On a roll for Rocket Lab.

[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is October 15, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. 20 seconds to LOS, T-dris. Open aboard. [INAUDIBLE] Five. China has launched a long-march 2D rocket carrying the Xi'an 31 experimental satellite to polar orbit. K2 Space Corporation has signed a contract with SpaceX to launch three satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2027. The World Economic Forum has released a national space strategy toolkit. Germany's ExoLaunch and India's Skyroot have announced a new partnership to provide launch access. Rocket Lab successfully launched its 15th mission of the year and the first of 21 new launches first-inspective. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Wednesday, everybody. Thank you for joining me. Now we're still in a quiet time for the space industry, thanks in large part to the US federal government shutdown. But there are still plenty of launches and announcements for us to get through today. So without further ado, let's dive into today's Intel briefing. First up, at the time of yesterday's recording, Rocket Lab successfully launched its 15th mission of the year and the first of 21 new launches first-inspective. The Owl New World mission launched on Electron from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand to deploy the seventh Strix satellite to a 583-kilometer low-Earth orbit. The mission was the first of a series of 21 dedicated Electron launches that will take place between now and the end of the decade for Japan's respective. It was also the 11th Electron mission completed for its inspectives since launches to deploy their constellation began in December 2020. Rocket Lab plans to launch 27 missions for its inspective in total, with Electron being the primary launcher of their constellation. Germany's ExoLaunch and India's Skyroot have announced a new partnership to provide end-to-end launch services for satellites and expand access to orbit for commercial, institutional, and government customers worldwide. The companies have agreed to collaborate on comprehensive launch campaign planning, satellite integration, and on-site mission execution to deliver seamless launch services to global satellite operators. ExoLaunch plans to integrate and deploy customer satellites on Skyroot's Vikram series of launch vehicles, beginning with the Vikram-1 orbital missions. ExoLaunch will provide its flight-proven technologies for Skyroot customers across dedicated and rideshare launches to include the use of ExoLaunch's exotube payload stacks. The World Economic Forum has released a national space strategy tool hit. The Space Policy Guide is intended to help emerging nations looking to produce space policy for the first time and aid established nations to evaluate their current regulations. The toolkit aims to provide step-by-step guidance, recommendations based on best practices, and lessons learned from space actors around the world, and useful, quantitative information for nations to build an effective space strategy and program. The WEF hopes it'll aid nations to define a high-level purpose, covering how space can support a nation's needs with recommendations on actions that can be carried out to build a space strategy and program. The toolkit and associated paper have been developed in collaboration with PWC. And if you're interested, you can read it in full by following the link in the selected reading section of our show notes. K2Space Corporation has signed a contract with SpaceX to launch three satellites on a Falcon 9 rocket in 2027. The mission will include multiple deployment events to allow the satellites to operate at three different Earth orbits. The satellites are planned to deploy in low Earth orbit, medium Earth orbit, and geostationary transfer orbit. K2Space has named this mission Trinity, and it will follow the upcoming February 2026 mission, Gravitas, launching as a part of a rideshare mission with SpaceX. And China says that it successfully launched a new test satellite into space from the Jutron Satellite Launch Center earlier this week. A long March 2D rocket carried the Xi'an 31 to polar orbit. Now, Xi'an 31 is a Chinese experimental satellite to test new optical imaging technologies. And according to Chinese media, the satellite will be mainly used to verify new optical imaging technologies. And to find out what other gems are included in today's show notes, my friends, NTK senior producer, Alice Carruth joins me now. Alice, what do you have for us? Thanks, Maria. Our selected reading section of the show notes includes original sources of all the stories mentioned throughout the episode. Today, we've included a link to watch the SpaceX launch, which is happening this evening. They're planning a 403 PM PT lift off of a Falcon 9 for the Space Development Agency's Tronch 1 Data Transport mission to low Earth orbit. We'll have more on that once it happens. And there's another SpaceX launch covered in wise keys announcement of their quantum communications demonstration expected to lift off next month. And as a reminder, all of those links can be found on the episode page on our website, which is space.ntuk.com. Hi, listeners. Our whole mission here at T-minus is to give you a daily Intel briefing about what's happening in the space industry that's impactful to you. So your feedback is really important to us, especially when you leave us a rating and review, like this one by listener Marcus Aurelius UW. And they said, quick and informative, enjoy the daily updates. It's a good listen. Well, gratias tbiago, Marcus Aurelius, our thanks and glad that you enjoy our show. And you too can let us know how we're doing with your rating and review in your podcast app of choice. And maybe I'll even read it on the show. You never know. And speaking for the entire T-minus team, a huge, huge thank you in advance for taking a moment to tell us what you think. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] We'll be right back. Welcome back. Astronomers have identified a double-ringed odd radio circle, one of the rarest and most mysterious structures in the universe. And of course, they've given the rare structure a rare name. Please bear with me as I read this mess of numbers. It's RAD J131346.9 plus 50320. Get all that? The object lies roughly 7 to 8 billion light years away. And it is now the most distant and most powerful odd radio circle, or ORC, ever observed. Of course, there's an acronym for it. What did you think? It's space. Now, what makes this ORC exceptional is its twin rings. It is essentially two intersecting circular shells of magnetized plasma surrounding a central galaxy. Only one other such twin ring ORC has ever been documented. And the discovery was made by citizen scientists working with professional teams using data from the low-far radio telescope, demonstrating how human eyes still play a very crucial role in finding anomalies that automated systems might miss. Eat that, AI. Anyway, as for its origin, theories point to energetic outflows, which are superwinds or past jet activity from the central galaxy's supermassive black hole, interacting with the surrounding plasma to carve those rings. Now, while many, many mysteries remain, like why ORCs are so rare, how exactly they evolve, and what role environment plays in their formation, this discovery does open a new frontier into the cosmic interplay between galaxies, black holes, and large-scale plasma structures. Neat, right? [MUSIC PLAYING] And that is T-Minus, brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We would 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 our 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 Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Iben. Peter Kilpey is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. I'll see you tomorrow. [MUSIC PLAYING] [MUSIC PLAYING] T-minus. [MUSIC PLAYING] (whooshing) [BLANK_AUDIO]