Intuitive Machines’ prime moves in space.

Today is November 4th, 2025. I'm Alice Carruth and this is T-minus. Barter space industries and United semiconductors have announced a multi-flight joint development agreement to produce semiconductors in orbit for use on Earth. Ariane 6 is ready to take off from Europe's space port in French Guyana. The UK House of Laws has published the Space Economy Act Now or Lose Out report. The Progressive Policy Institute has warned the European Commission that the EU Space Act initiative is doomed to be uncompetitive globally and will put a drag on America's industry as well. Intuitive Machines has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lanteris space systems for $800 million. T-minus host Maria Varmarzis will be chatting with John Wensveen, president of the International Space University about a new AI in space program being conducted in the DC area this week. John will be sharing more details about that opportunity and further career development courses after today's headlines. So let's dive in shall we? Intuitive Machines has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Lanteris space systems, formerly Maxar space systems, for $800 million. Intuitive Machines says that the strategic acquisition positions the company as a next-generation space prime. The transaction is priced at $800 million, consisting of $450 million in cash and $350 million in Intuitive Machines Class A common stock, subject to adjustment. The transaction is expected to close in the first quarter of 2026, subject to customary regulatory approvals and closing conditions. Cam Geferian, chairman of Intuitive Machines said that "Intuitive Machines' vision is to expand its space infrastructure services from Leo to Geo beyond the Moon and to Mars. In a time where we see strong convergence of commercial, civil and national security space, this strategic acquisition is a transformative step towards realising that vision." The combined entity revenue is expected to exceed $850 million. DC Bay's Progressive Policy Institute, or PPI, has provided comments to the European Commission on the EU's Space Act initiative. The EU's Space Act, as a quick reminder, is a legislative initiative by the European Commission that introduces a framework for space activities across the Union. The proposal, launched in June of this year, aims to ensure safety, resilience and environmental sustainability while boosting the competitiveness of the EU space sector. PPI warns that the EU Space Act does not support a strong US-EU partnership in space. In the public comments to the European Commission, PPI states that the new legislation would bog down industry with a laundry list of new regulatory requirements that will increase the cost of manufacturing a satellite by 3 to 10%. It also warns that there will be additional cost increases likely imposed by the new compliance requirements and a set licensing fee that ranges from the hundreds of thousands to millions of dollars on top of those percentage-based increases. PPI says that the price increases will not make the European space sector more competitive or innovative. Beyond the impact on the European market, PPI says the initiative imposes its long list of requirements on any company doing business in the EU, some of which are not yet feasible and which in total amount to a non-tariff barrier. The complaint even states that there is clear disproportionate targeting of US companies with the new legislation. The European Space Agency has stated that the goal of the EU Space Act is to reduce foreign dependencies within the European space sector. PPI calls on the European Commission to take a holistic look at what's absolutely necessary for this regulatory regime and dramatically simplify the proposal or, better yet, heed Finland and Sweden's call to skip binding mandates and focus on support and incentive measures. They warn that otherwise the European Union space industry is doomed to be uncompetitive globally and will put a drag on America's industry as well. I guess time will tell. The EU Space Act is about building sovereign capabilities on the continent, a sentiment echoed in the UK House of Lords publication, the space economy act now or lose out. The paper states that the government needs to take action if the UK is to be a winner in the new space race. The report, which was compiled after holding 24 evidence sessions with 106 witnesses, found that the government's strategy towards space does not provide enough clarity to industry and academia and that the 2021 national space strategy has been insufficiently implemented. UK-based space companies struggle to scale up to become international competitors due to insufficient access to capital. Shifts in space policy have taken place around the globe, raising questions about the UK's international partnerships in space. Maintaining the safety of the space environment is essential to the operation of the space economy. The report recommends that the government provides a coherent, strategic direction for the space sector and publishes clear delivery plans for the core national space capabilities. Reforms the UK space funding model to allow firms to grow and scale up, shifting from a grant-based approach to a government procurement-based approach. Assessors wear its international efforts should be concentrated and ensures that space partnerships are a clear consideration in the UK's wider foreign policy development and continues to promote space safety and sustainability through international forums and by seeking solutions for space debris. Staying in Europe, Ariane 6 is ready to take off again later today. The team has completed a launch readiness review for the VA265 mission, which will launch from Europe's spaceport in French Guyana at 6.03pm local time. Ariane 6 is carrying the Sentinel-1D developed by Thales Elanio Space for the European Commission under contract with the European Space Agency. The satellite is part of the EU's Copernicus programme and will join the Sentinel-1 mission to deliver high-resolution synthetic aperture radar images of Earth's surface whenever needed, in all weathers, day and night. This service is used by disaster response teams, environmental agencies, maritime authorities, climate scientists and the wider Earth observation user community worldwide. We wish all involved the best of luck with the launch. Varda Space Industries and United Semiconductors have announced a multi-flight joint development agreement to produce semiconductors in orbit for use on Earth. United Semiconductors has already developed a process for commercial orbital manufacturing of crystals for high throughput production of semiconductor materials on the International Space Station. Those materials are used for the next generation autonomous systems, sensing artificial intelligence, aerospace and defence components. Varda's capsules