[MUSIC] Today is January 13th, 2026. I'm Maria Varmazis and this is T-minus. [MUSIC] NASA has identified a list of 32 technology shortfalls and is inviting industry to give input on critical technology needs. >> Four. >> The Federal Communications Commission has given SpaceX approval to launch another 7,500 of its second generation Starlink satellites, for a total of 15,000 satellites worldwide. >> Three. >> Aerospace Lab has been selected by Zona Space Systems to produce eight additional satellites for their pulsar constellation. >> Seven. >> Planet Lab has signed a multi-year agreement with the Swedish Armed Forces to deliver a suite of satellites, space-based data, and awareness solutions to support the country's peace and security operations. >> One. >> Astroscale UK has been awarded a contract by the European Space Agency to lead the design of the in orbit refurbishment and upgrading service mission concept. >> Zero zero. [MUSIC] >> We're going to be heading to Commercial Space Week in Florida at the end of this month, by the way. And the first event of the week is the Global Space Port Alliance's annual summit. Over the next two weeks, we're gonna be speaking to folks that are thinking about the future of launch and re-entry facilities, starting today with Mark Lester, head of Aerospace Strategy at Merrick. Stick around to find out more after today's intelligence briefing. [MUSIC] Happy Tuesday everyone. Let's jump in. First up, Astroscale UK, which is a subsidiary of Astroscale Holdings, has been awarded a 399,000 Euro Phase A contract by the European Space Agency to lead the design of the In-Orbit Refurbishment and Upgrading Service, or IRIS mission concept. IRIS aims to enable satellites to be upgraded, repaired, and extended while in orbit. The initiative supports ESA's Space Safety Program, reinforcing Europe's commitment to reducing orbital risks and ensuring safe operations for future generations. The eight-month Phase A study contract will develop the technical groundwork and commercial case for In-Orbit refurbishment and upgrade services. The team will explore how robotic and servicing technologies can safely connect with and refurbish satellites that are already in orbit, assessing the technical feasibility and commercial viability of upgrading a satellite or extending its life through replacing degraded or out-of-date subsystems such as batteries, solar panels, and on-board computers. By enabling refurbishment and upgrades in orbit, IRIS aims to reduce the need for replacement launches and mitigates the risk of creating additional debris. Astroscale will work with the spacecraft manufacturer and operator BAE Systems in the role of a future in-orbit servicing client. And we're going to be staying in Europe for the next two stories, so next up is Planet Lab, which has signed a multi-year low nine-figure agreement with the Swedish Armed Forces to deliver a suite of satellites, space-based data, and awareness solutions to support the country's peace and security operations. This agreement marks Planet's third satellite services contract in 12 months. Through the multi-year contract, Sweden will own a suite of Planet's satellites and have access to Planet's high-resolution data and intelligent solutions. Over in Belgium, Aerospace Labs has been selected by Zona Space Systems to produce eight additional satellites for their Pulsar constellation. And Zona says that Pulsar is the next-era navigation constellation that brings precision, power, and protection to devices everywhere from low-Earth orbit. Aerospace Lab will serve as Zona's transition manufacturing partner for initial Pulsar deployment, supplying flight-proven satellite platforms and systems integration expertise while Zona develops in-house production capabilities in California. Deployment is expected to start in late 2026. Let's head on over to the US now, and the Federal Communications Commission, or FCC, has given SpaceX approval to launch another 7,500 of its second-generation Starlink satellites for a total of 15,000 satellites worldwide. The FCC is also allowing SpaceX to upgrade the satellites and operate across five frequencies and is waiving prior requirements that prevented overlapping coverage and enhanced capacity. The agency said that the additional satellites will provide direct-to-cell connectivity outside of the United States and provide supplemental US coverage, which will allow for next-generation mobile services, as well as internet speeds of up to one gigabit per second. SpaceX has sought approval to deploy nearly 30,000 satellites, but the FCC said for now it was only approving 15,000. Only 15,000. Wow. And the US Space Agency has identified a list of 32 technology shortfalls and is inviting the industry to give input on critical technology needs using the NASA feedback mechanism. NASA says whether you're part of the space technology community or an interested member of the public, your input, yes, yours. It's invaluable. They're asking for feedback that could help inform national space technology priorities. NASA will analyze and aggregate the rankings to produce priority lists for each stakeholder group, which will be made publicly available for continued collaboration. This prioritization framework will guide the space technology mission director its evaluation of current development efforts to identify necessary adjustments within its existing portfolios. The shortfall prioritization process may inspire new investments or spark innovative partnerships with stakeholders. And if you are interested in providing your input, you have until February 20, 2026 to register your thoughts. More details can be found by following the link in our show notes. And speaking