objects. And of course, the neutral density and other parameters are very crucial for understanding what's going on. Yeah, it sounds like the data set that maybe the large language models would need to be more predictably correct are just not there yet. Yeah, if I'm summarizing that correctly. Yeah, it's good. Now it's like, either going to happen or it's not going to happen. It's like we see a corona mass ejection, but if it's going to hit the earth, maybe in two days, maybe in three. Is it a G1 or a G5? We don't know. Yeah, we're just not there yet. That's totally fair and honestly a very realistic answer also, which as you said, data truly is king. So let's keep our focus there. That makes a lot of sense. Yeah, yeah, it's good, but it's really, I remember we talked with someone from the commercial space stations, and I asked them, like, how are you going to track the radiation? How are you going to shield from the radiation? And they told me that we're going to use the historic data from ISS. It was like, that's interesting because Titanic also used historic data. And it didn't go well. Wow, that is the most amazing response to that. I am saving that to use myself because that is incredible. People tend to forget bad things and it's like, it's flying somehow, so we're going to fly somehow too. It's just like one event, that's it, and you're done. We will be right back. Welcome back. I will hand you over now to Thorsten Kreening and Yvette Gonzalez, who are our partners at SpaceWatch Global, with the latest from World Space Business Week in Paris. Hello Maria and hello from Paris. The Earth observation sector is undergoing a tectonic transformation, one that is not just technological, but structural, strategic and geopolitical. And as an uncutry in the beginning of Novospace Outline during the opening sessions of the Summit on Earth Observation Businesses 2025 at the World Space Business Week's Day Number 4 in Paris, we are witnessing the acceleration of Earth observation into the very heart of national security, economic strategy and digital transformation. The Earth observation market is increasingly dictated by end user demands, not just from government agencies, but also from institutional investors, insurers and regulators. Security and defence remain the dominant revenue drivers. In this stewardous reality, the lines between commercial and military Earth observation systems continue to blur. The commercial Earth observation segment is poised to double its market share from 6 to 12% by 2034. Its growth will be driven by heavier small-sized platforms with enhanced performance, mighty sensor payloads, combining hyperspectral thrower and GHG sensors, orbital diversification including new Leo regimes like H.U. and Sancton-Cronos, twilight orbits, rapid low-cost launch options from SpaceX, Chinese, light launchers and emerging global providers. This pivot to higher performance platforms reflects growing demand from governments and defence customers who need more agile and powerful Earth observation capabilities without relying sorely on sovereign state-owned assets. Defence remains the cornerstone of Earth observation market growth. By 2034, defence-related Earth observation data and services are expected to account for 3.1 billion annually, making up 40-50% of the total Earth observation value chain. This growth is driven by demand for ultra-high resolution imagery, sub-30 cm, high-reset rates enabling real-time tactical awareness, advanced spectral bands for multi-domain sensing, increasing willingness of military users to outsource value-added services rather than just raw data. Perhaps most notably governments are now pushing for space sovereignty, not just data sovereignty. Over to you, Yvette. Thank you, Torsten. With today's focus on Earth observation, we had insights from leading remote-sensing industry leaders. Here are a few key takeaways. For the US government side, there's going to be more aggressive acquisition models which favour commercial solutions that can leverage existing capabilities faster and deploy demonstrable capabilities. That's where projected investments will go. Long-term, there will be an increase in spending for AI and a commercial solution, so operators will continue to work with Congress to shape the long-term perspective. There is a triangle between open AI being just within reach and probably within the next two years, having a difficult direction for those at large such as Google and Gemini. But there are real-world models that will need real-world data. You can't respond to insurance claims or disaster response without real data, so it's an extraordinary time for AI and for geospatial companies, but they will be monitoring all of these forward-looking illegal activities across the world and at greater scale. And that will call upon more appropriate training models to meet that need. Where they are on this journey, no one knows for certain, and it's only the beginning, so everyone will continue to monitor. That's all from here today. Back to you, Maria. [Music] And that's T-Minus, brought to you by N2K CyberWire. What do you think about T-Minus based daily? We would love to know. Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey, link in the show notes, 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 Tre Hester, with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilby is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. [Music] T-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
