NASA’s VIPER is back on the manifest.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is September 22, 2025. Happy equinox. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 22nd is the LOS Patriot. [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] [INAUDIBLE] InnoSpace has signed a multi-launch service contract with German satellite firm MBS. [INAUDIBLE] Our subspace systems in Ariane are partnering to provide time-critical shareable insights for US combatant commands. [INAUDIBLE] IONQ has signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy to advance the development and deployment of quantum technologies in space. [INAUDIBLE] Japan's Yokogawa Electric Corporation has signed agreements with Toyota for research and development activities that will include prototype measurement and control equipment for a manned pressurized rover. [INAUDIBLE] NASA has awarded Blue Origin a commercial lunar payload services task order with an option to deliver a rover to the moon's South Pole region. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Lift off. [MUSIC PLAYING] And after today's Monday headlines, Parker Wyshick brings us the Aerospace Corporation's monthly segment called Nexus. Parker's going to be joined by Kelly Ferrer, Slingshot Aerospace's Chief Revenue Officer and Chief Marketing Officer, and the Aerospace Corporation's Manuel Gonzales Rivera, the Director of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence. And they all are going to be discussing the use of generative AI in space later in today's show. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Monday, everybody. Thank you for joining me on this lovely equinox. Let's dive into today's Intel Briefing. First up, NASA has awarded Blue Origin a commercial lunar payload services or CLIPS task order with an option to deliver a rover to the moon's South Pole region. And it's not just any rover, it is NASA's VIPER, which stands for Volatile's Investigating Polar Exploration Rover, which is going to search for volatile resources, such as ice, on the lunar surface, and collect science data to support future exploration on the moon and on Mars. This CLIPS task order has a total potential value of $190 million-- no, not cheap. Blue Origin is responsible for the complete landing mission architecture and will conduct design analysis and testing of a large lunar lander that's capable of safely delivering the lunar volatiles science rover to the moon. And Blue Origin will also handle end-to-end payload integration, planning and support, and post-landing payload deployment activities. And for those who are keeping track at home, this is the second CLIPS lunar delivery awarded to Blue Origin. The first delivery using their Blue Moon Mark I robotic lander is targeted for launch later this year to deliver NASA's stereo cameras for lunar plume surface studies and laser retro-reflective array payloads to the moon's South Pole region. And with this new award, Blue Origin plans to deliver VIPER, which up until now had a very uncertain future, to the lunar surface in late 2027 using a second Blue Moon Mark I lander, which is currently in production. And if you find yourself questioning the name of this mission-- again, it's VIPER-- and asking, wait a second, well, isn't that canceled? You would be right. NASA previously did cancel the VIPER project, but has since explored alternative approaches to achieve the agency's goals of mapping potential off-planet resources like water. So glad that there is a happy resolution for VIPER, and we cannot wait to see this mission launch. And a quick story note now. NASA is also announcing its 2025 astronaut selection at the time of recording right now. So we will bring you more on that in tomorrow's show. Let's stay with the moon now for our second story, as Japan's Yokogawa Electric Corporation has signed agreements with Toyota for research and development activities that will include prototype measurement and control equipment for a manned pressurized rover. And this rover is nicknamed Lunar Cruiser by Toyota, and is being developed by Toyota and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, often better known as JAXA. This manned pressurized rover will be Japan's first standalone manned space system and is expected to dramatically expand the scope of exploration activities on the lunar surface. It will also have the ability to be remotely controlled and operate without a crew, enabling continuous exploration of the lunar surface. And these agreements cover the design and procurement for the development of prototypes, advancing the conceptual studies undertaken by Yokogawa and Toyota for the control platform and the battery measurement components of the manned pressurized rover. Now Yokogawa will work on development with Toyota in preparation for a launch in 2031 or later. IonQ has signed a memorandum of understanding with the US Department of Energy to advance the development and deployment of quantum technologies in space. The agreement supports the DOE's growing Quantum in Space Initiative and outlines IonQ's role in demonstrating quantum ground to orbit to ground capabilities. The MOU provides a framework for exploring a range of quantum capabilities in orbit, including quantum secure communication demonstrations, demonstrations in orbit, such as quantum sensing and mapping, deployed position navigation and timing systems, as well as development and testing of quantum algorithms, and eventually quantum computing on satellites. ERSA space systems and Arianne are partnering to provide time critical shareable insights for US combatant commands that two companies have already produced several operational planning products to the US Space Force to meet unified combatant command needs. ERSA space specializes in analytic offerings that incorporate a wide variety of data sources, and Arianne's data provides ERSA space a new domain to monitor when combatant