of those show notes, you will find a selected reading section on the platform that you listen to and at space.entuk.com, which includes the original sources of all of the stories that I've mentioned throughout today's episode. Go and check them out. Hi, Team Minus listeners. You know, we here at Team Minus do ask a lot of questions, and I bet you do too. Is there something that you've been wondering about lately that you would love some answers to? Space related, my friends, let's keep it space related. Maybe a particularly confounding new technology concept or a hard to decipher bit of governmental regulation that could use some context. And what exactly is gold and dome anyway, right? Or, you know, fill that in. I'm sure there's something on your mind. And honestly, we here at Team Minus want to know, what are you mulling over? What's the workplace debate of the day? All of that could be a great topic for us to cover on Team Minus. So tell us about it. Email us at space@entuk.com. And thank you. Our guest today is Mark Lester, head of aerospace strategy at Merrick. Mark will be presenting at the Global Space Port Alliances annual summit coming up on January 27th in Orlando, Florida. Hope to see you all there. Mark Lester, head of aerospace strategy for Merrick and company. Merrick is a design, architecture, engineering firm. Sports a wide range of customers, including the aerospace industry. Mark, thank you so much for joining me today. And I appreciate that intro. And I know that Merrick has some interesting news recently about an acquisition. Can you tell me about that? Absolutely. So Merrick recently acquired Way Engineering, which is a Tampa based firm in Florida. Their background has been largely on sports, like sea ports and transportation systems. And they also bring some NEPA compliance experience. So I think they'd be a great addition to the firm, including for aerospace industry in the state of Florida. So Mark, I'm wondering if you can fill me in on what Merrick's up to right now in the context of space ports, especially, especially in ways that people may not necessarily expect. Yeah, so I think what's interesting about where Merrick is at today and where we're headed in the aerospace sector is Merrick's been supporting largely federal and government customers in particular in the aerospace industry for decades. And our work with Artemis has been an enduring support into NASA. Also, we bid on one, along with lots of others, on the Missile Defense Agency Shield contract for Golden Dome. So that's been what I would consider a traditional Merrick type of area. Now other parts of Merrick support commercial customers from manufacturing facilities to cities as well. So it's natural then that as the space industry evolves and grows, that we can, that Merrick, bring together different areas of our expertise. So two areas in particular to come to mind is one is return missions from space, as well as the increase in nuclear materials that are going to space and be operating in space and on the planet. So to pull that thread a bit. So when I think about return missions, a lot of work in developing pharmaceuticals and biotech on orbit. We're starting to see that transition from research and development on the space station and initial missions like that VARTA has been accomplishing and bringing back some pharmaceuticals to in the near future, they're going to be really transitioning to production. And so Merrick has been supporting the pharma industry, supporting biotech, high containment facilities for many customers over the years. And so we see that intersecting at space sports. So how do you do a medical facility or biotech or a facility at space ports? So be able to then when material gets returned to process it and get it into the logistics supply chain. Merrick and the paths that supported NASA and some of these containment facilities as well. So that's kind of a natural growth for Merrick and two areas that in the past didn't have to come together and now is going to. Yeah, I was gonna say that must represent a very unique challenge and opportunity for you all. Because again, that's one of those things where maybe on the outset, people might not think of these areas intersecting, but in terms of on the ground infrastructural support, that's gotta be a fascinating challenge to take on. It is. And it's what's exciting to see is both sides of the pieces coming together, right? And so on pharmaceuticals, they typically don't know much about space and space doesn't know much about pharmaceuticals or biotech, right? And so to see these areas and to see that excitement in people's eyes and go, wow, we can do that. Yes, we do that here. Let's bring it here into a space port and it's gonna be slightly different. I think that's great. And just to see a new growth area and really see the space economy grow as well. Yeah, and you mentioned nuclear also. That is an area where I would imagine there's been a little more strategic alignment maybe especially on the military side. But I mean, as we're seeing more interest from the commercial sector, I mean, certainly there's always gonna be a lot of government and military involvement on that side of things. But again, very fascinating challenges and opportunities there, I would imagine. Yeah, absolutely. So when I think about space and space ports, it's really about the civil use of nuclear, both from nuclear propulsion. So we're gonna start seeing nuclear rockets, powered rockets. It's also powering spacecraft. I already see that in some of the rovers in Mars. We see that happening, but also putting small reactors on the moon. And with NASA and this administration's aim to put a small nuclear reactor on the