Is SpaceX behind schedule?

[MUSIC PLAYING] Today is October 21st, 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] Five. Kongsburg defends an aerospace and Andoja space. Plan to identify, define, and pursue business opportunities within the space domain. Four. Muon Space will integrate SpaceX's Starlink mini laser terminals into their Halo satellite platform. Three. China's Jutui-3 reusable rocket has completed major ground tests ahead of its maiden flight. Two. Oman's Civil Aviation Authority has introduced a framework to approve commercial space launch activities. One. NASA to open the US lunar landing contract to new bidders, with acting administrator Sean Duffy citing delays with SpaceX's Starship as the reason behind the moon. [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] [INAUDIBLE] [MUSIC PLAYING] And today we have our monthly catch up with Patrick O'Neill, Public Affairs and Outreach Lead at the International Space Station US National Laboratory. We're going to be talking about what the US government shutdown means, if anything, for the US National Laboratory and what is heading up to the orbiting lab this week. So stick around for more on that after today's headlines. [MUSIC PLAYING] Happy Tuesday, everybody. Thank you for joining me. Now, we here at T-minus are a very proudly international show within international audience. But as you might be able to tell from my accent, I am American. So in very typical American fashion, I'm going to open up today's episode with a question specifically for us, Yanks. OK, how are we, the United States, doing in the new space race to the moon? Are we behind? Well, acting NASA administrator Sean Duffy certainly thinks so. Now, he appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box yesterday, saying that he's concerned that the United States is dealing with unnecessary delays to progress with the spacecraft needed to return the astronauts to the moon. Not only that, he wants to open up the bidding for the lunar landing contract, which had been previously awarded to SpaceX. Now, here is what he said. Now, SpaceX had the contract for Artemis 3. By the way, I love SpaceX. It's an amazing company. The problem is, they're behind. They pushed their timelines out and weren't a race against China. The president and I want to get to the moon in this president's term. So I'm going to open up the contract. I'm going to let other space companies compete with SpaceX, like Blue Origin. And again, whatever one can get us there first to the moon, we're going to take. And if SpaceX is behind, but Blue Origin can do it before them, good on Blue Origin. But by the way, we also might have two companies that can get us back to the moon in 2028. But again, we're not going to wait for one company. We're going to push this forward and win the second space race against the Chinese, get back to the moon, set up a camp, a base. And from there, we're going to figure out how we can actually get to Mars. Now, his comments do represent a major shift in NASA's lunar strategy. And starting a new competitive juncture in the program for a crewed moon lander just two years before the scheduled landing date, that is an interesting move, isn't it? And for its part, what does SpaceX think of this? Well, Elon Musk took to social media to share this. SpaceX is moving like lightning compared to the rest of the space industry. Moreover, Starship will end up doing the whole moon mission. Mark my words. OK, so a bit of healthy competition won't be so bad will it? Or should we be concerned that the United States is prioritizing speed over safety? Well, the current US government still in shutdown over disagreements about the budget. It's not likely to make any moves, at least at the speed that they're looking for, to reopen bidding any time soon. So your guess is as good as mine, but only time will tell. And while the United States makes slow progress towards launch, the Middle East is speeding up. Oman's Civil Aviation Authority has introduced a framework to approve commercial space launch activities. It is the first initiative of its kind in the Middle East. Etlak Spaceport has welcomed the announcement and says it positions Oman as a regional leader in the growing space economy, which aims to be a global leader in accessible space launch and sustainable space exploration. The recently issued Civil Aviation Directive sets out the process for coordinating space flight activities within Oman's airspace. And under the directive, companies that are seeking launch approval must submit an evidence-based safety case to the CAA in order to reserve launch windows in the Muscat flight information region. Applications aim to be processed in as little as-- listen to this now-- 45 days, giving operators one of the fastest approval cycles globally while maintaining rigorous aviation, maritime, and ground safety requirements. Indeed, the future is looking up for Oman. Let's check in with China now. And China's Jiuquai-3, or ZQ-3 reusable rocket, has completed its major ground tests. It is the last testing expected ahead of its maiden flight at a commercial launch site near the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in northwest China, according to its developer LandSpace. The tests include a refueling rehearsal and a static fire of the engines. It'll return to the technical area for inspection and review with its launch plan and procedures to be refined. The Jiuquai-3 first stage is designed to be reused at least 20 times, which LandSpace says gives the rocket