[MUSIC] Today is December 5th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] The Wall Street Journal is reporting that OpenAI's CEO is looking into the possibility of building a rocket company and potentially developing data centers in space. SIDA Space has been named as a subcontractor supporting MOB/LOB space for a NASA CIVR award. NASA has extended its cooperative agreement with CASIS to manage the International Space Station National Laboratory through 2030. HACI 360 has been awarded a contract extension from the National Reconnaissance Office and the Commercial Systems Program Office to expand its ongoing work. Canada has announced its intention to contract MDA space to build, test, and launch an additional radar imaging satellite. [MUSIC] And we'll be joined by our colleagues at nasaspaceflight.com later in the show for the latest space traffic report. The team will be wrapping up the launch news from the last seven days and taking a look at what's to come in the week ahead. Stay with us for more on that after today's Intel briefing. [MUSIC] Happy Friday everybody! I hope you're having a great one. Thank you for joining me. Let's dive in. The Government of Canada has announced its intention to contract MDA space to build, test, and launch an additional radar imaging satellite. MDA space has been awarded a contract by Public Services and Procurement Canada on behalf of the Canadian Space Agency, valued at $44.7 million to procure and deliver critical, long lead parts in support of the radar-sat constellation mission, also known as RCM Replenishment Satellite Development. The Government of Canada further announced its intention to contract MDA space to build, test, and launch this additional satellite for the RCM. The contract for the full mission is expected to be awarded in 2026, subject to contract finalization and approvals. These contracts are part of the Government of Canada's 1.012 billion radar-sat plus initiative, which is a 15-year investment that the Canadian Space Agency announced in October 2023 to support immediate and future satellite Earth observation needs. The initiative includes funding for a replenishment satellite for the RCM, as well as funding to initiate the definition of a next-generation national sovereign synthetic aperture radar satellite system that will succeed the RCM. Hawkeye 360 has been awarded 23 months of dedicated funding from the National Reconnaissance Office and the Commercial Systems Program Office to expand its ongoing work. The contract expansion enables Hawkeye 360 to deliver new dedicated satellite technology, broaden the range of signals and frequencies of interest, integrate advanced AI capabilities, and provide greater speed and accuracy in support of critical mission needs tied to U.S.-European Command activities, operational readiness, and security assistance. NASA has extended its cooperative agreement with the Center for the Advancement of Science in Space, better known as CASIS, to manage the International Space Station National Laboratory through 2030. The ISS National Lab was established through an active U.S. Congress to open access and opportunity for researchers to leverage the unique space-based environment to bring value to humanity and build a robust market in low Earth orbit. CASIS has managed the ISS National Lab since 2011, and it is responsible for up to 50% of NASA's flight allocation for space station cargo resupply missions and up to 50% of U.S. operating crew time dedicated to supporting science. And you can learn more about CASIS and the ISS National Lab in our monthly segment with Patrick O'Neill, coming up next on December 15th. CIDAS Space has been named as subcontractor, supporting MOB/LOB Space for a NASA Small Business Innovation Research Award or CIDR award. The CIDR covers a six-month design study that will focus on designing and planning a mission to host an advanced space-based 4D radar system on board CIDAS' LizzieSat satellite platform, delivering space domain awareness data services to track centimeters scale orbital debris. MOB/LOB Space will receive $173,000 to develop an adaptive electronically scanned array radar as part of NASA's Space Sustainability Strategy Program. CIDAS Space will provide input on host spacecraft specifications, including power and guidance navigation and control systems, to ensure seamless integration of the radar payload aboard LizzieSat. And for our last story, could OpenAI's CEO Sam Altman be making moves in space? Well, the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Altman is looking into the possibility of building a rocket company and potentially developing data centers in space. He also reportedly held investment talks with Rocket Startup Stokespace. The journal reported that people close to discussions say that the talks began this summer and picked up in the fall but are no longer active. It does feel like the billionaire race to space is on in earnest. Space data centers are the new hot ticket. That wraps up today's Top 5 Stories, my