Today is December 3, 2025. I'm Alice Carruth and this is T-minus. A cosmonaut has been removed from the next SpaceX flight to the ISS for reportedly violating the space space system. The maiden test of land space's due to a three rocket ended in failure. Nuclear energy startup Antares has raised $96 million in a Series V funding round. The US administration's nominee for the NASA leadership role Jared Isakman appeared in front of Congress today. The UK Space Agency announces new funding to drive sovereign space innovation. Happy Wednesday everyone. Maria Varmaz is with us back on the mic tomorrow. She's been in Estonia this week to witness a NATO cyber security exercise. I'll let her share more about her travels. I just wanted to say thank you for sticking with me for the first part of this week. Let's dive into today's headline shall we? Spacecom Expo, not to be confused with the Spacecom coming up in Orlando in January, kicked off today in Glasgow. The event is considered a major gathering for the UK space sector featuring a conference, exhibition and networking opportunities for industry leaders, government officials and innovators. The space industry also used the conference to announce new funding to drive innovation and support the space sector. The agency announced £17 million for 17 UK space projects through its National Space Innovation Program. The investment aims to accelerate breakthrough technologies, boost commercialization and reinforce the UK's global leadership in space innovation. The selected projects span five themes critical to the UK's space ambitions - space domain awareness, in-orbit servicing and manufacturing, earth observation, satellite communications and position navigation and timing. Together, these projects will aim to deliver transformative technologies to enhance climate monitoring, improve connectivity, enhance sustainable satellite operations and strengthen national security. And of course, Scotland's space sector will receive a major funding boost as part of that funding announcement. Scottish universities will collaborate with partners nationwide to receive a share of £3.8 million from the National Space Innovation Program on technologies for secure communications, environmental monitoring and navigation. UKSA also announced £1.1 million in funding for space clusters of Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales. Space Scotland will receive £350,000 to strengthen its capabilities in earth observation and in-orbit servicing and manufacturing by fostering new partnerships between academia, industry and government. The funding will also support innovative non-space companies to pivot their technologies and capabilities into the UK's growing space market. Congrats to all. I may be a wee bit biased, but it's great to see the UK starting to flex its space abilities. Back to my other home country, the US administration's nominee for the NASA leadership role, Jared Isaacman, appeared in front of Congress today. The billionaire private astronaut Isaacman was expected to tell senators that he wanted to expand investments in nuclear propulsion and commercial efforts to help the US return to the moon before China, according to prepared testimony seen by Reuters. The news outlets shared that Isaacman wrote for the Senate hearing, "America will return to the moon before our great rival and we will establish an enduring presence to understand and realise the scientific, economic and national security value on the lunar surface. We will bring you more of his testimony on tomorrow's show." Nuclear energy startup Antares has closed a series B funding round, raising $96 million. The startup, which has now raised a total of $130 million since it began operations two years ago, is working to develop resilient energy for the Department of War and NASA. The new round consists of $71 million in new equity capital and $25 million in debt for equipment, factory build-out and uranium procurement. The company's CEO says that the funding will be deployed towards hardware, subsystem testing, fuel fabrication, manufacturing and the infrastructure required to turn on a reactor and lay the foundation for even more progress to come. He says that the Antares reactor will uniquely address needs across defence, space and critical industries, while also serving as a platform for scale-up to higher power. We're heading over to China now and commercial space company Landspace's latest test flight. It's not good news for them. The maiden test of the company's due choice A3 rocket ended in failure on Wednesday. The Chinese rocket company had been aiming to become the third company after SpaceX and Blue Origin to successfully test a reusable orbital spacecraft. The state news agency reported that the rocket was not able to complete a controlled landing following an initial launch. It shared that "an abnormal combustion event occurred during the process preventing a soft landing on the recovery pad," continuing that "the recovery test failed and the specific cause is still under further analysis and investigation." And here's a cautionary tale for all of you dealing with AITA. I guess that's pretty much everyone working with space hardware and software. Russian media site The Insider is reporting that a cosmonaut has been removed from the next SpaceX flight to the ISS due to violating the international traffic in arms regulations. Russian cosmonaut Oleg Artemyev was removed from Crew 12, which is due to launch in February. Officially, Roskosmos says that he's been reassigned, but The Insider says that the cosmonaut allegedly photographed SpaceX materials and then "used his phone to export classified information." Artemyev, who was training at the SpaceX base in Hawthorne, California, has reportedly been suspended. The cosmonaut allegedly photographed SpaceX engines and other internal SpaceX materials with his phone and then removed the materials from the base. So don't be tempted, folks. There's a reason for having to do the background checks before you go into facilities and a reason behind them banning photos inside them. That wraps up today's Top 5 stories, but stay with us for more on why porches have stopped working in Russia and what that has to do with space. And a reminder that you can read more about all the stories mentioned throughout this episode by following the links in the selected reading section, which is available on the platform that you listen to us through, or on our website, space.ntuk.com. We have regular segments that we air on T-minus, where we have experts that join us monthly to talk in depth about their areas of expertise. And if you've got burning questions, our guest experts may have answers for you. Law, cybersecurity, intelligence, policy and innovation launch. Got questions on any of those? Send them to us, space@n2k.com, and we'll share them with our segment host to answer them on the show. Chances are whatever's on your mind is top of mind of other listeners too. Don't be shy and thank you. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. In a story that screams how reliant we are on space-based transactions, our sister podcast, The Cyberwire, shared an article that had us all feeling sorry for Porsche owners. I mean, who knew? Dave Bittner joins us with more details. And finally, hundreds of Porsche owners across Russia found their high-performance machines reduced to very expensive lawn ornaments last week, as a factory-installed satellite security system abruptly stopped talking to the cars it was meant to protect. Drivers from Moscow to Krasnodar reported sudden engine shutdowns and fuel blockages, prompting a rush of service requests for Rolf, the country's largest dealership group. The outage appears tied to the vehicle tracking system, which some owners coaxed back to life by rebooting, disabling or performing the timeless ritual of leaving the battery unplugged for 10 hours. A Rolf representative floated the idea of deliberate interference, though no evidence supports it. Porsche has stayed silent, still unable to divest its remaining Russian subsidiaries two years after suspending operations. So be sure that when you buy a high-end vehicle that your nation doesn't fall out of favour with the manufacturer, you wouldn't want to lose the ability to drive said vehicle because of space connection issues, would you? [Music] And that's Team Iron is 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 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 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 N2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth. Thanks for listening. [Music] E-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
