Starfish Space completes an autonomous RPO in LEO.

Today is December 15, 2025. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. The US Space Force has confirmed that it will not partner with the National Reconnaissance Office on next-generation surveillance satellites. Virgin Galactic is partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to advance high-altitude image capture technology. Mission Space has announced its intention to launch its second on-orbit payload with rogue space systems. Rocket Lab has marked a milestone with the successful deployment of its first dedicated launch for JAXA. Starfish Space has successfully completed an autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations mission in low-earth orbit with Impulse Space. Stay with us after today's Intel briefing, by the way, for our monthly catch-up with Patrick O'Neill from the ISS National Lab. Patrick will be sharing news about what's going on in orbit right now and giving us a little sneak peek at what's to come in 2026. Happy Monday, everybody! Thank you for joining me. Let's dive into today's Intel briefing. First up, Starfish Space has successfully completed an autonomous rendezvous and proximity operations mission in low-earth orbit with Impulse Space. And the mission known as Remora demonstrated precision navigation, relative motion control, and safe close approach operations. These are all key capabilities for satellite servicing, inspection, and future life extension missions. Starfish and Impulse conducted the mission using Impulse's Mirra spacecraft that was flown on the Impulse Leo Express II mission. Starfish's payloads enabled Mirra to perform close proximity maneuvers with another Impulse Mirra spacecraft in orbit, which had been previously used for the Leo Express I mission. During operations in Leo, Starfish software autonomously controlled the Leo Express II Mirra, guiding the satellite through a series of maneuvers which ultimately brought it approximately 1,250 meters of the Leo Express I Mirra. The coolest part of all of this is that the autonomous operations of this RPO mission and the details of how it all happened were shared in the press release. The spacecraft captured images by an onboard camera supplied by TRL-11, which were continuously processed by Starfish's Citation computer vision software to generate real-time relative position estimates. And these estimates were then used to compute optimal trajectories and command Mirra's thrusters to fire accordingly. As new images were captured, the process repeated in a closed loop, enabling fully autonomous guidance and control throughout the maneuver. Come on, that is super cool. And congratulations to both teams, and let's hope we see more of these kinds of cool missions in 2026. Moving on now, Rocket Lab has marked a milestone with the successful deployment of its first dedicated launch for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, better known as JAXA. The Raze and Shine mission lifted off from Rocket Lab Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand on December 14. It successfully deployed the agency's rapid innovative payload demonstration Satellite 4, or Raze 4 spacecraft. Raze 4 is a demonstration of eight technologies developed by private companies, universities, and research institutions throughout Japan. The mission was the first of two dedicated missions for JAXA's innovative Satellite Technology Demonstration Program, which is an initiative by the agency to demonstrate new and innovative capabilities and technologies developed by Japan's space economy. Space Weather Company Mission Space has announced its intention to launch its second on-orbit payload with rogue space systems. With two additional launches scheduled for 2026, Mission Space continues building a multi-point high-temporal resolution layer for radiation, neutral density, and surface charging intelligence. The mission with rogue builds on the hosted payload model, giving customers faster lower-cost access to space while leveraging shared spacecraft and operations infrastructure. It's another signal that in-orbit services are maturing into a scalable business model. Virgin Galactic is partnering with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to advance high-altitude image capture technology. The collaboration supports national security and scientific sensing applications that bridge airborne and space-based capabilities. The company will assess potential for using Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory sensor systems, aboard Virgin Galactic launch vehicles in the future, with the aim of gathering data and accelerating the development of next-generation image capture capabilities aboard high-altitude, long-endurance, heavy-lift aircraft. Let's hope Virgin Galactic gets back up to space with their new spacecraft in 2026. And the US Space Force has confirmed that it will not partner with the National Reconnaissance Office on next-generation surveillance satellites. And this decision suggests diverging mission needs and acquisition strategies and could reshape how future national security sensing architectures are designed and funded. The Space Force is planning a new constellation that's currently dubbed RGXX to replace the current Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program, or GSSAP. Colonel Brendan Hochstein, who is commander of Space System Command's Combat Power System Delta, told the media that the partnership with the NRO today is great and strong but that they are working to fully transition that mission to the Space Force for future acquisition. RGXX satellites will be bought from commercial providers but owned and operated by the Space Force. A draft request for proposals is expected to be released by the end of the year. And that is it for today's Intel Briefing, friends. For more on all the stories that I've mentioned in today's show, make sure to check out our show notes in your podcast app or on our website, space.ntuk.com. 