moon by I think 2030, that's a near term type of target to be thinking about. And so pulling from Merrick's extensive experience in working with the Department of Energy and with nuclear reactors here on Earth, taking that expertise and then bringing that to a space port. Say, okay, how do we handle safely and reliably and efficiently nuclear material at a space port to get a nuclear reactor integrated with a rocket? And then what do we do with it on the moon? So, we've been recently talking about, how do we construct infrastructure on the moon to support habitats, but in particular around the nuclear reactors and related infrastructure. So that's exciting to see those two elements come together as well. Yeah, it's really fascinating thinking about these things that I think for many people, especially who aren't really thinking about what's going on in the world of space. These seem all very abstract and very far in the future, but they're really much more immediate. And of course, people need to be planning around these things now. And I'm thinking also in terms of things people might think are way in the future is off-world exploration, like Mars. Again, these are not abstracts anymore. These are things that people need to be planning. So I'm curious your thoughts on things like, Mars exploration and planning for things like that. Yeah, absolutely. It's a balancing act, right, Maria? It's about looking at what's right in front of you as a business, right? Yeah. And saying, okay, here are the near term contracts with contracts today, but also then thinking about the intellectual property and the processes and methods of it then extending to off-planet, right? We like to say, you know, where American Aerospace is all about engineering for all planets. And so certainly the moon's next, right? And we've got some near term targets that are priorities of the administration and of NASA to put people onto the moon in an enduring manner and have the power capabilities, which involves nuclear capabilities. And then, yeah, Mars is after that, certainly further down the road. But when you start to think about how do you operate and construct facilities and use infrastructure in gravity that's a fraction of Earth's, right? If with materials that some behave like what we see here on Earth, but a lot of it's just unknown, right? So how do you extend then that engineering that we've done very well over several decades to then apply it to new worlds? Yeah, there's some fascinating problem solving to be done and fascinating engineering challenges. But I mean, that's what we all live for. That's exciting, right? That's what America does, right? (laughing) That's why we have a thousand engineers, right? That's what good people go in. That's right. Exactly, right? It's exciting. That's the fun stuff. Well, Mark, thank you for walking me through just a little bit of some of the strategic thinking here. I wanna make sure that if there's anything I missed that you wanted to let the audience know that I give you that opportunity to have the last word. Well, thank you. Yeah, so, okay, this industry continues to grow. It's fun to talk about the moon and Mars, but certainly what's here today also is about building out more spaceports to address Earth orbital missions, right? And so it's exciting to continue to see states here in the US wanting to explore new spaceports. We're also seeing new spaceports being talked about overseas as well. So in Africa, in Australia, in other parts in South America, right? So that's, we're certainly continuing to see interest across the globe in building spaceports and Merrick's excited to be part of those discussions. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) We'll be right back. Welcome back. Humans, our bodies, minus the bones part, they're mostly pretty squishy. We evolved to live in gravity on terra firma. So news at 11, being in space for a while does really funny things to our insidey bits. We knew this, you knew this, astronauts know this well. We know in space our eyes go wonky, our bones relax, our muscles take a vacation, but our brains, the gray matter should be all good, right? Well, he knew there'd be a well. Well, it ends up in space, our brains get a bit shifty as in they actually physically shift in our skulls. Brains shift to the back and up and also rotate towards the back of our skulls in space. Yes, really. And that is according to a new published study in the proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, otherwise and better known by an acronym that I don't wanna say out loud on a family podcast. This study examined the brains of 26 astronauts using MRIs and found that the longer you spent in space, the more your brain moved. Okay, not a huge surprise there. It kind of stands to reason, but the kicker is that not all brain regions moved equally or even in the same direction uniformly. For example, crew that spent a year or more in space saw larger physically upward shifts in a part of their brain called the supplementary motor cortex which controls planned and coordinated movement. Wild, right? Now we don't know what this means long-term. Is this a good or a bad thing? Or is it a neutral thing? Well, the good news is that after six months back on Earth, all astronaut brains returned pretty much back to normal, mostly, not entirely, but pretty much. I'm sure it's fine. Just don't think about it too hard. (upbeat music) 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 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. 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, Maria Varmazis. Thank you for listening. We'll see you tomorrow. (upbeat music) - T minus. (upbeat music) (rumbling) [MUSIC]