friends. Stay with us for the latest launch news from our partners at nasaspaceflight.com. But before we get to the Space Traffic Report, M2K Senior Producer Alice Karuth joins us now with a look at the other stories that are making today's headlines. Alice? Yes, indeed, Maria. RTX's Raytheon is working with AWS to improve services for space customers. A little space adjacent news, their hypersonics company, Castilian, has closed a $350 million series B. They're working on hypersonic weapons as opposed to transportation. And lastly, NASA and industry partners will fly and operate a commercial robotic arm in lower orbit through the Fly Foundation Robotics mission set to launch in late 2027. You can read more about those stories and all the others mentioned throughout this episode by following the links in today's selected reading section of our show notes. Tomorrow, T-minus crew be sure to check your podcast feed for T-minus Deep Space. It's our special edition Saturday show, where we share an in-depth interview and dive a bit deeper into fascinating topics with brilliant guests. And on T-minus Deep Space tomorrow, we have Brian Whedon from the Aerospace Corporation joining me to discuss the Wulff Amendment. Should it be repealed or should we stick to the 2011 policy? Well, that is all up for debate on T-minus Deep Space tomorrow. Don't miss it! Let me hand you over now to nasaspaceflight.com with the latest launch news. I'm Elysia Siegel for NSF, and this is your weekly space traffic report for T-minus Space. We started off the week at China's Wenchang Space Port with the launch of a Chongjiang 7A on November 30 at 1220 UTC. The rocket was carrying the Xi Jinping 28 experimental test satellite to geosynchronous transfer orbit. That launch from China was the 31st and last orbital launch of November worldwide. The month of November thus became the first calendar month to feature more launches than days. SpaceX dominated the schedule yet again in November with 13 of those 31 launches by Falcon 9, putting the company on track to launch more than 165 times by the end of the year, very close to their goal of 170 launches in 2025. China followed behind with nine launches in November and is now close to 80 launches in total this year. And with these 31 launches in November, in 2025 as a whole, the world has now seen 284 launches. If we go through a similar month in December, the total of worldwide launches should surpass the 300 mark and maybe even go over 310. If so, this would be the first time in spaceflight history that we have more than 300 launches from Earth attempting to reach orbit. And it does seem like December will be just as active, if not more active than November, as we've already had quite a number of launches just in the first week of the month. On December 1, we had two launches, the first one being, of course, a Starlink. Liftoff took place at 744 UTC from Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Falcon 9 booster for this mission, B1095, helped to push 29 Starlink V2 mini satellites into orbit while on its fourth flight. Following stage separation, it successfully returned to SpaceX's drone ship just read the instructions for future reuse. Later in the day, at 1721 UTC, we had the launch of a Vega-C from French Guiana, carrying the CompSat 7 satellite into Sunsynchronous orbit for the Korean Aerospace Research Institute. CompSat 7 is a small two-tonne Earth observation satellite from South Korea, which carries a high-resolution imaging system capable of capturing photos of Earth of up to 30 centimeters per pixel. On December 2, we had yet another two launches, both of them carrying Starlink satellites. The first one took place at 528 UTC from Vandenberg, carrying 27 Starlink V2 mini satellites into low Earth orbit. The first stage for that mission, B1081, was flying for the 20th time and it successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship, of course, I still love you. The other Starlink launch took place from Florida later that day, at 2218 UTC, carrying 29 Starlink V2 mini satellites. The first stage, B1077, carried out its 25th flight on this launch and successfully landed on SpaceX's drone ship, a shortfall of Gravitas. December 3 saw the debut flight of Landspace's Juche-3 rocket. Lift-off took place on December 3 at 4 o'clock UTC from Site 96B at the Jochuan Satellite Launch Center in China. For this first flight, Juche-3 carried no payload as it was a test mission. The first stage is nine engines burned for the entire planned ascent portion, the two stages separated, and the single vacuum-optimized engine on the second stage ignited for approximately six minutes, successfully inserting itself into orbit. And while the main mission objective of reaching orbit was accomplished, the experimental booster landing was not. Juche-3 is a medium-lift launch vehicle designed to run on liquid methane as its fuel, built with stainless steel for easier manufacturing, and has a reusable first stage. For this mission, the booster was planned to