commands seek answers to questions about geopolitical developments in their area of responsibility. Arianne's global data collections that are now going to be integrated with ERSA space's geospatial platform aim to provide valuable insights for monitoring and identifying changes in areas of interest. South Korea's InnoSpace has signed a multi-launch service contract worth $5.8 million, with German satellite firm Media Broadcast Satellite GMBH, also known as MBS. InnoSpace will carry out two Hanbit launch missions to deploy MBS satellites into low Earth orbit, with one launch in 2026 and the other planned by 2028. In both launch missions, MBS satellites will serve as the primary payloads with priority in launch scheduling and orbit determination. InnoSpace also signed a separate contract officially appointing MBS as its exclusive agent for launch service sales and marketing within Germany, marking the company's entry into the European space launch market. [MUSIC PLAYING] And that wraps up today's top five stories. But there's always more going on in the industry. And this is where I bring in NTK Senior Producer Alice Carruth, ask, what else should we be watching, Alice? You're right, Maria. There's always lots of moving parts in the space industry. And I cannot wait to find out more tomorrow on NASA's new astronaut selection and see the IMAP launch which is the latest in the space industry. And I'm sure you'll be able to find out more about the future of the space industry astronaut selection and see the IMAP launch which is scheduled for an early lift off. We've included two additional links in the selected reading section of our show notes today. One is on Air Environments Award for two Badger Phased Array Systems, and the other is on Maxile's new partnership with AIDC to accelerate the resilience of Taiwan's UAV industry against GPS interference. And you can find those links in our show notes on whatever podcast platform you'd like to listen to us through. And on our website, which is space.ntuk.com, just click on today's episode title. Hi, T-Minus Crew. If you would like daily updates from us directly in your LinkedIn feed, be sure to follow the official N2K T-Minus page over on LinkedIn. And if you are more interested in the lighter side of what we do here, we are @t-minusdaily on Instagram. That is where we post videos and pictures from events, excursions, and even sometimes, some behind the scenes treats. Links are in the show notes, and we hope you'll join us there. Let's hear now from Parker Wysiek from the Aerospace Corporation with the monthly Nexus segment. And you're here in the Nexus courtesy of the T-Minus Space Daily podcast. My name is Parker Wysiek at the Aerospace Corporation. I am a human employee of Aerospace, not one of the many AI tools being developed by Aerospace Corporations. Although I may have leveraged Aerospace's in-house generative AI for some help on that intro, I did not source AI for the expertise of my two guests today. First, Kelly Führer, who is Slingshot Aerospace's chief revenue officer and chief marketing officer. We're also joined by Aerospace's Manny Gonzalez-Rivero, who is the director of Data Science and Artificial Intelligence, who leads a team at Aerospace, tapping AI and machine learning tools for our customers. So thank you both, Kelly and Manny, for joining me today and bringing this very broad topic to our Nexus listeners on T-Minus. Kelly, I would love for you to tell us a state of play generally across space about the artificial intelligence revolution and use cases of the technology. But do tell us a little bit about Slingshot Aerospace first. Slingshot Aerospace exists to make space safe, secure, and sustainable. And right now, we're at an inflection point where space is no longer the quiet frontier. It's congested, it's contested, and increasingly critical to every part of life on Earth, from communications to national security. So that's all going to come into play as we have this conversation about AI and really what the state of play is. So what's at Slingshot, apart, we believe, is that we don't just show what's happening in space. Our AI helps to explain why it matters and what to do about it. So whether it's predicting satellite maneuvers, training operators in realistic simulations, or enabling cross-allied collaboration on our platform, we're building the intelligent infrastructure layer for space. Your question, Parker, which is, what is the state of play for AI in the space sector broadly? I would say that AI is already critical in satellite tracking, collision avoidance, wargaming, and threat simulation. We are using that today at Slingshot. AI is integrated in everything from our center network systems, where we are taking in the raw observations, the way we do data fusion and processing, to the way we take that data, we feed it into our SIM systems, and we use AI on top of that. It really is pervasive across our platform. And I think compelling, because it's not that the AI is doing the work, it's scaling the amount of work that the humans can do. So if you think about it very simply, we can't put thousands of analysts in front of screens, but we can't put AI behind 1,000 data feeds. So that gives you a sense of what it's doing as a lever in the space tech industry to help us advance that much faster on our awareness and our coordination of what's going on out there. Thank you, Kelly. And Slingshot is all over the spectrum of use cases in AI and space, and they are supporting the Office of Space Commerce's TRAX platform. Kelly, tell us a little bit about Slingshot's role in TRAX. We are responsible for the presentation layer. And I just want to kind of level set for everybody if you don't know what the TRAX program is. The TRAX program, you can think of it as like an air traffic control system for satellites. So just like planes need radar and controllers to keep from flying into each other in busy