[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is September the 24th, 2025. I'm Alice Carruth, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 20 seconds to LOS, T-dred. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] Five. Boeing and Palantir are partnering to integrate AI systems and software across Boeing Defense, Space, and Security Factories and Programs. [MUSIC PLAYING] Starlab Space has selected Vivachi Corporation to manufacture the primary structure for its commercial space station. [MUSIC PLAYING] Russian biological research spacecraft, Bayon M number two, has landed back on Earth after 30 days in orbit. [MUSIC PLAYING] NATO is reportedly investing $728 million in common funding to develop the Alliance's Space Operations Center. NASA and NOAA have launched observatories to study space weather. [MUSIC PLAYING] Lift off. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Wednesday, everyone. Let's dive into today's intelligence briefing. NASA's Interstellar Mapping and Acceleration Probe, better known as IMAP, and its two ride share missions, NASA's Carothers GeoCorona Observatory, and NOAA's Space Weather Follow-On LaRange One, or SWFOL1 spacecraft, launched this morning. A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket carried the payloads to orbit, lifting off at 7.30 AM local time from Launch Complex 39A at NASA's Kennedy Space Center. Mission controllers for NASA's IMAP have received full acquisition of signal from the spacecraft. IMAP aims to help researchers better understand the boundary of the hemisphere, a huge magnetic bubble created by the sun surrounding and protecting our solar system from harmful radiation across the galaxy. NASA's Carothers GeoCorona Observatory is communicating with mission operators at the Mission Operations Center at the University of California, Berkeley. The Carothers Observatory will capture light from Earth's GeoCorona, the part of the outer atmosphere that emits ultraviolet light. It is expected to be fully operational in March 2026. NOAA's SWF1-L1 spacecraft is now headed to LaRange Point 1 following separation from the SpaceX Falcon 9 second stage. The satellite will pave the way for the decommissioning of aging legacy satellites that are operating beyond intended design life and with limited fuel. SWFOL1 will serve as an early warning beacon, helping to provide protection to key assets and industries, including the electric power grid, aviation, and satellites from space weather. Moving on, NASA is reportedly investing $728 million in common funding to develop the Alliance's Space Operations Center. The new funding is intended to deliver mission systems, contractors, the training, and data for the NATO Space Operations Center. Additionally, US Space Force Colonel Jonathan Whitaker, chief of staff of the NATO Combined Forces Space Component Command, told Breaking Defence that NATO is working on a new space data lake. The data lake is called AX for an Allied Exchange Environment and is being modelled after the US Space Force's unified data library. It's great to hear that the Alliance is taking space and data to new heights. Russian biological research spacecraft, Bion M-2, has landed back on Earth after 30 days in orbit. The Bion M-2 descent module has been called a Noah's Ark, due to the payloads that it carried. It's more than 30 payload experiments included, get this, 75 mice, over 1,500 flies, cell cultures, microorganisms, plant seeds, and more. Bion M-2's payload of selected biological specimens were exposed to high level of cosmic radiation, spending the duration of the mission in polar orbit. The Bion M-2 mission was a joint effort by Ros Cosmos, the Russian Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Biomedical Problems of the Russian Academy of Sciences, known as IBMP. The first post-flight studies were done at a deployed medical tent at the landing site. The biological objects were then transferred to IBMP labs for further testing. Starlab Space has selected Vivachi Corporation to manufacture the primary structure for its commercial space station. The aluminum, or aluminium if you're British, space structure, one of the largest single spacecraft structures ever developed for launch, will be built at Vivachi's facility in New Orleans, with additional development and testing support from the Mieshud Assembly facility in Louisiana. Starlab Space is a US-led global joint venture among Voyager Technologies, Airbus, Mitsubishi Corporation, MDA Space, and Palantir Technologies. They're aiming to launch their commercial space station before the end of the decade. Boeing and Palantir are partnering to integrate artificial intelligence systems and software across Boeing Defense, Space and Security factories and programs. Boeing will leverage Palantir's Foundry platform, which uses AI to unify complex and disparate systems under a streamlined and intuitive user interface. Boeing Defense, Space and Security operates more than a dozen major production lines manufacturing military aircraft, helicopters, satellites, spacecraft, missiles, and weapons. The partnership between Boeing and Palantir will help standardise data analytics and insights across its geographically dispersed family of factories. That wraps up today's Top 5 Stories as part of our daily intelligence briefing. This is the point in the show where now host Maria asked me what else we're keeping an eye on in the Space News. So crew, we have three additional stories for you in the selected reading section of the episode's show notes. Remcon has been awarded a NASA CIDBA for simulations of wireless channels for Artemis spacesuits and lunar rovers. Firehawk has been awarded a $4 million TACFI contract by AFWORKS to develop solid rocket motors using 3D printed propellant. And Virgin Galactic, where I spent my Sunday this past weekend at their facility at Spaceport America, has announced a new suborbital research flight with Purdue University. We hope to see the new Delta spacecraft back in the skies over New Mexico in 2026. Hey, Team Miners Crew, if you find this podcast useful, please do us a favour and share a five-star rating and a short review in your favourite podcast app. It will help other space professionals like you find the show and join the Team Miners Crew. Thank you. We really appreciate it. [MUSIC PLAYING] We'll be right back. Welcome back. NASA's Psyche Probe just set a new record for deep space communication. The spacecraft, now about 218 million miles from Earth, is on its way to explore a metal-rich asteroid, and it successfully used a laser to beam data home. The demo is part of NASA's Deep Space Optical Communications Experiment. Think of it as an upgrading from dial-up internet to fiber optics, but in space. Traditional radio waves spread out as they travel limiting data rates. Lasers, on the other hand, can send much more information with far greater precision. So why does this matter? NASA is thinking about future missions, of course, from Mars bases to robotic explorers in the outer solar system. These missions will need to move huge volumes of data. Laser communications could be the key to making deep space as connected as Earth. Psyche's tests showed that even across hundreds of millions of miles, lasers can cut through cosmic distances, delivering reliable, high bandwidth connections. It's not just a milestone for one spacecraft. It's a glimpse of the communication infrastructure that could support humanity's next giant leap. And what are the original mission of the Psyche probe? Asteroid Psyche's gravity is expected to capture the spacecraft in late July, 2029, and Psyche will begin its prime mission in August. It will spend about two years orbiting the asteroid to take pictures, map the surface, and collect data to determine Psyche's composition. Let's hope that the laser communication system continues to work as it travels further into deep space. [MUSIC PLAYING] And that's Team Miner's, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. What do you think about Team Miner Space Daily? Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts with us by completing our brief listener survey. Thank you for helping us to continue to improve our show. 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 cyber professionals grow, learn, and stay informed. As the nexus for discovery and connection, we bring you the people, technology, and ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how at N2K.com. N2K's executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Our producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our host is Maria Varmazis. Peter Kilpie is our publisher. And I'm senior producer Alice Carruth. Thanks for listening. [MUSIC PLAYING] Team Miner. [EXPLOSION] [BLANK_AUDIO]
