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[MUSIC] Today is January 7th, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazis, and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] >> T-minus. >> Twenty seconds to LOS, Peter. >> Open aboard. >> Right side. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Israel has established a national research and development lab that seeks to lower barriers to space access for local tech companies. Carmen Space and Defense has received $5 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding from the U.S. Department of War. Sierra Space has completed the first nine satellite structures, playing one of the 18 total satellites that the companies contracted to deliver for the Space Development Agency's Tronche 2 Tracking Layer program. NASA has selected ARI's Technical Services Corporation to provide launch range operation support at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. Congress rejects proposals for cutting NASA's budget for the fiscal year. [MUSIC] Happy Wednesday, everybody. A team using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope has uncovered a new type of astronomical object. Is it aliens? No. You knew it wasn't going to be aliens. But stay with us after today's headlines to find out more about what exactly it is. Happy hump day. You made it halfway through the week. And if it's your first week back after the holiday period, then you should congratulate yourself for making it halfway through. I know I will be doing just that. Pad on the back. And we're kicking off today's intel briefing with Groundhog Day. Don't panic, it's not February just yet, but it definitely feels like a bit of a repeat of last year. The House and Senate Appropriations Committees released the text of their joint conference agreement on the fiscal year 2026 Commerce Justice Science Bill with a rejection of the cuts to NASA that were proposed by the Trump administration. If you've heard this one before, but yeah, we're back to budget discussions and rejections already. And for context, we are still discussing how much the US Space Agency will be allowed to spend this fiscal year. It's currently working on a continued resolution, which allows the federal agency to spend at last year's budget amount. The current administration allocated $18.8 billion to the Space Agency for fiscal year 2026, which is a 24% decrease from the previous year's funding. Yikes. Once again, the congressional committees have individually indicated that they would not accept Trump's cuts and the joint agreement calls for only a comparatively small reduction of $400 million from NASA's $24.8 billion fiscal year 2025 budget in appropriations. NASA was also allocated substantial fiscal year 2026 money through the reconciliation bill, making the outcome, if enacted, a vast improvement over what the agency was facing just a few months ago. So my friends, we are back to that fun wait and see period of what comes next. We will of course keep you updated as the bills make it to the floors of the House and Senate in the coming weeks. And why exactly does NASA need a big budget? Okay, we know why, but because it costs a lot to operate NASA, duh, the US Space Agency has just recently selected ARI's Technical Services Corporation, for example, to provide launch range operation support at the agency's Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia. The Wallops range contract has a total potential value of $339.8 million with a one-year base period expected to begin on Tuesday, February 10th, and four one-year option periods that if exercised would extend it to 2031. ARI's will provide launch range operation support such as radar, telemetry, logistics, tracking and communication services for flight vehicles, including orbital and suborbital rockets, aircraft, satellites, balloons and unmanned aerial systems. Additional responsibilities include information and computer system services, testing, modifying and installing communications and electronic systems at launch facilities, launch control centers and test facilities, and range technology sustainment engineering services. You get all that? Yeah. Moving on now, Sierra Space has completed the first nine satellite structures, plane one of the 18 total satellites that the company is contracted to deliver for the Space Development Agency's Tronche 2 tracking layer program. The completion has been achieved three months ahead of schedule, which Sierra Space says will help to ensure that the T2TRK program remains on track for delivery and launch readiness. The next stage currently planned for plane one is a transition to the assembly, integration and testing phase, during which components, subsystems and payloads are expected to be integrated and subjected to rigorous testing to verify performance and readiness for deployment. Carmen Space and Defense has received $5 million in Defense Production Act Title III funding from the U.S. Department of War. The funding was given in October 2025 to expand the company's Systema facility capacity to produce solid rocket motor nozzles. Carmen has designed, produced and delivered nozzles in support of key missile programs for several decades and the company will augment internal investments with the awarded funds to create an additional dedicated solid