skies, satellites need that same kind of visibility and coordination to keep space safe and secure. So it's a really big, important program that's hosted by the Office of Space Commerce under NOAA. And this year, there was some concern about funding getting cut for this important program. And Office of Space Commerce, their mission is literally an economic growth mission, as well as a dancing technology mission, which satellites are really the backbone of modern life on Earth. And so it's really important that we support this program. And earlier this year, Slingshot and partner is just like you guys, we all bound together and went to Congress and said, hey, don't cut this funding. This is a really important program. The space domain is a part of the joint all domains. We need the space traffic coordination as a key piece to keeping our edge in the space race and just keeping things less chaotic. So in fact, that kind of coalition has worked. We see the funding coming through, and we're seeing new opportunities every day with the TRAX program. We're all involved in it. And I do think it's so important for the space industry overall. So thank you for asking that question. Artificial intelligence certainly has a very important role to play in conjunction analysis, collision avoidance, and the future of space traffic coordination. And you've also got AGatha, an excellently branded tool for threat detection and identification. It was named after that Tom Cruise movie called Minority Report. And AGatha was the print cognition that could see things happen before they happen. So while AGatha doesn't predict crimes, she definitely reveals what's going on out there in your neighborhood, in your space neighborhood, and why it matters. And just helps, again, scale that human cognition so much faster. Manny, can you build off what Kelly was talking about regarding the state of play? And I know Aerospace just recently released a strategy for AI. Maybe you can weave that in. Yeah, absolutely. So Kelly, write on. The cost of fielding these systems is dramatically decreasing. The amount of data that they're producing is enormous. We're not going to be able to scale on human beings anymore. We need to scale on technology and automation. And that's where really AI comes into play. Additionally, as we try to solve those problems, the design constraints in space are really hazardous. There's issues around size, weight, and power, dissipating thermal energy, radiation that hits these systems. And so AI and ML is being used more and more to help drive the design side of the sensor platforms as well as we collect that data so that we can ultimately then use all of this information and derive actual both insights. And so an explosion of data, complexity of these systems is made free-stay. And our ability to fuse that information across multiple domains fast enough to provide actionable insights seems to be a theme again and again. In the context of the AI strategy of the Earthspace Corp, we have these five pillars that try to get after those very things. The first pillar being a focus on AI-enabled space operations and decision aids. So if you think about satellite mission management or real-time anti-GMA for comms ways, or how do we assist those operators, that's really what that pillar tries to get after. The second pillar being around trusted AI, how do we make sure that the outcomes that we derive from these systems can actually be used in safety-critical circumstances? So this could be things like how do you want to make use of large-language models and put guardrails on? And if you have highly autonomous systems like the one that Kelly mentioned earlier, how do we make sure that we have the right watchdowards so that we protect lives without slowing down the speed of innovation? Number three, we're really focused on curating space data steps for the space enterprise. So if you take all the telemetry that these systems are producing, being a trusted area where we can store this data and provide it to commercial entities so they can exploit it is one of our key tenants. And you can imagine also curating golden data sets that are labeled so that folks can exploit those for AI. We think of aerospace as being a home where we can be a trusted entity for that. Aerospace Corporation and the fourth pillar, we've been providing modeling and simulation tools for about 70 years. And so now with the new generation of AI tools that are coming out, how do we upstill those capabilities with the new wave of technology? And so this can help to drive AI-driven war games or enhance the reliability of satellite operations. And then finally, of course, all of this is for nothing if we don't solve meaningful solutions. And that's the fifth pillar, AI solutions for space. And that's about being able to exploit these capabilities at the extreme edge and to be able to solve meaningful things like automatic target recognition or indicators and warnings or, you know, kind of these large scale meaningful missions on the global stage. - So y'all both touched on two topics I wanna ask in succession. You talked about the advent of the technology to where it is today and you talked about trust. I'll come back to trust. In extending the state of play question, are you where we thought we would be? Are we where in the industry we should be in the adoption of AI? Kelly, question to you first. - We're not quite where we need to be. I think that's kind of consensus in terms of, you know, global powers and, you know, China and Russia are certainly very advanced in some of their not just, you know, cyber tactics, but also AI applied to that. So we'd like to see at least, I know I'd like to see for us to kind of speed up the adoption of the AI kind of across the government channels where we're appropriate, you know, but it doesn't replace the human on the loop. So I think there's still room for us to kind of move ahead. And I