land at a landing pad about 390 kilometers downrange in the desert. Videos and pictures on social media show that the first stage successfully survived reentry, but was quickly engulfed in flames shortly after starting its landing burn. Despite the unsuccessful landing, it still impacted the ground right next to the landing pad, showing that it was right on track. Not a bad first landing attempt. Juche-3's debut marks the start of a new chapter in China's own spaceflight ambitions, with the very first attempt at orbital booster recovery. Although it wasn't a success, land space came really close to an intact landing, and there's no doubt that future flights of Juche-3 will have a much higher chance of success. This rocket is also not the only one attempting reusability, just the first to give it a try. Right on the heels of Juche-3 in the coming weeks and months, there's a long list of Chinese rockets waiting to debut, including the Changjiang-12A, which is set to debut this month, and which will also feature a booster landing and recovery test on its very first mission. Whether you're excited about these developments or not, China developing its own reusable rockets is now a matter of when, not if, and the country is moving quickly in that direction. And to wrap up the week, we had another Starlink launch on December 4th at 2042 UTC from Vandenberg, carrying 28 Starlink V2 mini-satellites into orbit. The mission was supported by Booster B 1097 on its fourth flight, and it successfully returned to SpaceX's drone ship Of Course I Still Love You. This mission marks SpaceX's 600th launch overall, a number that includes the five launches of Falcon 1, 11 Falcon Heavy launches, 11 Starship launches, and a whopping 573 Falcon 9 launches. Next week will be even busier, with notices indicating that there will be as many as eight launches from China in the next seven days. We may also have the debut flight of the Changjiang 12A at some point next week, but we don't know for sure yet. Next space flight's website and app may help you keep track of that once we know for sure though, so be sure to check it out. SpaceX is also hoping to launch five Falcon 9 rockets next week, with four of them carrying Starlink satellites. The only non-Starlink launch will be the NRL-77 mission for the National Reconnaissance Office. This one will feature a return of the booster back to land in Florida, so if you're in the area, expect sonic booms. And of course, we'll cover it here on our channel as well. Rocket Lab is also planning to launch up to two electron rockets from New Zealand next week, the first carrying out the Raise and Shine mission for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency. The second mission is currently a mystery, but hazard notices indicate that it may happen just a couple days after the first one. And aside from launches, we'll also see the return of the Soyuz MS-27 spacecraft and its crew of three, Roscosmos Cosmonauts Sergei Rijikov and Alexi Zubritsky, and NASA astronaut Johnny Kim. I'm Alicia Siegel for NSF, and that's your weekly space traffic report. Now back to T-Minus Space. We'll be right back. Welcome back. If you've been with the show for a while, then you know that we are big fans of Ham Radio. Our sister podcast, the Cyberwire Daily's host, Dave Bittner, is a licensed amateur radio operator. So this story is for Dave and all the other Ham Radio operators out there. A 1U CubeSat, launched from the International Space Station earlier this week, is carrying a folded up retro reflective laser light sail hidden inside our four tiny chipset flight computers. And the students at Cornell University are asking for help from the global Ham radio community to catch the signals that these chipsets will beam back to Earth. And those signals will be using the LoRa digital protocol on 437.400 MHz. The sail is expected to deploy during the upcoming days, and here is the twist, because you knew there was one. Due to atmospheric drag, it won't stay aloft for long. Maybe 48 hours tops. That's your window, Earthhams. So if you have a satellite ready Ham radio station dust off that dish or high gain antenna, the signals are from a 100 mW transmitter, weak but within the range of prepared receivers. The ground team has even posted LoRa parameters and decoder files on the chipset ground station guide. So once you decode the telemetry, make sure to send it in and help chart the performance of this first mission for Cornell's light sail plus chipset combo. And if you do participate, please tell us all about it. We'd love to hear more. We'd love to hear from you after all. Just send us an email to space@n2k.com and we will be sure to share your story on the show in the coming weeks. And that's T-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 are 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, 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 Kilpie is our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. Have a great weekend! [Music] T-minus. [BLANK_AUDIO]
