Canada’s MILSATCOM in the Arctic.

[MUSIC] Today is December 10th, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] The Federal Communications Commission has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking aimed at overhauling and modernizing the space and earth station licensing framework. [MUSIC] Chinese taekwonauts on board the Tiangong Space Station have installed space debris protection. [MUSIC] China said in new record launching three rockets in less than 19 hours. [MUSIC] SpaceX launched the NRL-77 mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida yesterday. One. NDA Space has signed a partnership agreement with the Government of Canada and Telesat Corporation to develop and deliver military satellite communications capabilities. Three more. [MUSIC] Happy Wednesday, everybody. We're going to be exploring black holes later in the program. The European Space Agency said that the black hole inside a distant spiral galaxy is creating wind that measures at 60,000 kilometers per second. Stick around for more on that after today's Intel briefing. Thanks for joining me today, everybody. We are kicking off today with more developments from our neighbors in the north in Canada. NDA Space has signed a partnership agreement with the Government of Canada and Telesat Corporation to develop and deliver military satellite communication capabilities. And no, this is not a repeat of Friday's story about radar sat. This is actually a totally separate contract. This new contract is part of the Enhanced Satellite Communication Project, Polar, which goes by ESCPP and is now one of the key procurements being led by Canada's newly formed Defense Investment Agency. ESCPP aims to significantly enhance the ability of the Royal Canadian Air Force and the broader Canadian Armed Forces to conduct sovereignty operations in the Arctic, supporting the defense of Canada and of North America. The project will deliver secure wideband and narrowband satellite communications capabilities that are essential to fulfilling the Canadian Armed Forces Continental Defense mandate. It is also leveraging the Canadian industry to create high quality jobs across the country while unlocking a multi-billion dollar investment in Canada's defense sector. The Government of Canada selected MDA Space and Telesat as strategic partners because of their combined expertise in the secure satellite communications space and in space-based infrastructure. Canadian government documents indicate that the ESCPP project could have a price tag of over $5 billion Canadian or the equivalent of $3.6 billion US. And if you are interested in learning about what other projects are going on in Canada right now, it is a very busy country, then definitely join me for this Saturday's Deep Space, where I will be talking to the CEO and founder of the Canadian Space Mining Corporation known as CSMC about their ongoing nuclear and quantum projects. Let's move on now. SpaceX launched the NRL-77 mission on a Falcon 9 rocket from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station in Florida yesterday. NRL-77 was the third mission that Falcon 9 launched in 2025 on behalf of the Space Systems Command and National Reconnaissance Office, better known as the NRO. The mission carried a national security payload designed, built, and operated by NRO. And as you might imagine, there are really no further details that we can share about what the mission entails, but it does have a cool patch which features a flying squirrel, along with the words "Another one gone, today, tomorrow, and beyond." And why a flying squirrel? Well, NRO says it's a symbol of hard work and endurance, always active, gathering foundational knowledge from the space domain for the nation and its allies. Not exactly necessarily how we picture flying squirrels, but maybe it's up there to gather some interesting nuts. Anyway, and we do think that while we are seeing an incredible launch cadence here in the United States, but we are not the only country to see record-breaking launch numbers lately. China launched three rockets in less than 19 hours recently. They are not far behind the overall launch numbers that we are seeing over here stateside, clocking in 83 launches so far in 2025. The launches from China all started on Monday with a Long March 6A rocket from Taiyuan Satellite Launch Center in northern China. That mission successfully sent a batch of broadband satellites to low-earth orbit for the Guiluang Mega Constellation. And then, a few hours later, the mysterious Yao Gan-47 spacecraft took flight atop a Long March 4B from Juchang Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert. Yao Gan-47 is a classified satellite that will be used by the Chinese military. The tripleheader then wrapped up on Tuesday morning with the launch of another classified satellite known as TJSW22 on a Long March 3B from Shichang Satellite Launch Center in western China. China's commercial spaceflight company CAS space also successfully launched nine satellites on Wednesday from the Dongfang Commercial Space Innovation Pilot Zone near the Juchang Satellite Launch Center in northwest China. The rocket Lijian-1, also known as Kinetica-1Y11, lifted off at 12.03 pm Beijing time, carrying nine satellites, including one from the United Arab Emirates. And speaking of space news from China, the Chinese manned space program has said