think more and more, Mandy was just talking about, you know, aerospace and their history in modeling and simulation. We also have some big programs, you know, with the OTTI, we have a big modeling simulation program using, you know, our AI agents. And that is that that's a trust building, training exercise. And the more we can all work together, give these systems and get to that level of trust, that's really gonna kind of shrink that trust gap that we have and hopefully over time, the acquisition gap and even the data gap shrinks because I think that's another kind of piece of the puzzle and I think that's one of the things that we need to do is to be able to see what's going on, are we where we need to be? - Are we where you think we should be, where aerospace thinks we should be? - Well, also two comments there, kind of speaking of what Kelly said, especially in those hyper competitive domains, if you're not ahead, you're bot, right? So, you know, we probably want to continue to push as if we're behind the get-a-head. If you look at commercial, the advances that you see there are staggering, just an incredible amount of investments, the question isn't whether or not the technology is this, it's exactly what Kelly said. Can we get that technology into the hands and the places in the space that we need for it to be relevant and valuable in these important domains, right? And so I think that's where we have the biggest challenge. There is this sense of wanting to save lives, so we need to be safe, but at the same time, we cannot slow down the speed of innovation and aerospace corp we figure ourselves as innovation accelerators. And so we need to make sure that we facilitate as much as possible, keeping that innovation at pace while keeping folks safe. And so a lot of that is going to be about making sure that we allow rapid-sailure a safe places, right? As our understanding deepens and grows, I think we can probably loosen up our risk postures a little bit and start investing a little bit more in systems that allow for failure and redundancy. - Yeah, I think so too. I mean, we kind of alluded to it already. It's more exercises, more simulations, more sandboxes, and get that feedback loop going to the developers and figure out what needs to change, what, where it's going wrong, 'cause it is a machine, so it's only as good as the training and the coaching that you give it. And so I think even opening up more shared frameworks, when you talked about your golden data set and that it's labeled, like getting to some standards on metadata labeling. So we all call a red thing red in every system and not bright orange in another system. Like I think those are some basic things, like getting a standard industry vernacular where we all understand what we're talking about when we say something because these domains, it is a national security, it is a war fighting domain. All of those things that come with just any industry, any tech industry, maturing, everybody has to start using the same kind of language to talk about things and share a framework. So I think that will help a lot as well. - Let me just chat a bit more with it. We refer to that in aerospace as democratizing access to the problem. And so if we're able to democratize access to the problem and the data associated with it and give it to commercial and allow them to forge solutions in a hyper competitive perspective, then I think we can help with it. - Great way to end it. There will be plenty of those hard problems. You can bet that AI is gonna be there. You can bet that Slingshot and Aerospace will be there. So thank you, Kelly. Thank you, Manny. Thank you, T-minus. Thanks to the listeners. And we'll tackle some of those hard problems with you later next time in the Nexus. (gentle music) Our thanks to Parker Wyschig at the Aerospace Corporation for joining us for our monthly Nexus check-in. And if you have a question that you would like the Nexus team to address, send it on over to us. The email is space@ntuk.com and we will share your question or thought or idea with them. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) We'll be right back. Welcome back. Today, September 22nd is an equinox. It's spring if you are in the Southern Hemisphere and autumn if you are in the Northern. On the equinox, the length of day and night are just about equal. For our friends in the Southern Hemisphere, your spring now begins in earnest. Hope you enjoy the lovely weather and increasing sunshine. For folks like me in the Northern Hemisphere though, it is the official start of autumn today. Though where I live, it has been certainly feeling and looking that way for a good while with significantly cooler nights and the start of the lovely color changes in the surrounding tree foliage. It is nice, isn't it? And since it is the equinox, here's a little bit of Greek mythology trivia for you about this day. The autumn equinox was also called Demeter's Sorrow. As it was said that the equinox was when her daughter Persephone would begin her yearly descent into the underworld to Hades kingdom. Demeter being the goddess of the harvest, the grief of seeing her daughter depart would bring about the end of the harvest in the start of the cold months where nothing will grow. That is until the next equinox in spring when the cycle begins anew. A little something to ponder over your pumpkin spice latte perhaps. (upbeat music) And that's 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. Link is in the show notes for you. 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 senior producer is Alice Carruth. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We are mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliot Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpey is our publisher and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. See you tomorrow. (upbeat music) - T-minus. (upbeat music) (water splashing) [BLANK_AUDIO]