offer capabilities for rapid iteration, testing and production beyond human stations and can scale infinitely and quickly by flying more frequently. Varda has successfully completed three missions and the fourth W-4 is currently in orbit. A fifth mission will launch in the coming weeks and four more are expected to launch and return in 2026. The press release did not state when a Varda United Semiconductors mission will be conducted. That concludes today's intelligence briefing but hey team Miners listeners, Maria and I are both attending events this week. Maria is at the Data Tribes Cyber Innovation Day in DC today and I'll be at the Space Tech El Paso conference tomorrow. There'll be a lot of moments from both events that we want to share with you that just can't make it into the daily show. But we will post them on Instagram. We are @teaminersdaily if you want to see some exclusive videos and photos there as well as some behind the scenes moments from both events. Hope to see you there. [Music] Our host Maria Varmazis is recently caught up with ISU President John Vensveen. John's shared a little about his background and what attracted him to the International Space University. Okay I'll do the quick quick pitch. So, border raised in Vancouver, Canada and pursued my education in the UK ultimately ended up in the United States and interestingly I now reside in France for the majority of my time as the president of the International Space University and ISU was created literally as the world's first and only space university today. 38 years in existence and we're primarily known for our space studies programs that are interdisciplinary nature and truly the only ones in the world that do that and we have over 6,000 global alumni spread across the space sector and we continue to grow. John, I've spoken to so many ISU alums over the years in my job here so it's kind of a treat for me to speak to you now. Sort of the keystone piece of people I've been trying to talk to so John it's genuinely really nice to meet you and congratulations on being at your post now for over a year. I imagine it's been a really interesting time. Yes, started in September 1, 2024 but a little quick piece of background on my pathway here. I tried to become the president of ISU not once, not twice but three times and the third time I was lucky so it shows you that I'm very passionate about what ISU is and the direction that it's going to be going but I finally made it here. I was going to say what was it about ISU that made you so really passionate about it? Well, I understood the three visionaries that came out of MIT, had this vision for what space was going to look like and they fought beyond the public sector where nobody ever realized it would be privatized and the commercialization of and I could see into that crystal ball and I saw ISU evolving but not at the pace that I thought it should that was in line with this new space economy. It was still so much focused on the public sector which is why it was invented and I realized that if I had the opportunity to be in the driver's seat and we put a good team together that we could truly build this to accelerate and leapfrog into the future and then reverse engineer different steps of success that would allow us to truly support the space economy as it continues to evolve and here we are and they should have hired me 10 years ago. Well, they have a definite, things are definitely progressing really fast under your leadership so I'm so glad to get to talk to you today and talking about moving things quickly into the future. ISU has a new course about AI in space that I'm doing a poor job pitching, I'd rather hear it from you. So that's really what's bringing us together today is to learn a little bit about this because I think AI is mentioned in every other interview I do at this point. So I think it's important to get a little bit of background as to why we're delivering this course and you're correct. AI is used in everyday language and I would say that it's overused and probably not understood fully and it's still at the foothills of what it's going to be and AI has been around literally for decades only we haven't really recognized it but here it is and at ISU we developed something called the Moonshot 2030 strategic plan and looking five years into the future when we created it a year ago not because it's a five-year strategic plan but we picked 2030 because we believe that's the intersection or collision point in which humans and emerging technologies literally crash with each other and technology continues to evolve at a pace that's much faster than humans have the ability to adapt. So with that we've been looking at emerging technologies to determine how we bring that into all of our programs academic and professional in nature and one of the roots of success for ISU or what we call executive space courses and we have to use that term lightly because it's not just focused on executives it's space courses that's really focused at a very diverse background of individuals and this is our first true defined emerging technology program that we're putting together and it's called AI in Space it's taking place November 3rd to the 7th in South Laurel, Maryland with a partner capital technology university and it's going to be an incredible course that brings in some very relevant keynote speakers and presenters who's who of AI if you will and there are several around the world but we've been able to handpick some of those individuals to really bring an interdisciplinary approach to what AI is and how it applies to space here on earth but also in low earth orbit middle earth orbit and geostationary orbit so all the different environments that literally make up space and you'll hear people talking about the space industry and this course will focus more on the space economy because space is no longer an industry just like technology once was an industry vertical now it's not we want to make sure that we're bringing relevant programming to the needs of the workforce for the new skilling upskilling and reskilling and this will cater to a diverse audience from existing entrepreneurs, business, public sector individuals and then just those that are generally interested in AI in space or just AI and it will be an accelerated program that gives you information on the trends, challenges, the opportunities and the different types of strategies that need to be developed in order to apply that to space. So tell me a little bit about maybe the people that you think would get the most out of a course like this who you're specifically looking to join. So it's an interesting question because I think you also have to look at who's delivering the program at the same time and one of the roots of our success is not to bring in a typical typical academic professor to teach a program. We're utilizing public and private sector