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. And 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 us a five-star rating and short review on whatever podcast app you use, I would appreciate it so much. And your review just tells us about the kinds of interviews that you find especially illuminating. It really does help. And I wouldn't be much of a podcast host if I didn't drop an occasional obligatory like and subscribe after all. So please do and thank you. And now Patrick O'Neill joins us for our monthly catch up with the ISS National Lab. Patrick, it is always wonderful to talk with you. A happy end of the year season, such as it is. First and foremost, congratulations on cases getting the contract renewal with the ISS. That is wonderful for you all. So tell me about that. Yeah. Well, first of all, it's great to be back with you. Always love chatting about all the great things that are happening on the Space Station. To your point, the Center for the Advancement of Science and Space, that is the organization that I get my paycheck from. We are tasked with managing the International Space Station National Laboratory through a cooperative agreement with our friends at NASA. And when we initially were selected to manage the ISS National Lab back in 2011, there was multiple levels of years that were associated with this. And we had one contract renewal that pushed us through, I want to say 2022. Then we had another one that pushed us through 2027. And now we have this one that has just been announced last week that will have us managing the ISS National Lab through 2030, which is in theory, that is the lifeline of the Space Station program. So again, we're excited because obviously we're doing this for the remainder of the program. But I think on top of that too, it allows for us to finish the job. We look at what we have been doing for the better part of 15 years in collaboration with our partners at NASA to enable access and opportunity on the Space Station. And now we're really driving demand. And not only are we driving demand, but we're also driving a lot of great R&D that's been happening on station during the totality of our relationship with NASA. And so again, to be in a position to help close out the ISS program, it's one that we're very excited about. It's one that we are honored and always have been to be associated with NASA. But again, to have this be out there and have this be public, again, it's exciting to know that we're going to be working with our partners for many years to come. And there's a lot of great science that is left, that is still left to be performed on station. And the results from that, that will have impacts not only on how we live life here on Earth, but more importantly, how we're able to live nominally and build a thriving economy in low Earth orbit. That's right. And if that continuity matters so much, and also as you've told me many times in our chats, I've picked up on this thread about basically the almost exponential growth in terms of what is able to be accomplished on the ISS. So the final years of the ISS, it's going to be, I mean, obviously sad, but also extraordinarily exciting in terms of what's going to be done. Even with right now, what's happening, I'm just thinking ahead a few more years, it's going to be incredible. It's going to be great. And it's funny, when you put out a release like that, you kind of get nostalgic and you look at where we came from. And when CASIS first started managing the ISS National Lab, there really wasn't demand. There wasn't an understanding that the space station was open for access for researchers from Fortune 500 companies, from academia. They didn't realize that this was something that they could use for their own purposes. And so to be able to start that conversation and help to educate those companies or those researchers and let them know that, yeah, this is a platform for innovation that you can leverage. And you can learn things that you just can't learn here on Earth, or you can accelerate knowledge in ways that you can't do on Earth. That was a process in and of itself. And now to your point, we look at the payloads that will be flying for the remainder of the space station program. And I think I've said this before in the past, but it's accurate. It's the best of the best of the best science. So we've built on the shoulders of a lot of the things that happen in the mid-2000s, the early 2010s. And now here we are, and I think we'll talk a little bit more about it, but we have so many investigations that are flying that are building on a lot of publications that have come out over the years of the space station program. And that's what it's all about, is it's being able to impart that scientific knowledge. And now we're able to really capitalize on it. And again, we're excited to be a part of that for the remainder of the space station program. Well, again, congratulations to you and the whole CASIS team. That is really wonderful. So yeah, let's segue into, you know, it's the end of the year. We have to do the obligatory look back 2025. I'm sure you've got some thoughts there, Patrick. So why don't why don't we just dive in? Yeah. So you already alluded to the cooperative agreement extension. That was going to be something that we were going to talk about. Another one that's very exciting for us was that we've been involved in accelerator programs for many, many years through entities like the Mass Challenge and similar types of accelerator programs. But this past year, we actually created our own accelerator program, which I think we've talked about previously, the Orbital Edge accelerator program, wherein we worked alongside three funding partners and then selected six companies, the first cohort, if you will, startups that will be able to not only get funding from or investment from these three funding partners, but we'll also have the ability to launch investigations to the International Space Station. So that was something that we did. We got a robust response out of that this past year. And so we're actively looking to see are there ways in which we can continue programs like this in the future in 2026 and beyond. But also on top of that too, this year marked the third year in a row that we launched more than 100 payloads to the space station. And I think that this year was actually a record number of payloads. And one of the reasons for that is we've seen in the last couple of years a lot of uptick and being able to access these private astronaut missions through Axiom Space. We had another one of those private astronaut