the potential to reduce launch costs by 80% to 90% compared with single-use rockets. Jiuquai-3's launch date has yet to be announced, but it is expected in the coming weeks. Mewonspace has signed an agreement with SpaceX's Starlink to integrate its mini-laser terminals into its Halo satellite platform. Mewonspace says that the agreement will offer customers persistent real-time access to their satellite constellations and data on orbit. The agreement integrates Mewons satellites into Starlink's global digital infrastructure, delivering critical insights and services, and opening new business models where constellations operate with the same internet speed and responsiveness as cloud providers and telecom networks on the ground. Mewons has already begun integrating Starlink's mini-laser terminals into current customer constellations, and will be launching its first Starlink-enabled Halo satellite in Q1 of 2027. Kongsberg Defense and Aerospace and Andoya Space plan to collaborate in several domains of strategic importance to Norway and its allies. They've signed an MOU that outlines a joint ambition to identify, define, and pursue business opportunities within the space domain, drone segment, and C4ISR. The MOU highlights a near-term focus on building cooperation within the space sector, including satellite launch, system integration, testing operations, and long-term infrastructure development. [MUSIC PLAYING] And that wraps up today's top five stories, but there's always more going on in the space industry. And 2K senior producer Alice Carruth joins me now with a look at the other stories that we're watching. Maria, what an interesting move by Duffy. I wonder what the new administrator, when the administration finally announces one, will make of that move. You can read more about that story and all the others mentioned throughout this episode by following the links in the selected reading section of the show notes. Today, we've included two extra stories in there. Our US spaceport's set to sell bonds. Barclays PLC says the municipal bond market is poised for new debt sales for space facilities after the enactment of the Trump administration's One Big Beautiful Bill Act. And speaking of funding, Lockheed Martin has reported their third quarter financial results. We here at T-Minus ask a lot of questions. I bet you do too. Is there something that you've been wondering about lately that you need some answers to? Maybe a particularly confounding new technology concept or hard to decipher bit of governmental regulation that could use some context? Or just like, what's the deal with the-- you know, you fill that bit into your listener. I'm sure there's something on your mind. And we want to know, what are you mulling over? What's the workplace debate of the day? It could be a great topic for us to cover on T-Minus, so tell us about it. Space@N2K.com. ♪ Today we have our monthly segment from the International Space Station, US National Lab. And I asked Patrick O'Neill if the current US government shutdown has any impact on the operations on the ISS. ♪ Yes, we are in the midst right now of a government shutdown in the United States. Yes, it does impact us. That being said, the International Space Station program is considered essential. So there are individuals that are within the NASA sphere that are continuing to support operations, making sure that the crew is healthy, that they're happy, everything is safe up there on station. So I would say, from a viewer's perspective, to not worry about that, we're continuing normal operations in that regard. But obviously, you know, outside of that, it does have some impacts. So, you know, there's nothing that has changed as far as our launch cadence is concerned. We've kind of -- there's a little bit of a space right now between crew missions and commercial resupply services missions, but there is a mission that's probably going to be taking place this week in Japan. And it's going to be the next iteration of the HTV vehicle. So it's the HTV-X1, is the mission that's going to be taking flight. And so, you know, obviously, there's going to be NASA collaboration and association with that, because there's a lot of projects that are flying that are sponsored from us as well as from NASA. So I think that that's a good example of, you know, that there is some continuation of operations. And again, it's going to be exciting to be able to have that mission take place, because it's another vehicle, another opportunity for us to be able to send research to the space station to make sure that our astronauts are quite busy. Oh, I would imagine. And it is the international space station after all. So it does not revolve around us and our tribulations. So let's talk about that mission coming up, because first of all, a resupply mission from Japan doesn't seem to happen a whole lot, but that's really cool that it's happening. It's a great opportunity for us to again send more research to station. This HTV vehicle had been one where that Jackson had been trying to upgrade it for the last couple of years. So again, now that it's going to be reflying, it's another avenue for us to be able to have our researchers, even from the United States perspective, be able to send their R&D up there. One of the things that we're talking with our operations team that they're a fan of with this is it allows for us to send projects that might not necessarily be as astronaut intensive. So for example, there's going to be a lot of projects that are going to be flying on this