rocket motor nozzle production line for a major production program as well as an optimized production cell for specific complex nozzles. And let's check on in with Israel now. And Israel has established a National Research and Development Laboratory that seeks to lower barriers to space access for local technology companies. The Access to Space Consortium has been selected by the Israeli Space Agency to establish and operate the National R&D Space Lab. The consortium led by the Israeli Space Company Creation Space and joined by leading national academic institutions will receive approximately $16 million in governmental participation, including around $10.5 million in grants for the establishment and operation of the laboratory. The lab seeks to enable the launch into space of at least 15 payloads over the next three years. [Music] And that wraps up today's Intel Briefing. Stay with me to find out more about that new astronomical object discovered by the Hubble Telescope the other day. But before we get to that, N2K Senior Producer Alice Carruth joins us now with a look at all of the other stories that are making today's headlines. Alice, what do you have for us? Happy Wednesday, Maria. SkyFi and Vantor, formerly Maxar Intelligence, are partnering on geospatial imagery and analytics. And Debye's Arche Orbital Systems has signed an MOU with the Maldives Space Research Organization. You can read more about both of those stories by following the links in the selected reading section of the show notes. Hi there. Whether you have been listening to T-minus from the start or whether this is your 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 the guest interviews that you enjoy. So if you could take a moment and leave us a five-star rating and short review in whatever podcast app you use, I would appreciate it so much. For example, tell us about your favorite, can't miss monthly segment like, I don't know, Space Law FAQs. That kind of information really does help us and helps other people discover the show. And I wouldn't be much of a podcast host if I didn't drop an occasional obligatory like and subscribe now and then after all. So please do. And thank you. We'll be right back. Welcome back. Hubble is always going to be near and dear to my heart. So when I see a cool new finding, thanks to Hubble, it always gives me a little extra joy in my day. One could even say it makes me feel like I'm on cloud nine. And this time around, Hubble actually took a look at cloud nine. Yes, really. Cloud nine, not just a state of mind. It is real, my friends, and it isn't euphoria. It is a starless, gas rich, dark matter cloud around 15 million light years from us that is a relic of an early galaxy formation. Yeah, that doesn't quite roll off the tongue. But if you would like something more quotable about cloud nine, here's a great one from its principal investigator Alejandro Benitez, young bae of the Milano Bicocca University in Milan, Italy. He said this, "Cloud nine is the tale of a failed galaxy. In science, we usually learn more from the failures than from the successes. In this case, seeing no stars is what proves the theory right. It tells us that we have found in the local universe a primordial building block of a galaxy that hasn't formed. Indeed, cloud nine is the first confirmed example of a long theorized cosmic fossil from the early universe. That is because it contains massive amounts of neutral hydrogen and an even larger halo of dark matter, but it has no stars whatsoever. And that absence is the scientific breakthrough. For years, astronomers debated whether similar objects were simply faint dwarf galaxies, but now, thanks to Hubble, we found nothing. Rather, we know that quite simply there's nothing there, nothing shiny or glowy or otherwise impressive and showy, just gas and dark matter. Researchers believe that cloud nine is a re-ionization limited hydrogen cloud, which is something that's left over from the universe's earliest era when radiation prevented small structures from cooling and forming stars. Using its gas and dynamics suggests that cloud nine is held together by a dark matter halo that is roughly five billion, yes, with a B, billion times the mass of our sun. And keep in mind that most of the universe's mass is dark matter, yet everything we study is luminous. Such a human bias, isn't it? So cloud nine shows us that entire structures can exist and persist without ever lighting up. And this has major implications for how galaxies assembled, how many failed systems might be out there, and how dark matter behaves on small scales and small, cosmically speaking, of course. And we can bet that there are many, many more of these hidden relics just waiting to be found, especially with next generation radio surveys and deep space telescopes upcoming. But until those launch, heck yeah on this discovery, dear Hubble. 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 our 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. We are mixed by Elliott Peltzman and Tre Hester, with original music by Elliott Peltzman. Our executive producer is Jennifer Eiben, Peter Kilpie as our publisher, and I am your host, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. We'll see you next time. T-minus. T-minus. [laughter] [sound of waves] [sound of waves] [BLANK_AUDIO]