missions earlier this year, but we also had the ability to leverage an international partner, which was the Japanese HDV-X1 vehicle, which launched just a few weeks ago. And so the ability to work alongside international partners to further drive access to station, again, that really helped us in creating a robust year for payloads that are going to the space station. And what I would also say is when I say more than 100 payloads, that doesn't always mean 100 investigations. Inside of a payload, there can be dozens of projects that are all being looked at. So that just I want to give kind of an idea of, it's not a one-to-one comparison. But also we talked a little bit earlier too about the importance of imparting that scientific knowledge. This past year, we had more than 75 publications from peer-reviewed journals that went out that are focused on a myriad of science that has happened on the station over the last couple of years. And again, that's heavily important for us for the academic community, but it's also important for us for future projects that could happen on this space station or ideas that researchers might be able to get so that they can leverage commercial destinations down the road. So those were some of the main things that we are focused on. And lastly, again, we talked about this the last time. I'm a little bit biased by it, but our association with Margaritaville and them creating the first ever mission patch that would be sold to consumers and all of the proceeds from that patch would then be turned over to cases for R&D to better understand or improve our planet. So it was an interesting year. It was a challenging year at times, but it was also a very productive year when we look at what it was we were able to do on station. And again, the fact that we have the ability to do this moving forward for the next few years, excited to see what 2026 will have in store for us and beyond. It's been a great year indeed. And yeah, I was going to say any, I'm sure you can't give away anything that can't be announced yet about next year, but anything that we should be especially looking forward to that we can talk about. That's a good question. So I would say that there will be a multiple resupply missions to the space station. All of them will be full with great goodies. So I think areas where you can see. It seems a slay of experiments. Yeah, you're going to see more of in-space production. You're going to see some projects that I think were part of what we had with NASA a couple years ago called the Igniting Innovation Challenge, where we are looking at specifically cancer investigations. So I think that you'll see a lot of that. You'll see projects that will be residing on the outside of the space station testing the limits of what it's like to be in an extreme environment like space. So those are probably some of the areas that I would say we're going to see a lot of. But I'm also interested to see how some of these manifests evolve a little bit too with some of the news that's been happening about other vehicles that we might be able to leverage for cargo purposes. That's fascinating. Well, I'm sure it's going to be a really busy year, but we'll talk about it. When it all happens, we will be here. So, Patrick, happy holidays. Thank you so much for a great 2025 and for coming on the show and telling me all about the incredible stuff that you all have been working on. It's really been a joy. I have enjoyed our shots so, so much. And I'm looking forward to it in the coming year. So thank you so much. It's been so much fun talking with you over the past year as well. And also, again, I look forward to having many more of these conversations as we talk about what's happening on station and the impacts it has for all of us here. [Music] We'll be right back. Welcome back. As humanity looks towards living and working beyond Earth, we have to remember that space crew and space travelers are going to be there fully complicated, fully human selves. So that does mean people do need to think about this question. How do ancient traditions travel with us as we travel into space? Well, to answer that question, a new documentary called Fiddler on the Moon, amazing name, by the way, explores how specifically Judaism might adapt as humans head to the moon, Mars, and beyond. And the documentary digs into some very practical questions. For example, how do you observe the Sabbath on the moon where a day lasts about two Earth weeks? Or how do you observe it on Mars where sunsets don't line up with any Earth-based calendar? Does the Sabbath then follow local sunrise and sunset? Or does it follow Earth time? Or does it follow something else entirely? Rabbis and scholars interviewed in the film wrestle with how centuries-old rules might flex without losing their meaning. And the documentary also looks at rituals tied to direction and place, like which way do you face for prayer when Earth is just another tiny point of light in the sky? And how do holidays, which across faith traditions are often built around seasons or moon cycles, well, how do you translate those important observations and milestones to worlds with completely different rhythms? Will we always be tied to Earth-centric cycles? Or will human faith traditions adapt? Well, maybe you have never thought about it, but these are questions that crew on space missions and aboard the ISS for decades have already been wrestling with. And now as more humanity travels to space, these questions will only become more pressing. And right now, with Hanukkah just beginning, the timing for this new documentary feels especially fitting. It's a holiday about light, resilience, and continuity being discussed in the context of humanity becoming a multi-planetary species. And all these questions that I've been raising are really not just thought experiments anymore. Because even when you are millions of miles from home, the traditions that tie us to our beliefs, our families, our ancestries, and our humanity will always matter and will always find a way. 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'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 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, Marie Varmazis. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. T-minus. [BLANK_AUDIO]