mission that will eventually reside on the outside of the International Space Station, in particular using the Missy Flight Facility, which is an association with Agis Aerospace, and they are one of the commercial service providers for the ISS National Lab. So there's going to be a lot of fun projects that are going to be looking at the extreme environment of space and seeing how that can have impacts towards their respective R&D. Oh, I'd love you to walk me through that when you have a moment. Yeah, go ahead. So one of the projects that's going to be flying is from 3M. That's a very recognizable consumer brands company where they just have, they develop so many different types of things that we are involved with on a daily basis. They're going to be looking at films, technology films, on the outside of station because they want to eventually get more into the space world themselves. So by putting something on the outside of the space station, you have extreme variances in temperature, you have atomic oxygen, you have radiation spikes. So the kind of running joke is that if you can put something on the outside of the space station and they can withstand that, they can withstand anything, especially back here on the ground. But for using 3M as an example, again, are there things that they can learn about their films on the outside of the space station? They could be applicable towards satellite design or other space technologies in the future. So we see a lot of those types of projects when they are on the outside of station. A lot of them are much more focused in kind of the materials or technology and just seeing how they're able to withstand the rigors of extreme space. That makes a lot of sense. Any other faves from the upcoming resupply mission? So there's going to be an update. So on the inside of the space station, we have some autonomous platforms. One of them is from Space Tango, and they've had an internal rack space for many, many years up there. But they are going to be enhancing that through MAMBO, is I believe the name of the project, where it's going to be a little bit larger. So think of like a shoebox. Maybe now it's going to be a little bit bigger and it has more capabilities for the research community. So that's going to be going up. That's going to be something that's going to be available for the research community to be able to leverage. Again, the reason why these are important for us is because they are less astronaut-intrusive. The astronaut literally puts it in the chute, flips on the button, and away goes the project. And then the astronaut can go and support other investigations or go and work out or go do what they need to do. So that's why this is a good example of, you oftentimes hear NASA say, over the span of six months, we will see upwards of 250 investigations that are happening. And that's because not all of them have to happen with the astronaut being involved with that. So to be able to have this new capability, our friends at Space Tango, hopefully it allows for them to further their business model and get more people interested in sending their projects to the space station. Yeah, because they do medical research, right? So that's a really, they do fascinating stuff at Space Tango. That's a really interesting company. Yeah, well, they do a lot of different stuff. So to your point, yeah, there is a lot of biomedical research that they do support, which again is kind of interesting because now it's just strictly based on the engineering. You're not having an astronaut that's doing pets or anything like that or being engaged with the project. So that's one area that they've definitely been very active in on station, but they can also support other types of projects. They can do STEM investigations. They can do plant biology. They can support materials investigations as well. So again, I think that that's, you know, they're a good representation of the diversity that is capable of their services, what they can provide to the researchers. That is really remarkable. Kind of a bummer that the crew don't have to put on a lab coat again with the pets. The visual is amazing, but yeah, we don't want their time is a limiting factor, understandably. So that it is truly incredible that what people are capable of creating now. Any other faves? I feel like I'm just asking what else? What else? What else? I'm greedy, but. Well, I mean, there are other projects that are flying on that mission. Some of them I'm not necessarily a liberty to talk about because the companies themselves don't want to talk about them too much right now. They don't want to get too far ahead of the game. But again, they're going to be leveraging the outside of the space station. I can maybe kind of give a hint that maybe maybe it's one of those companies that is looking to build broadband technologies. So infer what you will from there. But again, like that type of that's what I like about leveraging the outside of station is because a lot of these companies now are really trying to, you know, delve into building that economy in low Earth orbit and, you know, testing things in that in that rigorous environment so that then it could be applicable towards things that they might want to develop for themselves, whether that be on future space platforms or satellite. Or satellite capabilities. And it's in truly, as you mentioned, a lot of incredible things are happening in material sciences. And there's an interview I did a year ago, I want to say, and I realized in the middle of it, a lot