individuals that are true hands-on professionals and leaders within this sector including a major founder Ken Kefarian if you're familiar with him and he was co-creator of Axiom Space and Intuitive Machines as an example. So bringing those experiences into the classroom is one of among many that will be joining but the target market is truly, you mentioned one of the words, entrepreneur. So if you're interested in a startup or a scale up or trying to identify what the opportunity is or how you bring AI into an existing organization whether you're a legacy organization or a relatively new company you're going to be able to get some education and awareness that you're not going to find in a textbook or even online. These are coming from real practitioners. When you look at the private sector and space companies generally speaking it's one of the top two things that keeps the CEO up at night. It's cybersecurity or defense related security technologies and AI and the talent workforce that goes behind the organization and the huge gap that currently exists with skill sets including those with the knowledge to apply AI in that world. On the public sector side it's looking at space agencies generally speaking and they're a little bit slower to grow than the private sector but they have to accelerate and become more intrapreneurial in nature to grow those organizations from within. So there's definitely a target demographic there and then it's the general public at large. Again those that are just interested in space and AI and what that means for the future and maybe how they can not just learn from it but also contribute to it. So I would say that's very much open to anybody but I think those that are within the private sector are probably going to have the most to gain because they have the fastest to accelerate in terms of access without a lot of the bureaucracy that maybe public sector organizations have although it's just as important to them. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. And there's just so much happening in the realm of where I see AI being integrated in especially in the private sector. It does kind of boggle the mind but yeah anyway I wanted to make sure I asked so you mentioned that ISU is doing a number of courses of this type with AI being one area of emphasis. Is there any maybe hint or teaser of other areas that you all are looking to expand into? I'm very curious there. Yes, absolutely. So we have an existing menu of programs now and what I'm doing is dividing that into appetizers, entrees and desserts based upon what industry is demanding and then making that global in nature. So what we're in the process of doing is creating what I'll call satellite campuses or regional hubs around the world that localizes the education and training needs based upon the demographics of that region while tying all that in globally so that it's more of a hub and spoke network. So you'll see more generic programs and then more customized programs based on need but as it relates to emerging technologies this is a huge priority for us so it's not just AI but it's data analytics, it's robotics, applying it to different sectors that are extremely important right now like health, medicine and life sciences. So shaping the content more into the needs of subject matter where there needs to be some really quick solutions if we're going to accelerate our pathway in space again whether it's here on earth or in outer space especially for earth observation and the potential colonization of new space stations and lunar and Martian environments and then trying to prioritize where those needs are so that we're giving the best results and content to the audience. Fantastic. Well John, I know we're coming up on time. I want to make sure if there's anything else you want to mention to the audience that I give you that opportunity, free space. Well I think it's important to note that we're just at the beginning of space. We haven't even touched the final frontier to quote some space TV shows and that things are going to happen very very quickly and I think that the two biggest hindrances that we have to look at is making sure that we have the regulation infrastructure in place to be able to allow space to accelerate so don't work around regulations, creek regulations that support space and then how do we accelerate people into the workforce for do scaling, upskilling and reskilling which is a subject that's probably the most important from where I sit because if you don't have space people you don't have space and sometimes that is neglected in one of the first budget cuts on the HR side and training side and we can't underestimate that that is the most valuable asset that we have people. We'll be right back. Welcome back. UNUSA which stands for the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs has just announced the appointment of a new champion for space. The role is designed to turbocharge outreach, raise awareness of space's benefits for all of humanity and shine a spotlight on global collaboration between Earth's atmosphere. That's quite the challenge don't you think? So who have they chosen to lead the charge? Why the most charismatic British professor of particle physics of course? Professor Brian Cox. Fun fact, before his physics career took off, Brian was a keyboard player in the 1990s UK pop band D-Rheem known for the hit Things Can Only Get Better. It was used by labourers their anthem in the 1997 campaign to elect Tony Blair but I digress. If you don't know who Brian Cox is then you're in the minority. His Universal Adventures in Space and Time Tour sold over 11,000 tickets for a single show and over 158,000 tickets on the tour in total. We think he's an excellent candidate to champion space for the United Nations. So what's on the agenda for our new champion? Expect big picture stuff. Public awareness campaigns, high visibility partnerships, maybe even live events where space meets everyday life. And possibly walking the fine line between cool space stuff and serious global policy. He's already proven that his creations can help win elections so why not? Congrats to Professor Cox. We wish him the best of luck in his new role. And that's Team Minus brought to you by N2K Cyberwire. We'd love to know what you think of this podcast. Your feedback ensures we deliver the insights that keep you a step ahead in the rapidly changing space industry. If you like the 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 4 Discovery and Connection, we bring you the people, technology and ideas shaping the future of secure innovation. Learn how at N2K.com. N2K's producer is Liz Stokes. We're mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben. Peter Kilpie is our publisher. Maria Varmazis is our host and I'm senior producer Alice Carruth. Thanks for listening. Team Minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]