that the Taikonauts onboard the Tiangong Space Station have installed space debris protection. The orbiting station is no stranger to the dangers of space debris, as you might remember. It is believed that one of the Shenzhou capsules was damaged by space junk in recent months. The Chinese astronauts completed an EVA to install space debris protection devices on the space station and replace the insulation cover on a thermal control adapter. The spacewalk was completed by Zhang Lü and Wu Fei, with Wu now holding the record as the youngest Chinese astronaut to perform an EVA. The crew also inspected and photographed the damaged window of the Shenzhou-20 spacecraft, which is still docked at Tiangong, and is waiting to be sent back uncrewed to a landing site in China, where it will be further examined. The US Federal Communication Commission has issued a notice of proposed rulemaking known as NPRM that proposes to overhaul and modernize the commission's space and earth station licensing process. It aims to help ensure that new space-based industries, space exploration capabilities, and cutting-edge defense systems are pioneered in America rather than by our adversaries. In particular, the NPRM proposes to develop a licensing assembly line designed so applications can be routed along different paths and segmented for review based on specific aspects of a request. They say that this new process would set the stage for ongoing efficiency gains and would provide greater predictability and flexibility for applicants. The proposed changes include establishing a review process that facilitates what it calls "permissionless innovation," overhauling application materials to streamline processing, and expanding the flexibility for applicants and licensees in designing and operating their systems. The FCC says that it expects, like actual assembly lines, that the space review processes can be dramatically accelerated while improving the quality of the commission's space licensing work. The FCC will accept public comments on the proposed rule changes until January 20th. [Music] And that wraps up today's Intel briefing. Make sure to head to the selected reading section of our show notes to learn more about all of the stories that have been mentioned in today's episode. Hi there! Whether you've been listening to T-minus from the very start, or if this is your very first episode tuning in, I want to thank you for listening. If you like what we're doing here at T-minus, your support will help us grow and bring you more of the insights and guest interviews that you enjoy. So if you could take a moment and leave a five-star rating and short review on whatever podcast app you use, I would appreciate it so much. In your review, tell us about a recent interview that you really loved, like maybe the one that we ran recently about building out modular orbital data centers. It was super cool, right? That kind of feedback really does help, and I wouldn't be much of a podcast host if I didn't drop an obligatory like and subscribe now and then after all. So please do, and thank you. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. At the heart of a distant spiral galaxy called NGC 3783, astronomers observed something kind of wild, a supermassive black hole that's roughly the mass of a mere 30 million suns. The image of this spiral galaxy captured by NASA and ESA through the Hubble telescope observed a bright x-ray flare believed to be unleashed by a blast of cosmic winds, traveling at up to 60,000 kilometers per second. That is roughly 130 million miles per hour for us Yankees, which is about 20% the speed of light. And what makes this discovery remarkable isn't just the speed, although yeah, it's pretty remarkable. The winds formed in just a single day after the x-ray flare. Scientists believe what triggered it was a sudden untwisting of the black hole's tangled magnetic field, a phenomenon that is similar to solar flares on our sun, but on a scale that it is so, but on a scale so vast that it is almost too big to imagine. And something like this is definitely more than just a cosmic fireworks show. Such ultrafast winds from the region around an active galactic nucleus can have wide ranging effects because they influence how matter moves in a galaxy, how galaxies evolve over time, and how black hole activity shapes the cosmos. Observing this phenomenon in real time does give astronomers fresh insight into how these massive engines of destruction actually work. And let's be honest, myself included, everyone's a little obsessed with black holes. I mean, what are they? How do they form? Am I ever going to get swallowed up by one? Well, maybe, maybe, maybe. But every little nugget of knowledge that we can get from these observations helps us learn more about them, and we can definitively say that there aren't any near us at the moment, at least not on a scale that matters. So the latter question still has a firm no as its answer. Although that didn't stop me from worrying about it when I was a little kid. I'm sure I'm not the only one. 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. 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 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. You're 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. We'll see you tomorrow. [Music] T-minus. [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]