of space stuff is really just material science. When you scratch the surface a little bit, it's like, oh yeah, makes a lot of sense. But of course, there's lots of other things too. All right. So anything else coming in the upcoming schedule that you want to share that we should be keeping an eye out for? Well, you know, I think that in about two weeks time, we're going to have ourselves a pretty important historical perspective for the International Space Station as a whole 25 years of continuous human presence. That anniversary is on November 2. So, you know, we talked about the shutdown, hopefully at that time frame, you know, things will be back to normal again. And I'd be very excited about what it is that our friends at NASA will be communicating about. For me, I was actually working on a press release because the Center for the Advancement of Science and Space CASIS, we have managed the ISS National Lab since 2011. And so I'm writing this press release and it kind of brings you back down a little bit of, you know, the nostalgic of some of the projects and the partners that we've had the opportunity to work with over all of these years. And so we're very excited about the role that we have had in helping to enable access and opportunity on the space station. So we look forward to championing that alongside our partners at NASA, alongside our international partners and alongside a lot of the companies that have, you know, have facilities on the space station because they're very integral, obviously, in being able to enable that type of research on station as well. It's amazing. Well, 25 is quite a milestone. It's in one of humanity's absolutely most amazing accomplishments ever. So it's a, I don't want to downplay that. I mean, it is just, it's a beautiful thing. It actually gets me a little teary-eyed thinking about it. It's, it's been a crazy ride. Yeah. I mean, think about it. Like the first 10 years they talk about it from the standpoint of trying to build it. The next 10 years it was more focused on, well, how do we use it? And I think that that's where the ISS National Lab and NASA, we really found our stride. And now here we are in this third full decade of station utilization and every launch we're learning more and more. And, you know, I think that now we're well over 4,000 projects that have been supported on station. The ISS National Lab has launched more than 900 payloads to date. So next year we're excited because we should be hitting that 1,000 payload milestone. But then on top of that, it's the scientific publications that have been derived from that research. I think that we have well over 500 on our own. So again, it's, it's very exciting to see how we have leveraged the space station and knowing that the remaining years that we have, it's going to be the best of the best science and the impacts that that could have for us here on Earth. How we can help drive business models in low Earth orbit and how it is that we can push humanity's footprint beyond this space station to places like the moon and Mars. And beyond. Absolutely. Well, on November 2nd, I know I will be saying a toast to you all and to everyone who's ever been involved in all this incredible research and furthering the, what we can do as humanity. So congratulations to you. I mean, to so many people, but... To the entire community. It takes a village. Truly it truly does. Well, I know I'll be speaking to you after November 2nd. So I'll be saying a toast to you as well. So on November 2nd, I will, listeners, you do it too. Everybody. So... Well, all cheers together. We'll be right back. Welcome back. As the saying goes, we mortals make plans and the gods laugh at them. To much fanfare early in 2024, Space Force Chief General Saltzman announced an upcoming futures command. And the goal of affirmation command was to keep a keen eye out on the horizon a decade or so out and spot promising future techs that the Space Force should develop in-house, so to speak, as well as identify how and where the commercial sector could fill any other capability gaps. It'd be the Space Force analog for other futures commands in other branches of the US military. Well, fast forward to early this month and the US Army officially sunset its own Army Futures Command. And with that, the writing seemed to be on the wall for the Space Force's own. This quote in a recent Breaking Defense story by an unnamed Pentagon official really says it all. And I quote, "Futures Command is dead." Well, it's not dead yet officially. It might be getting better and perhaps it could even go for a walk. It is on the chopping block, apparently, though. And it's not that the capability to spot future techs is not needed. It sounds like an internal reorg amid questions of efficiency around this command with some budget cut-up halooza is driving a lot of this discussion. So do not be at all surprised if you hear rather more officially quite soon that the Futures Command is passed on. It is no more. It has ceased to be. It has expired and gone to meet his maker. Apologies to Monty Python. It is an ex-futures command. And that's T-minus brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd 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. You could also fill out the survey and the show notes or just send us an email. 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 Eiben. Peter Kilpe is our publisher. And I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. I'll see you tomorrow. T-minus. T-minus. T-minus. T-minus. [BLANK_AUDIO]